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JM Buchet Photography
Greenland, an Encounter with the Ice
From the very first flight over Greenland, its immense scale reveals itself through the window: glaciers, mountains and uninhabited expanses stretch as far as the eye can see. A vast territory, four times the size of France and around seventy times that of Belgium.
After a second flight over Greenland’s vast expanses, we finally reach Aasiaat, on the shores of Disko Bay. This is where our journey truly begins.
At the port of Aasiaat, La Louise is waiting for us. Aboard this schooner, specially equipped to sail in Arctic waters, we will spend the next ten days exploring Disko Bay, from island to island and bay to bay, discovering the glaciers and icebergs of western Greenland.
We have barely left Aasiaat when the first sizeable icebergs already begin to appear!
As we approach Disko Bay, numerous shallow areas trap the icebergs, causing them to run aground before they can drift out to sea.
A few winged encounters also punctuate the journey: Snow Buntings, petrels, gulls… species we rarely have the opportunity to observe at our latitudes.
Scattered around Disko Bay are numerous small islands, some still inhabited, others now deserted. Here, abandoned houses and the former school bear witness to a community that lived here until not so long ago. In this particularly isolated environment, where ice dictates the rhythm of life for much of the year, living conditions eventually became too difficult.
The Anchorages…
As we travel, we need to find a sufficiently sheltered anchorage to spend the night. In these isolated bays, sometimes still dotted with ice, La Louise seems very small amid the vastness of Greenland. In the morning, a short walk ashore often allows us to discover our overnight refuge from a completely different perspective.
Disko Bay
In Disko Bay, icebergs drift from the Ilulissat Icefjord before gradually making their way out to sea. Some, held back by shallow waters, slowly break apart, releasing blocks of ice of all sizes. Whether viewed from Qeqertarsuaq or Ilimanaq, the spectacle gives a true sense of this extraordinary concentration of ice.
Disko Island
Disko Island reveals a very different side of Greenland. Its vast, flat-topped mountains with steep cliffs dominate the bay, while icebergs drift below, creating landscapes where the sheer scale can sometimes be difficult to grasp.
The Ice Cubes…
The Mountains of Ice!
Eqi Glacier and Atasund
Atasund is the fjord that leads us to Eqi Glacier (Eqip Sermia), located some 80 km north of Ilulissat. Its glacier front, around sixty metres high, is particularly active: huge sections of ice can break away with an impressive roar.
The Humpback Whales…
Some unexpected visitors… hundreds of seals travelling together in a huge pod!
Nuuk, Greenland’s Capital… on an Unexpected Journey Home
The uncertainties of air travel, here perhaps more than anywhere else, bring us to Nuuk for two additional nights. After the small communities encountered throughout our journey, arriving in Nuuk marks a real change of scale and brings us back into a more Western way of life. As Greenland’s capital and by far its most populous city, Nuuk is home to much of the country’s administrative, economic and cultural life. Yet even here, nature is never far away…
Although Nuuk has all the characteristics of a capital city, magnificent landscapes are never far away. Built on the shores of a vast bay opening onto the sea, the city remains closely connected to its natural surroundings.
One last look at Greenland… before leaving it behind by air.
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