05.09.2023 Ilulissat Icefjord Glacier Greenland

 Today we made landfall in Ilulissat the third largest settlement in Greenland. Population 4000. I am pleased to say Master is his old self again and is up for his walking challenge today. My carer is going on a boat trip and we are staying on board in the warm. It is still quite cold outside. There are some quite large Icebergs floating around near our ship. One of them has parked itself behind the ship, so we will have to shuffle around a bit to get out of this bay. The Fjord we are going to see has been made a UNESCO World Heritage site. It is known to have spawned the Iceberg that sunk the Titanic. The Iceberg started forming when David was King of the Israelites 1000 BC. It would have taken 1 to 3 years to reach latitude 45deg where the Titanic was when hit. Only 2% of Icebergs spawned from this glacier reach this latitude. It was probably about 120m/400ft wide and 30m/100ft high.

For the trip today M&M don't need to wear those big boots, and the trip across to Ilulissat will be by Tender and not Zodiac. Master will go to the harbour on the Tender, and the boat taking Missus to the the fjord where the end of the glacier is will pick her up at the expedition launch on Deck 3. The Master left about 15.00 and the Missus had to go to the lecture hall and was given a boat No. (No. 1). Then at 15.20 they went down to deck 3 and got on the large orange boat. They all had to go inside first and have a safety talk, then they could go outside to marvel at the mighty lumps of Ice waiting to break off and become Icebergs. Missus showed me her pictures when she got back, They were very impressive, some of the ice was at least 4 storeys high and she said she could hear cracking sounds coming from them, it sounded like gunfire. In the morning we had listened to a very interesting talk by Ulrich all about Greenland and this glacier in the morning.

I had to keep a watchful eye on an Iceberg floating by, just in case it came too close and I had to inform the Captain to take evasive action!

This pictures shows how much the glacier has retreated since 1851(left of picture) to 2009 (Right of picture).

The Icebergs now waiting to break off have reached a rocky ridge in the seabed, so until they have melted enough at the top they cannot break out to sea.

The Fjord pale blue in picture shows icebergs around the end of it. The glacier comes from the ice cap at the top of Greenland.

Picture showing where some of the Icebergs from the Ice Glacier have been found.

There is a large crack through this piece of ice.

After the boat trip Missus went into town and phoned Master and he said come up to the visitor centre on the bus. He had caught the bus in town and then walked to the top of the glacier on the Board Walk. Poor Master had tripped over and broke a finger nail  and sprained two fingers. They still hurt a month later! So Missus joined him there. Up at the top was also the Dog Centre where all the Sled dogs are kept. They are kept tied on longish ropes and have a kennel to get into if they want to. Fun thing to do though is to start them howling. It sounds like a pack of wolves. Missus recorded the sound for us to listen to, tee hee.

An interesting note about the Greenland Dogs. They are quite small and are a very ancient breed, known to have bred with wolves. Their breed is still pure today and you don't find them below the Artic Circle. They can pull up to 750kg and in 2022 they were found to have developed 9,500 genetic differences from other breeds of sled dog. They also have great stamina and can run for a long time.

View from the top of the visitor centre looking over to the Icefjord. The boardwalk is 1.5km.