Arctic Greenland - Ilulissat

Finally, Ilulissat - a UNESCO World Heritage site and known as the iceberg factory of the world!  The Sermeq Kujalleq glacier calves 35cubic km of ice per year.  Enormous icebergs from this glacier follow the current north along the Greenland coast, across Baffin Bay then south along the Canadian east coast.  This is the source of the icebergs we see in Newfoundland.  

We arrived in Ilulissat at sunrise.  It was awesome watching the mile upon mile of gigantic icebergs as far as the eyes can see against the pink morning sky as we move towards the glacier.  There is no way I could capture the magic with a few photos. We then went on a zodiac cruise around the icebergs in the bay before we went ashore.  Going up close to the icy giants gave us a real sense of scale.

It was a wet zodiac ride and a cold morning to boot.  To top it off, the shuttle that was supposed to take us to the Ice Centre did not show up.  We were able to hail down a cab that took us to the trail to the icefields.  It turned out to be a beautiful hike along the boardwalk with colourful tundra on both sides culminating in the specatacular glacier and icefield feeding it.

Sunrise glow backdrop for iceberg alley

Icebergs as far as the eyes can see

Cruising in between the icebergs provides a different closeup perspective

The harbour at Ilulissat

Colourful houses

The boardwalk trail to the icefields and glacier

Beautiful tundra flowers on both sides of the boardwalk

The icefield feeding the glacier

The awesome glacier

The Ice Centre Museum - you can actually go on the roof for a different perspective

The inside of the Museum is stunning

The shuttle was running by the time we finished our tour of the centre so it was a smooth trip back to the ship.  We were getting near the end of our trip although each day still brought lots of new vistas and every night, the anticipation of a wakeup call to see the Northern Lights - afterall we are in Greenland, one of the best places in the world to see them!