Kayaking amongst Icebergs
– Aasiaat adventures with the great hunter Hans
Text by Tina Bollerslev, photos by Tina Bollerslev and Andrew James

First, a luxurious night on the ferry boat from Sisimiut before getting back to nature again. Next morning we stopped in Aasiaat for a two-day paddle around the beautiful, calm, but literally icecold archipelago. We were guided by great-hunter Hans, and two Swedes (Orjan and Anders) joined us for further entertainment.

Kayaking with Titanic

Our guide, Hans, a world class kayaker

I am scared of even the smallest iceberg!

Anders in his kayak

Hot chocolate stop on an island

Camping for the night: Tina the gardenzwerg

Cold early morning – and we are about to get into the ice cold wetsuits again and go kayaking out there… brrrrr!

Anders and his deep sea catch (I only caught monsters!)

Break at a whale slaughtering place with ribs in the water as big as a kayak

Tina and a whale skull

Back in Aasiaat: Real Swedes drink GAMMEL DANSK!

”Braedtet” where you buy your daily meat (seal, whale, halibut etc)

Aasiaat, ferry north and Santa Claus in Ummanaq

On either side of the kayaking trip, we spend some time in Aasiaat, staying at the ”Sømandshjem”, the Seaman’s home: luxury! A few pictures from Aasiaat where we bought a whale steak in the supermarket and fried it up on our MSR cooker in front of the hotel – absolutely delicious. Then we travelled north by ferry and stopped in Ilulissat (see webpage on Ilulissat Ice Fiord ) before travelling further north to the small steep mountain island of Ummanaq.

Fresh from the supermarket: Whale steak

AJ frying up the whale steak

The colours of Aasiaat Harbour

More Aasiaat colours

Dog waiting for food delivery at Aasiaat Harbour

Maybe he is waiting for winter?

and the colours again

Aasiaat Harbour

On the ferry going north from Aasiaat

The little people on the little ferry boat north

These two chaps both made the boat run smoothly and served coffee and food to the passengers!

Disko øen / Disko Island

Passing the most magnificent ice bergs on the way north

Updating my diary in the arctic sea sun!

…until we entered the icy sea smog (fog)!

The intriguing mountain of Ummanaq

A last overnight ferry trip north and we landed in Ummanaq, the home of the Danish Santa Claus (and a few whales, it seemed). We arrived early morning, tried to find out how we could go seal hunting with the locals, but it did not seem possible because of wind and weather (We actually found ourselves hunting seals by accident with the greenlandic chap Arne Lars and his girlfriend Sikkersoq on our last day in Greenland, see page on Greenland life and people). Instead we walked up to Santa Claus’ hut (he wasn’t home), pitched our tent with its two broken tent poles in the rockiest ground ever, and hiked up the granite mountain. Steep, dramatic, colourful, fascinating. Had a nice big beanfeast dinner at the tent, and AJ’s pants ripped, so he spent most of the evening in the tent sewing them up again.