Kayak Adventure in Greenland

We meet at Keflavik International Airport no later than 3:00 pm local time to check in for our flight to Kulusuk on Greenland. Here we are met by the guide who has traveled from Norway a few days before the group. We drive to the small village, Tasilaaq, where we will spend the night and get to know each other.

After breakfast, we continue by boat for several hours to the starting point, a beach close to the hunting village of Sermiligaaq. From the boat, we get a good view of the fjord and our first encounter with glaciers. Once we arrive at the camp, we set up the tents and make dinner, and after dinner there is an introduction to safety routines, paddling techniques and packing the equipment in the kayak. It's an art, but with a little technique, it's amazing how much equipment we can fit in the kayaks.

After a good night's sleep in our sleeping bags, a hearty breakfast and the breaking of camp await us before we pack our kayaks and set off. The first paddling day is quite long, but we have a long lunch break to give us enough energy for the last leg of the day. In total, the trip today takes about 5 hours, before we end up at perhaps the most beautiful campsite in the north! We set up our tents in an area close to the Knud Rasmussen glacier; perhaps the most beautiful glacier of them all. The glacier front is enormous. The main wall is 3 km wide, and behind it you see 2,000 meter high mountain peaks. Even though we are almost 2 kilometers in front of the glacier wall, it seems incredibly close to us. The glacier is moving at high speed and calving continuously with great roars. The sights, sounds and colors are some of the greatest nature experiences you can get here as we sit with a panoramic view and enjoy a good dinner. The calming ambiance continues throughout the night as we lie in our tents and listen to the glacier calve and rumble.

After a good night's sleep, we enjoy a good breakfast before taking a short walk to the glacier front. It's a great opportunity to stretch your legs in this majestic terrain, and for those who want to take the trip up the moraine ridge. It's a spectacular sight and makes for amazing photographs. Back at camp, we have lunch before packing the kayaks. Today's paddling leg goes into the Sermiligaaq fjord where we paddle close to the mighty Karale glacier. Here there are no less than five glaciers emerging from the same fjord, creating a tangle of icebergs and ice mazes that we paddle through. Karalebreen comes down from a fantastic mountain area with alpine, pointed peaks, most of which are unclimbed. The glacier itself has retreated far back, and the map no longer corresponds to reality. 360 degrees around us we see large glacier fronts and hanging glaciers, and after 3 - 4 hours of paddling we pull the kayaks up on a small sandy beach with a nice grassy area to set up camp. From the campsite we can see as many as 5 glaciers going all the way down to the fjord, and even more hanging on the mountainsides around us. It's am incredibly beautiful sight to behold.

For those who wish, and dare too, this is the place for a morning swim - before oatmeal and freshly brewed coffee await for breakfast. The destination for the day is a disused American base station. It was built by the Americans during World War II to conduct reconnaissance for submarines and German warships. After the war, it was abandoned without being cleaned up first, and today it is a graveyard of old oil drums, cars and a long airstrip. It's not aesthetic, but it's historical, and the Greenlanders have done the right thing by not getting the Americans to clean it up. They've turned it into a memorial and so it has to stay where it is. We disembark at the base, walk around and set up our camp. It's all a contrast to the rest of the trip, which is completely untouched!

As usual, we take a leisurely morning with plenty of time for breakfast and packing up camp, and the departure depends on the tide. There is a 3.6 meter tidal difference, which is of great importance for the highlight of the day: The highlight of the day is paddling through a narrow passage that is only possible at high tide! First we will paddle for about 10 km on "flat" water before we reach a small passage. Here we will take lie low and wait for the tide to rise. If we arrive too early, we will go ashore for lunch and if we have plenty of time, you might want to try your luck fishing for trout, or go for a walk? If there's too much ice and we don't get there in time, we'll just camp here and paddle through the passage the next day. It's weather and wind that prevails! If the tide comes in as planned, we will have a small experience of paddling in "flowing water" where we follow the tide through the passage. Once we pass through the passage, we'll find a lovely campsite where we'll pitch our tents and cook dinner. In the evening there are also good opportunities for fishing.

This is our last day of paddling and if the current and wind are with us it will be a short day, and if it is against us we will have a slightly longer day. It's exciting to arrive in the small fishing village of Kummiiut (approx. 400 inhabitants) with kayaks at lunchtime. We buy some fresh food at the local shop before paddling to a nearby campsite. Here we make our last tent camp in Greenland. A delicious stew with fresh meat is often on the dinner menu. Or maybe someone has been fishing? Tonight we will repack the equipment, send the kayaks back to Tasiilaq by boat, and get ready for tomorrow. The day consists of roughly 18 km and 5 hours of paddling in good conditions.

Since it's not just paddling that attracts us to Greenland, we'll be spending the next night in a cabin near Tinit. From here we have a spectacular view of the Sermilikfjord, where the ice flows past in large quantities after calving from the glacier further into the fjord. We also have a view of the Greenland ice sheet, and we are surrounded by blue-green sea and beautiful nature. We get some great sightseeing on the way here from the boat, and will have a nice dinner together on arrival at the cabin.

We have a cosy breakfast and are picked up by boat for a nice trip back towards Tasiilaq. We might get lucky and see some whales during the boat trip. In Tasiilaq we have our warehouse, and will spend the day washing and packing the equipment from the paddle trip. In the afternoon, we enjoy a nice farewell dinner with our group.

We have the day at leisure, before we say goodbye and head for Kulusuk airport in the afternoon. From Kulusuk we fly back to Iceland, where we will arrive late in the night. We say goodbye for now and hopefully we meet again somewhere, some place.

If you wish to have a few days in Iceland before or after the trip, we are happy to help you with a suggestion. Visit the Blue Lagoon, experience the charming city center of Reykjavik or explore the Golden Circle.