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| Mona's home is dark blue, just right of centre |
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I loved returning to Illulisat. It was such a quick visit when we called in there with the Akademic Ioffe; I'd had a sense when I was there that I was just checking it out!
I stayed with Mona, a Greenlandic woman, whose husband works away from home in the capital city of Nuuk, for 6 weeks at a time, and who enjoys having people to stay. She was just lovely, and we enjoyed each other's company. She said she couldn't speak english, but really – she could!
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| The icebreaker, Illulisat style! |
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I went on an Icefjord Tour, in the dinkiest and quaintest boat you ever saw, the 'Clane', with a old time Greenlandic fellow, who sure knew what he was doing. He even tried to pretend that his boat (it did have a cabin) was an icebreaker, tried to push an iceberg out of the way and left some red paint on it! I pretended to step off the front of the boat onto the iceberg, which had him cracking up laughing. The immense numbers of the icebergs that are found in Disko Bay have made it a Unesco World Heritage site, and it's mindblowingly stupendous. I did see hundreds of icebergs from the ship when we came through, and we kayaked through just a few of them, but somehow the tour in that 'original' boat just took the cake.
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| Look what's at the bottom of Mona's street! |
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Walking to see an ancient site where Saqqaq, Thule and Dorset people have lived for thousands of years was an eye opener. How they did it astounds me. It certainly underscores the tenacity and depth of the human spirit. The places (saw all this in the fascinating Illulisat museum) they travelled to and from are way beyond the burnt stump – or should that be the smashed up igloo?
I loved the little town of Illulisat. It's quaint, and friendly, and not too touristy. There were a couple of women from France who stayed were staying at Mona's too and I found that I could still speak French! J'ai été stupéfié!!
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| Taken on a short evening stroll, from Mona's home |
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Next post? Hmmmm – the ship to 'Wild Labrador & Newfoundland'. I had a lovely cabin mate this time . . . . . another story!
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