Arctic Greenland - Qaanaaq

We are now on Day 12 of our 17 day journey in the Arctic.  The Ocean Endeavour crossed the north end of Baffin Bay and headed further north to Qaanaaq, Greenland, one of the northernmost towns in the world at 77.4670° N  This was not on our original itinerary but because we did not get to visit the community in Grise Fjord, the expedition team made very last minute arrangments for us to visit this community in Greenland - excellent pivoting with very short notice.

The town of Qaanaaq (population 646 in 2020) is built on the hill side with rows of colourful houses.  Apparently houses are colour-coded to denote their purpose (red for educational and religious institutions; yellow for medical; green for communicaiton and blue for fish factories.)  It certainly seems to make the town more attractive, not to mention the amazing view of the Bay, full of icebergs and surrounded by snow-capped mountains.

Qaanaaq Bay is crowded with icebergs!

Qaanaaq Bay

The beach where we landed

Colour-coded houses

The Church

Cape York Meteorite in the Museum

The locals gave us a warm welcome with demonstrations of drum dancing and how they hunt from their kayaks. We toured the town and met some high school students who were waiting for us outside the school.  One of the highlights was visiting the museum which houses a fragment of the Cape York meteorite, one of the largest known meteorites in the world.

We can't help but compare Qaanaaq and Gjoa Haven - both far northern Inuit communities but in different countries.  Qaanaaq just seems more organized because of the colourful buildings.  Of course, we don't know either community very well so really are in no position to compare other than from visual impressions.  

The drum dancer - his drum looked very different from the ones we saw in Gjoa Haven - it also has a very different sound.

Two young hunters showed us a film on how they hunt from a kayak

High School students outside the high school

School children enjoying their break

This kid doing the somesault on the climber actually waved me over to take a photo of him!

As we sailed out of Qaanaaq Bay, it was like going through iceberg alley with a display of different shapes and sizes

This must be one of the largest icebergs we saw

This range looks like a Christmas log!

Iceberg alley against an early setting sun