Monday 10 June 2013

Sunny Sisimiut

The Greenlandic coastline greeted us with a thick fog as we looked out of our portholes this morning. But just as soon as the town of Sisimiut was in sight the fog lifted and a beautiful sunny day was awaiting us.


Sisimiut is the second largest town in Greenland and approx. 5500 people live here.

When Fram nicely laid alongside the pier we were in no doubt that we had entered a fishing town. The inner harbor was covered by an armada of both smaller and larger fishing vessels.


Prawns are the main catch for the fish processing plant, but the local fishermen also fish flounder, catfish, cod, and at this time of the year the caviar from the lumpfish.  Some of us went to Hotel Sisimiut and had a taste of some of these very tasty delicacies.
 

The most agile of us went out with local guides to hike to the top of the nearby Palasip Qaqqaa (Priest Mountain), which is 551 meters high. It was quite a hike but it was definitely worth the effort having the beautiful view over Sisimiut from the top of the mountain.

The rest of us stayed in Sisimiut and had either a nice city tour with the local guides or went on our own and some took the historical hike back in time and learned of how Sisimiut had been populated by various Inuit cultures dating back to 2500 BC and up to present times.

Before departing Sisimiut a local kayakman came and gave us an impressive show of his skills with a Greenlandic kayak (called qajaq in Greenlandic).

Now we are on our way to the town of Qeqertarsuaq and the expedition team have told us to start looking for icebergs.