So Greenland, the largest non continental island and the oldest land form in the world. Baffin Island ( Canada) to the west and Iceland and Scandinavia to the east. Despite being so close to Iceland, the land of fire, and therefore close in tectonic terms to the Icelandic hotspot, there is no geothermal activity in Greenland, the last volcanic eruption is thought to have been more than 500,000 years ago.

The country consists of 3 large islands, covered by a single icecap, with a max depth of 3,000m. There is a narrow ring of land surrounding the ice cap down to the sea. The east coast of Greenland is far more rugged than the west, with coastal mountains rising to 3,700m whereas the west coast is not as severe.

Sailing up the west coast, the view is of large basalt cliff faces, which I estimate would not be more than 200m high and undulating hills of rock, devoid of vegetation, of similar height that have been ground smooth by glacial ice flows. Further inland we can see that there are higher and more jagged snow capped peaks. The snow line comes right to the waters edge as do several very large glaciers, the face of which are clearly visible.

Today we were in Sisimuit, a town of 5,500 people which is considered large by Greenlandic standards. The populated centres in Greenland are not connected by any road network, and they vary from 40/50 people up to 18,000 in the capital Nuuk.
From what we have learnt so far, there remains a strong connection to culture and subsistence hunting for seal, whale, caribou etc is widely practiced with the meat and skins shared among the community. There are two language groups, West and East Greenlandic, the official language being West Icelandic. The school system is compulsory from age 6 to 16 and is taught in West Greenlandic with Danish as a second language taught from Grade 1. There is a University in the capital with faculties in Law, Health, Arts and Business all taught in Danish. Students can opt to study in Denmark as well.

As we travel up the coast, there have been a lot of whale sightings over the past few days and we were lucky to have seen a sperm whale passing within 5-10 metres of the ship.

While in Sisimuit we spent a couple of hours out on the fjord kayaking and we could not have wished for better weather. Around 12C, next to no wind and clear skies and only a very light swell, half a metre or so.

Next we travelled further north to the Ilulissat Icefjord to mix it with the icebergs from the Sermeq Kujalleq glacier in something a little bigger, and warmer than an open kayak.
Ilulissat is known as the Icefjord and it doesn’t disappoint. The glacier feeds into the fjord, the entrance of which is shallower than the fjord itself. The result being that the large icebergs that shed from the glacier, some up to 900m thick, cannot cross into the open sea so they accumulate in the fjord to the extent that it seems like the whole fjord is full of ice, and to a very large extent it is.
Today we spent an hour or so on a smaller boat cruising right into the ice field and it was spectacular. As was the case with the scenery in Iceland, it’s impossible to capture the enormity of this environment, the sea is so still and clear that we can see the masses of ice under the icebergs. Clear blue sky, 12C no wind and of course the water is flat due to all of the ice. So, another perfect day, let’s hope it stays like this for the rest of the week.