Snowmobiles sleigh us through snow covered mountains and tundra hinterlands to a small colony of igloos, where we shall sleep tonight.
Igloo camp
Immediately we notice a toilette made of snow, with a green bag hanging under a plastic seat. A “loo with a view” for sure.
The “loo with a view outside our igloo”
Anders, our host, responds to the laughter. “We pack out everything we bring in,” he explains. “Let’s gather in the cabin for lunch and orientation.”
The heating hut near the igloos
“There will be two guests to an igloo. If it gets too cold tonight, feel free to snuggle-up in here.” The cabin has no water or electricity but does have an indoor compost toilet and oil heat. After a smorgasbord of rye bread, smoked fish and reindeer, it’s time to burn off lunch with a snowshoe hike.
Snowshoeing to the viewpoint
The trail crosses a frozen lake and up through a mountain pass, where our labors manifest into yet another unearthly viewpoint. The massive Jakobshavn Glacier creates most of the icebergs that drift in the northern hemisphere.
Snowshoeing to viewpoint of Ilulissat Icefjord and Jakobshavn Glacier
Many of these behemoths linger, stuck to the bottom sometimes for years before making a slow drift southbound through the channel of a thawing fjord.
This shoreline grows larger each year due to rapid ice melt, forcing fishermen and their sled dogs to traverse farther hauls to get to the ice and drill holes for halibut fishing. A common catch could exceed 200 pounds of halibut. They fish in the traditional manner – no shacks or heated huts, and sleep on a dogsled wrapped in sealskin. With no wood anywhere to make a fire, I’d be sleeping under a pack of sled dogs!
Our group plus two gals from Denmark and guides. Enjoying Greenlandic coffee and listening to Inuit myths
Back at the shack hungry and thirsty from snowshoeing, Mare and I are pleased to find beer available. A few cold ones accompany dinner of musk ox stew. Then, we sit around the table while Anders tells stories of Inuit folklore and myth from early Greenlandic people as far back as 4000BC. There are many variations of these stories, passed by word of mouth for many years. Some of them make no sense at all. Others have a moral. I’ll share a short mythological one:
Malina and her brother Anningan grew up together. Late at night, Anningan snuck into Malina’s room and had sex with her, incestual rape. She couldn’t see his face and did not know who assaulted her. Next time he snuck in she soiled her hands with seal oil to mark him.
Once she identified him as her brother, she ran into the sky and became the sun, full of life and warmth. Anningan didn’t give up and chased her into the sky. He became the moon, a cold lifeless body pursuing his sister into eternity.
Anningan catches Molina once in a while and rapes her again, resulting in a solar eclipse. He spends so much time chasing her that he often forgets to eat and gets thinner, causing the different phases of the moon.
The Sun and the Moon despise each other, as well as other human beings of the opposite sex. During a solar eclipse, Inuit men are not supposed to go out. During a lunar eclipse, women stay in. The Sun goddess and Moon god represent poisonous spirits that spew disease upon anyone who offends them.
After watching the northern lights, we crawl into our igloos. One guy in our group gets stuck in the cave-like opening, and his wife digs him out. Each igloo contains a shovel inside in case snow buries the opening.
Our home for the night
Our bed consists of a reindeer skin on top of a twin bed size block of ice. First, we slip into a bag liner, and then into the sleeping bag. No sleeping naked tonight for me!
Inside the igloo
Someone with claustrophobia would have a difficult time. Going out to pee takes a lot of work, so you wait until you can’t hold it any longer. We sleep well. Exhaustion helps. Where else on earth could a tourist sleep in an igloo?
Sleeping on ice and animal skins
We wrap up our final chapter of Greenland ( see Greenland Part 1; Greenland Part 2 ) with an exhilarating dogsled ride.
The musher negotiates about ten ropes, with a pack of magnificent Greenlandic dogs running on the end of each rope. I can’t figure out how he keeps the ropes from tangling, as the sled glides through snow and bounces over tundra boulders for several hours. Yeehaw!
Henrik and Birthe from our group
Thank you, Abundant Universe.
Ron Mitchell and Marilynn Windust
WOW…THATY is probaby the greatest “adventure” you both had been on!!!
This definitely ranks high up there!
All I can say is….WOW !!….
I totally understand!
Gotta love the dogs!
Love them immediately. Not permitted to touch or engage them.
Such a cool adventure, not sure if I’ll ever be able to convince Wendy to go somewhere so cold, but I know I at least need to try now 🙂
The older we get the more we try to avoid heat for some reason. Wendy would be layered-up to the max!
Just fabulous….except sleeping in an igloo. Exhaustion better help sleep! Ha ha. Marvelous adventure!
Mitch a shit can sleep in an igloo maybe once. Thanks!
I know it’s overused, but AWESOMENESS! I love your turn of speech “our labors manifest…” and Marilyn’s photos!. Thanks for sharing the story too. Will have to add Greenland to my bucket list, but seeing the Northern Lights for real is #1 (total solar eclipse was, grateful to have witnessed once, want to again). Happy travels! BTW want to talk/connect with you about updating your website. Mine is way past overdue for an update. Some say the blogging moment is over, but I still enjoy.
Thanks, Jill. I hired someone to update my site, but they disappeared on me and I’m stuck trying to learn how to navigate through it. If you hire someone, make sure you check their credentials first.
What a cool (no pun intended) experience to sleep in an igloo. Those landscapes are amazing up there.
Got to do it once if the opportunity presents itself.
Dad and I thoroughly enjoyed reading this…… you guys know how to live life to the fullest! So happy for you .. love you both very much!!!!
I learned from the best! We love you both so very much too!
This is amazing. Absolutely amazing. I love the way you two are living your life.
We work hard at it Marti. Truly has been our goal for quite a while. The demands be similar to a job in many ways.
Side note: I was interrupted in the middle of reading this and missed a couple of paragraphs. For a horrific moment, I thought that Malina and Annigan were people from the dining room picture. whew.
We probably all saw a couple we wouldn’t mind chasing. Just sayin’.
Wow those pictures look awesome! Must have been a incredible experience alltogether! What was your favorite thing on this trip?
Thank you, and thanks for following the blog. We’ve been to many places in the world with hopefully many more to go. This trip stands out as one of the most unique both in beauty and culture. Probably the most moving part was seeing, and walking on the ice sheet.