GREENLAND: A voyage to the edge of the world

Just past midnight, a month ago, I was reclining on the comfortable couch of a luxurious expedition ship, on the high seas surrounding the world’s largest island–Greenland. Miles of crystal icebergs stretched as far as I could see, scintillating in the soft glow of the midnight sun. It was difficult to believe that it had been 12 days since we set sail from Reykjavik, Iceland’s capital.

Glaciers in Ilussitat

We first stopped at the unpronounceable Grundafjord, in Iceland’s Snaefellsnes Peninsula, also called ‘Iceland in a nutshell’. Here, massive snow covered hills, gurgling streams and waterfalls greeted us; the sheep and horses easily outnumbered the people. I met a friendly farmer, who owns over 700 sheep! During the next three days, we sailed through the world’s windiest area—the ‘Greenland Tip Jet’. With wind velocity as high as 44.7 miles/hour, its strong winds and floating icesheets have challenged the most formidable navigators. We were lucky as the Labrador Sea, Denmark Strait and the narrow, mountainous ofjords were as calm as a lake. That’s extremely rare.

The colourful, eye-catching houses of Greenland

 The number of places in Greenland that start with ‘Q’ is fascinating too. A guidebook wisely says: never try to pronounce these names if you have tonsils or a mouth full of food. On our first day in Greenland, I was captivated by the colourful houses, sprinkled like paint on a giant canvas. In the quaint town of Qaqortoq, fringed by icebergs, at the very edge of the civilised world I half expected to see people in their traditional attire. So, I was amazed when the fi rst Inuit I sported the latest styles, carried fancy mobile phones and smoked cigarettes! What’s more, the extra-large supermarket in the tiny town imports virtually everything from Denmark and Sweden. Fortunately, when attending a Christian Confi rmation ceremony at a local church, I met several locals dressed in traditional fur clothes, decorated with intricate colourful embroidery, with red being the dominant colour.

Lady dressed in traditional attire outside the reconstructed house of Erik the Red

Qassiarsuk, our next stop, was where the Vikings first settled. Even today you’ll find ruins of Vikings’ settlements and the reconstructed house of Erik the Red, who discovered Greenland. The surreal beauty this coastal fishing village brought me meditative peace; it was tough to believe Greenland’s discovery resulted from a series of murders. Tempers ran high in the family of the red haired ‘Erik the Red’. His family was exiled from Norway in 960 AD as his father was charged with manslaughter.They settled in Iceland, and in 982 AD, Erik was charged with a series of murders and exiled from Iceland for three years. That’s when he sailed north and discovered Greenland. On his return to Iceland, he spoke of a ‘green land’ that visually contrasted ‘Iceland’ and convinced many to start life afresh there. But before he ‘discovered’ Greenland, it already seen waves of Paleo Eskimo and Inuit immigrations. By 1,000 AD, there were about 3,000 Viking societies with 30 to 40 farms. They survived for around 500 years and then disappeared mysteriously; harsh climate and confl icts with Inuit and European pirates are possibilities.

Today, Greenland enjoys self-rule under the political umbrella of Denmark. Nuuk, it’s capital, is fascinating. Though modern on the surface with a well-developed local transport system, supermarkets and branded shops, Inuit hold on to the traditional way of life by selling fresh catch, dried seal artefacts. The display of weapons, utensils and ornaments at a local museum improved my understanding of the Inuit history, lifestyle and culture. The most striking part was how digitisation and globalisation have brought Greenlanders closer the world outside, and is resulting in these communities giving their unique culture to embrace ‘modernity’ with its denims, coke and burgers.

The delicious whale skin and blubber I treated myself to, at a lavish buffet

At Sisimiut, I treated myself a lavish buffet of reindeer and musk-ox meat, snow crabs, whale skin and blubber, dried fish and other delights. Later, I stumbled upon a dog farm, with several ‘off duty’ huskies (they usually pull sledges in the winter). From there, we headed 200 km north of the Arctic to Ilulissat; no trip to Greenland is complete without a boat-ride through its fjords. Surrounded by mountains of icebergs, sculpted beautifully over the centuries by the very hand of God, I
felt like a mere pawn in a massive gameplan. The ship noiselessly sailed us through a stunning landscape, where the only sounds were of ice melting, chunks breaking off and falling into the sea with a resounding crash.

The humble hosts in Ittilek offered me delicious Greelandic snacks

Later, at the little fishing village of Ittilek, I attended a Kaffemik, a traditional affair of tea and Greenlandic snacks. My gracious hosts were a large, joint family of Inuit, comprising everyone from the great grandmother (to be) to her granddaughter. I was treated to little slices of home-baked bread topped with delicious prawns and eggs and a selection of sweets. We connected despite Theirs is a primitive settlement in someways; they use dry pit toilets and cut off from the world during winter, they dry fish in summers to eat in winter. But, they have satellite TV and the Football World Cup fever has reached them too. The end of the voyage was celebrated in style with a football match between the villagers and our ship’s passengers, which ended in a draw. Finally, at Kangerlussuaq, south of Ittilek, I was surprised to see mosquitoes, which I hitherto thought was a ‘tropical’ problem. They travelled in our bus all the way to the airport!

As our flight took off for Copenhagen, I felt a twinge of melancholy, mixed with a shot of divine bliss. Haruki Murakami’s words sum up my feelings best, “Beyond the edge of the world there’s a space where emptiness and substance neatly overlap, where past and future form a continuous, endless loop. And, hovering about, there are signs no one has ever read, chords no one has ever heard.”