50 Shades of Grey – in Greenland

When you live in Nuuk it is every now and then incredibly good just to get out of town for a little bit – a two hours boat trip makes wonders! Even if Nuuk is a small town, compared other capitals around the world, and fresh air is not exactly something we are short of here, a change of scenery is always good.

As we (my boyfriend and I) don’t have our own boat, we decided to go on a Fjord Cruise, friday afternoon after work. A two hours boat tour and we would be back in town for dinnertime – a perfect way to start the weekend!

We went on this tour in april, the weather had been really nice for the week. However, friday came, the weather was fine in the morning, but then the clouds came rolling in and guess what they brought – another round of snow! To be honest it didn’t exactly seem tempting to sit for two hours in an open boat while it was snowing. But off we went – geared up with survival suits, boots, hats, scarves and gloves. It almost felt like we were going to space, wobbling our way to the boat wearing these huge survival suits. BUT it was all worth it, of course it was! The suits kept us snug and warm for the whole tour.

The tour went around Sermitsiaq island, with its iconic mountain, just north of Nuuk. On the first part of the tour we had the wind pretty much in our faces and it was a bit wavy crossing the water into the fjord. We couldn’t really see much because of the low clouds. Then, just like magic, the water turned calm, the mountain sheltered us from the wind, and everything was just incredible quiet. The boat driver turned off the engine for a while. The low hanging clouds created a very special mood – like the world was holding its breath. The water almost looked black and with the reflections of the snow-covered mountain sides, it was like sailing on a black mirror.

Going further into the fjord we hit another snow shower. We sought shelter for a while behind a little islet and had a cup of nice, warm coffee, while the boat driver told some local stories. After a while we carried on, there was still a little snow.

An attraction, when sailing around Sermitsiaq, is seeing a beautiful waterfall. At this time of the year it was still frozen, but nonetheless beautiful with its big icicles hanging of the rocks.

Frozen waterfall

On the rest of the tour back to Nuuk the water was completely calm, and as you can see on the last picture, the sun almost (just almost) managed to break through the heavy clouds. We did not see many mountain tops on this tour, but we saw the landscape in a different way. The colours, or maybe the lack of colours, showed the landscape in a way, which was not less amazing than on a sunny day. The landscape was at least “coloured” in 50 shades of grey, if not a 1000 shades of grey!

… and we made it back in time for dinner 😉

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Barbara Vang

First visited Greenland in 2008. After a few days in Narsaq, South Greenland I have always wanted to come back. Second visit was to the capital Nuuk in 2011... Now I have lived in Nuuk since 2017 and enjoy every minute in this amazing country!

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