Retired Nomads - Part 3: Ilulissat, Greenland - Ice Fjord Cruise in Disko Bay

Aug 15 – Ilulissat - Ice Fjord Cruise in Disko Bay

In the morning we reached Ilulissat village in fabled Disko Bay. Ilulissat is located beside the Ilulissat Ice fjord. The Sermeq Kujalleq is one of the most productive glaciers in the northern hemisphere. Ilulissat means “icebergs” in Greenlandic.

photos from the ship

Scenic Eclipse ll

Lunch was longer today since boat tours of the Ice Fjord were staggered throughout the day and the expedition leaders and Zodiac people were taking an hour break.

We took the first Zodiac so we could wander around town before lunch and our Ice Fjord tour.

the Zodiac dock

me trudging up the hill

these dogs kept us company at the monument

me taking a photos of the dogs

views from the monument

note the Public Toilet got on the pole of signs

school

trash bins were separated into separate fishing lines

boat has a whale harpoon

Our Ice Fjord tour was at 11:00 to 1:00. Everyone on the ship booked this excursion (and some had other tours booked as well) so they used local fishing boats for the tour. We got lucky and got a tour boat with an indoor area where we all had seats. We spent most of the time out on deck anyway, but it was nice to have the cabin shield the wind and we went back inside for the fast ride back to the ship. The other boats were all outdoors on fishing boats with no inside seating and were smaller. I told Greg that since Arndis’ parents were on our boat as well as some of the other expedition leaders’ families that we got the better boat.

It was a beautiful scenic slow cruise among the icebergs of the UNESCO World Heritage Ice Fjord. It was cloudy which made for a more atmospheric trip. I’m sure sunshine would have shown off the icebergs more, but the fog was kind of cool. They were easier to see and experience in person but the photos are dull. We didn’t see any whales, but one group saw 2 Humpbacks. People that had flights over the fjord were all canceled due to the fog.

Rivages Du Monde & their tender going ahore

inside cabin of our boat

kayaks

We had a quick lunch and went into town just before the Zodiacs wouldn’t be running for an hour. We wandered around and walked past lots of sledge dogs and puppies to the Ice Fjord Museum which was small and honestly quite skippable. We did the hike to see the place where it was a backup of icebergs. It was worth the extra hike scrambling up over rocks to get to the lookout to see the icebergs. We retraced our steps back to town.