We woke up to sunny weather in Qaqortoq, on the west coast of Greenland with over three thousand, mostly Inuit, inhabitants.
No fancy cruise terminal here. We were ferried from our ship to shore with a tender, a life boat that does double duty in ports that have no docks large enough to support our cruise ship. Qaqortoq is a colorful village, like most towns in northern climates. From Norway, to Iceland, to Greenland, houses are typically painted in very bright colors.
I got off the tender and started walking uphill through the back streets. At the end there was mostly open rock and tundra, with cairns marking the best path up to the top of the hill. This time I had put on my hiking boots and left most of the cruise ship crowds behind. There were still about a dozen or so hikers from the cruise ship, but I took a different path up. At the top of the hill I was treated to panoramic views of nearby inlets, dotted with ice bergs and islands, and spectacular mountains in the background. Hiking in Greenland, what a treat!
At the end of the day the fog rolled in. It reminded me of the marine layer in LA. We sailed out of the harbor and into the fog. Overnight I heard the ship’s horn through the fog.
Photographs © 2016 P.J. Gardner. All rights reserved.