Valley Nordkapp Experience

Tuesday, 29 August 2017

Ammassalik, Greenland

This will be one of my longest post so far. Eight days kayaking around the island Ammassalik on east Greenland. Unbelievably beautiful with a lot of icebergs, mountains, glaciers, flowers, whales and birds.

I was there with Roope Roine from Moln and four new friends from Finland, Johanna, Saara, Tea and Minna. Grate place and great company, all you need to have a good time. And a kayak of course!

Day 1.

Arrived at Kulusuk airport and packed the kayaks almost immediately. Paddled 8 km north to an island in Ammassaliiq fiord. Sunny weather.

Day 2.

Foggy morning and we crossed the Ammassaliq fjord through the fog to Ammassalik island and had a night camp after 16 km. Still nice weather.

Day 3.

Beautiful calm morning and no clouds. Continued north and west into Ikaasatsivaq fiord. Saw some whales and nice icebergs. 24 km. It started to get windy in the afternoon and a bit chilly.

Day 4.

Very windy morning and it was touch-and-go if we would continue that day. But we did and the wind increased even more! But we managed to cross the fiord without any incidents and I hade som nice surfs. In early afternoon we visited the small village Tiniteqilaaq. After that it was north through an ice maze a bit up the Sermilik fiord. The most wonderful kayak trip you can have and the most amazing day I have had in a kayak I think. 28 km this day.

Day 5.

No paddling this day but we took a hike upp to a near mountain top to look. Fantastic! I did do two rolls when coming back just to have done it among icebergs. Cloudy day but no rain.

Day 6.

Now we turn south again down to Ammassalik island and had a camp on it's west side. Here the icebergs are further apart but also a lot bigger. Some rain in the morning but it soon cleared up. 24 km kayaking. We saw some rather fresh polar bear tracks and there had been a sighting of one in the area a few days earlier. So that night we had to stand bear watch two hours each. I had midnight two 02:00 and it was clear with some Northern Light. Beautiful

Day 7.

Rain! All day rain and we continued south 14 km. Roope met a small boat where one man handed some keys over to him. That was to a small cabin so we could stay indoors that night, out of the rain and no bear watch.

Day 8.

Early start. We had to first take down all our drying clothes that were hanging all around the small one-room cabin. Then had to carry the kayaks in the shallow beach, low water, to the water and paddle 3 km for our pick-up. We finished our kayaktrip on the SW end of Ammassalik island near an abandoned villige called Ikkateq. From there it was with a small boat to the administrative center in the area, Tasiilaq.

This is the area we paddled in: Google map. Kulusuk and Tassilaq are straight west from Reykjavik and just below the Arctic Circle. The flights were to and from the domestic airport of Reykjavik.