Friday 26 June 2015

Welcoming and warm Qasigiannguit

Again another perfect day! Cloudless sky and brilliant sunshine!
At 8.30 am we enter the small bay of Qasigiannguit and go along side the small pier of the town. The Fram is twice as long as the pier, but our Captain manages squeeze the Fram along side-side the pier at 9.00 am.
At 9.30 the Kayak Adventure group departs for a kayak tour in the waters around Qasigiannguit. The calm sea and the brilliant sunshine are perfect conditions for successful kayaking in the grand scenery with rocky islands, narrow channels in between and icebergs.
At the same time the first group of the Ice Cruisers boarded the big Polar Circle Boats and started the trip through the narrow channels between the islands, along big and small Icebergs and into open waters. The first group was lucky to see whales but they dived for a very long time and they re appeared far from the boats.

Most of our passengers enjoyed a walk in town. They visited the small but very nice and interesting museums about Greenlandic life, history of the community and the archaeology of the region. In the vicinity of Qasigiannguit one of the oldest settlements of Greenland was discovered and excavated. This settlement belongs to the Saqqaq-Cultures approximately 3500 years old. Material of this old culture is exhibited in the archaeological museum.
Some passengers walked out of town and enjoyed the nice landscape and a scenic lake.
At 13.30 the manager of the local fish factory visited the Fram together with two workers and gave a talk about the fish factory and answer questions of interested passengers. The factory of Qasigiannguit is the biggest fish factory of Greenland mostly processing halibut and salmon. The factory staff brought several types of Greenlandic fish specialities for tasting with them.
At 15.00 the Fram departed Qasigiannguit. An hour later we had lectures about landscape photography and Tundra vegetation.


At 17.00 the Fram sailed into the Ilulisat Icefield, which is produced by the Ilulisat Glaciers, the most active Glacier in Greenland. This Glacier and the Ilulisat Icefjord is a Unesco World Nature Heritage site.
After an hour impressive cruising in the ice-field the Fram had to leave it because as our captain says: ”The quickest way to go through an icefield is to surround it”.

Thus we make our way along the icefield to be in time at Uummannaq our next destination.
Children from kindergarten welcoming our guests to Qasigiannguit

Local people showing "The living settlement" nearby the lake in Qasigiannguit where they also cooked whale meat for tasting and sewing sealskin to show how Inuit lived.