mark prior photography

Beautiful Western Greenland. Ilulissat, home of the UNESCO World Heritage Site: Ilulissat Icefjord and Disko Bay. Kangerlussuaq, the international airport and importantly to me a road to the Greenland Icesheet (built for a vehicle proving ground) and finally the capital, Nuuk.

Ice, ice, and even more ice. Flying low over the fjord gave some insight into just how massive the fjord is and how much ice it takes to fill it as there was no sign of any water in the fjord and the wall of the glacier just keeps adding more ice.
With no glaciers calving ice into an arm of the icefjord, and the current taking ice away from it, there are some areas where you can see the water.
The sled dogs are indifferent to a large iceberg floating past. The green grass and exposed soil have no interest to them, they want a sled and some ice.
Sea fog and icebergs can be an exciting combination if you are in the water. If you are on land it takes on the appearance of a submarine.
An iceberg nearly perfectly reflected in the reasonablyy still waters. Fog makes the sky and horizon indistinct.
With little to differentiate the sea colour from the sky colour it is up to the icebergs to add some colour. Dirt works just as well as blue ice.
Some gulls decide that a passing iceberg is the perfect spot for a rest.
Catch the light and the texture of the iceberg is exposed.
Meltwater from above creates a small waterfall and then the water continues down a slope and into the bay.
Eqi is an active calving glacier, and without the huge icebergs it is possible to get quite close to it. Catching a block of ice calve off the glacier and into the bay was difficult though.
You hear the crack and then it's the frantic search to see the splash.
Lunch at a former village on Alluttoq Island. It's now used as a summer camp which would be very nice except for the midgies.
A lake behind the camp extends out into the distance the foreground is full of rocks but there is a smattering of green plants too. The hillside to the left is also tinged with green but the right side looks like arocky outcrop.
Behind the camp was a lake and a stream. The clear, blue stream was surrounded by large, scattered boulders but they must have been able to trap some soil as there were green plants growing within the field of boulders.
It looked pretty but the green colour was probably a sign of an algal bloom but the piece of orange seaweed that was floating in the water did add a nice contrast.
Back to Ilulissat and more eery scenes in the sea fog with stark white icebergs floating on a green grey sea with an indistinct grey background.
Thin green and yellow grass like weed in a pond near the Ilulissat Icefjord.
Small patch of clear blue water near the shore but the ice gets progressively larger the further out into the fjord you look. Fog added for the affect.
Nothing special to see here, just a meadow with some little white flowers next to a whole lot of icebergs.
Massive bergs making their way towards the mouth of the fjord, unless they get stuck on the bottom. The fast side of the fjord is now visible in the distance.
Sugarloaf Mountain is along the road out to the ice sheet from Kangerlussuaq.
Pruning the plants or admiring the flowers? A Greenlandic reindeer oblivious to the tourists.
A small part of the Russell Glacier as it retreats and leaves behind a meltwater lake.
With the icesheet in distance we first have no negotiate some rocky ground and avoid the pools of meltwater.
Not the pristine ice I was expecting but rolling hills of ice covered with dirt. Pools on the ice were mostly covered with a layer of transparent ice.
A view from the rocky path leading down to the icesheet provides some perspective on the icesheet. It's not flat, it's not white (or blue) but it does extend out to the horizon.
A small hut perched on some rocks with the icesheet towering over it.
Nuuk, the capital of Greenland, was full of brightly painted buildings. Lots of stairs too and paths across green meadows. On a rocky hill is a statue of Hans Egede, the Lutheran missionary who founded Nuuk (then called Godthåb).
If he kept it up he could be a professional cyclist since there isn't a lot of flat ground in Nuuk, it's all hills.
The architecture gives it away in the modern buildings.
There is a ship on a slipway in the foreground and a number of vessels tied up to a pier in the background, including a Canadian Coast Guard ship.
When you have hills made of rock then perhaps a stair is the way to get to the top. I walked the long way around next to the road but I did see someone carrying a bike up.
They are now home in the Greenland National Museum in Nuuk but they were found close to the site of a small Inuit settlement on the western Nuussuaq peninsula in 1972. They are believed to have died around 1475 AD.