Greenland – fjords and scenery

[part of a series of posts beginning here]

Although our route sometimes had the Endurance sailing offshore overnight south along the eastern coast, and sailing north along the western coast, most of our time in Greenland was spent in the extensive fjord systems that shape the southern tip of Greenland.  In this landscape, a visitor can understand why the early Norse settlers named this land Grœnland (green land) when the Norse, led by Erik the Red, settled here in 982. Although these fjords have steep walls and deep waters, their shores and (rare) shallow glacial plains are covered in a green, grassy tundra sprinkled with heather, dwarf willow, dwarf birch, crowberries, blueberries, and a variety of wildflowers. Although “Iceland’s landscape is the world’s youngest and most dynamic, the rocks of Greenland are the oldest yet discovered on the planet.” [NatGeo] Read on for more…

Many of the fjords are headed by a glacier, or are punctuated by glaciers descending into a side canyon, all spilling down from the massive ice cap that dominates Greenland.  Thus, the ever-changing scenery as we wound up one fjord or down another would often present us a view of a massive hanging glacier, or a tidal glacier birthing thousands of bergy bits and bigger icebergs.  Only rarely did we encounter signs of human industry or habitation.  Some fjords interconnect, leaving small islands; indeed, the southern tip of Greenland is an archipelago: we transited from east to west across Prins Christiansund (Ikerasassuaq fjord), squeezing through a narrow notch (500m wide) at one point. [Zoom into this map for location of the photo below.]

Check out the gallery of scenes from the many fjords we visited: Skjoldungensund, Ikerasassuaq (Prins Christiansund), Tasermiut, Qaqortoq, Tunulliarfik (Eriksfjord), Neria, Nuup Kangerlua (Nuuk), and Kangerlussuaq.  (Many fjords have several names, from the indigenous, Norse, and Danish cultures that have explored and inhabited this area over the centuries.)