GREENLAND: DISKO BAY, DISKO ISLAND, AND ONE MORE FLIGHT OVER THE ILULISSAT GLACIER

June 16, 2019

Have you ever heard of Disko Island? No? Maybe you recognize its Greenlandic name, Qeqertarsuaq ("the big island")?  NO?? At 3,312 square miles, it is barely smaller than Corsica and a little larger than Crete and is the 84th largest island in the world. Eric the Red spent time here in the late 10th century. So why haven't you heard of it?

Well, unlike Corsica and Crete, it's not exactly a tourist destination. Located above the Arctic Circle, the entire island has a population of 1,100, most living in the only town, Qeqertarsuaq. (Yes, the same Icelandic name as the island.) Fewer than 50 people live in the only other settlement, Kangerluk, which can be reached by boat or air but not by road. There is one hotel in Qeqertarsuaq, and supposedly there is also one taxi driver. Since 1906 the University of Copenhagen has had a year-round research facility on the island known as Arctic Station.

Legend says that Disko Island was pulled north by a couple of strong kayakers who used a single strand of a newborn baby's hair for a tow rope. They got stuck in Disko Bay when a witch living in Ilulissat spotted them and put a curse on their efforts.

There may be change ahead for Disko Island. Air Zafari is beginning air tours of Disko Bay and Disko Island (we were one of their first customers on that tour), and locals are exploring the possibilities of amenities such as a ski slope, expanded hiking trips, and a hotel. Ten years from now, Disko Island may be a very different place.

During the evening of the same day that we cruised to Eqi Glacier, Bob and I and our friends Lori and Mark boarded a small plane, flew across Disko Bay, circled around Disko Island, and ended by flying over parts of the polar ice sheet on the mainland that we hadn't seen on our first flight.

Here's our plane. Though I've flown on quite a few now, these little planes still make me nervous:

Up, up, and away--straight over the bay!

From the air, topaz-colored halos reveal the massive underwater portions of icebergs:

I love this shot of an enormous iceberg with a full squadron of smaller icebergs traveling in its wake:

On approach to Disko Island, we could immediately see that it has a totally different geography than the mainland--more rugged and with larger swaths of green:

The term for rivers caused by melting glaciers is "meltwater":

Ribbons of meltwater flow all over the island:

The highest elevation of Disko Island is 6,296 feet, compared to 12,119 feet on Greenland's mainland, but there are still plenty of glaciers on the island:

We could see the path the meltwater took from the glaciers to the sea:

In places the land looks like it has been struck with a cleaver, creating deep gorges like this one:

But it's more likely they were carved out through eons of time by water:

Bob got a much better view of the waterfalls from his side of the plane, and these are his photos:

However, the island is best known for sculpted mountains that look like Arizona's Grand Canyon. In fact, locals actually call this area the Grand Canyon of Greenland:

This looks a lot like the Colorado River in the Grand Canyon, don't you think?

After flying inland, we looped up the eastern shore and got a good view of the metropolis of Qeqertarsuaq :

It looks a lot like Ilulissat; in fact, I thought these WERE pictures of Ilulissat until Bob corrected me:

We headed back across Disko Bay and out to the Ilulissat ice field for another look. These large sheets remind me of Pangaea. You can imagine how a huge glacier breaks up into smaller pieces that drift apart from each other:

So, so magical:

This looks a lot like the sea that appeared to be frozen over but wasn't on our cruise to Eqi Glacier earlier in the day:

It was fairly late--maybe 11:00 PM--and the light cast a fairy tale glow on everything:

Other-worldly views:

A glacial archipelago:


I especially loved the ephemeral supraglacial lakes:

And then, just as we were circling out over the water on approach to the landing strip, our pilot spotted two large humpback whales in the water:

We made a circle or two around them, but we were in a plane and not a helicopter, so it was impossible to get very close, as my grainy, enlarged-and-cropped photos indicate. We learned later that evening that the other members of our group were out in kayaks and came upon these same two whales. Instead of paddling among the glaciers as they had planned to do, they watched these two entertainers play in front of them for a couple of hours. They definitely got the better whale experience.

Coming into Ilulissat, we got a good view of the road that we had previously walked on from our hotel, along the seaport, across the bridge, and into town:

As we touched down, the midnight sun rested lazily on the horizon, waiting to begin its upward climb in a few hours:

The fearless foursome:

. . . and our awesome guide

I have to include a photo of this fantastic carving in the Air Zafari office, typical of the bone carvings of the area:

On our way back to the hotel, I asked our guide to stop so that I could take a few pictures of the Ilulissat Cemetery. In the distance, on the far side of the Ililussat Fjord, is the Ililussat Glacier:

Our guide told us that the ground is so hard in the winter that they always dig a bunch of graves in the summer, estimating how many they might need. It would be strange to be very old or very ill in the summer and wonder if one of those holes is yours:

And THAT seems like the proper ending of a long day.