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Tuesday 22 August 2017

Hamborgerland

Hamborgerland 




The day we left Maniitsoq was a day of superlatives. We had sat out a bit of weather tied up securely to the wooden pontoon and had enjoyed pottering around in town. We had topped up the diesel day tank and refilled the main water tank with a couple of barrels ferried in the dinghy from a hose pipe on the quay. We left the dock in flat calm conditions and nudged our way out of the harbour through a procession of open fishing boats and water taxis.




Out of the channel we turned east and slid past the stony ramparts of the town improbably surmounted by high rise accommodation blocks, pastel blue in the morning sun. A heavily built fishing boat nosed past us towing a couple of open boats. The skipper waved cheerily. A flurry of high powered open boats shot past powered up by massive outboards. It seems the minimum acceptable number of horse power here for a working day boat is 150hp but 250hp is not uncommon. We lumbered on under motor at 6 knots.

The day was clear and the sunshine lit up the mountains and their ice caps. This being Geenland swathes of mist were still lurking. We turned north and motored close into the shore of the island of Maniitsoq where huts dotted the coast. The ridges and rock faces of Maniitsoq fell away after a few miles and after 10 miles we turned east again to explore a long narrow fjord and the glacier that was at it's head. The air was colder in the fjord and it became cooler still as we neared the icy extremity of the Greenland Ice Cap. The sides of the fjord grew steeper and waterfalls gushed from high hanging glaciers. Guano on a precipice betrayed a gull colony. The birds themselves swarmed around an open fishing boat which was cleaning it's catch.



The glacier at the head of the fjord had receded so no longer calves into the water so we didn't have to worry about ice. Close up the blue, crevassed tongue of ancient ice twisted and ground it's way through the mountains. The fjord changed colour with its load of glacial sediment. We turned around and retraced our wake.

We were now heading along the north shore of Hamborgerland which was reputed to be one of the most scenic places in Geenland. The mountains grew in stride and their faces became steeper and more jagged. Icy jewels decorated the towers with scores of glaciers large and small. The afternoon was now perfect blue sky and sunshine as we headed west beneath Hamborgerland's north coast. A brightly painted freighter of the Royal Arctic Line passed us going east and gave scale and perspective to the majestic scenery.

The anchor went down in an exquisite anchorage called Appamiut on the north side of the Hamborgerland Sund. Our walk up to the ridge above the anchorage revealed a stunning vista of sea, sun, ice and mountains. Quite fantastic. Needless to say the cameras whirred and the drone flew capturing the moment in stills and video. Only the sinking sun and it's orange light could improve on this heavenly scene which it duly did.