|
The Enigma that is Greenland.
"Last year we cruised to Greenland via the Faroes and Iceland and back to Scotland stopping on the north side of Iceland and then the Orkneys. I have done aged opinions on these places but now I am updating Greenland, because I don’t think that I did this Majestic country justice the first time?
Iceland was pretty much as you would expect, a green and pleasant land with; you know geysers, whales, dolphins, puffins (strange, strange birds whose wings are not very efficient) and a lot of tourist type stuff. The Faroes and the Orkneys were interesting and worth visiting, in their own way, BUT Greenland was magnificent.
Great snow topped mountains fall straight into a blue, blue unpolluted sea, and occasionally there are tiny wee inlets with two or three houses, painted such bright colours, are these really called towns? These inlet villages are only accessible by sea. In fact the whole of Greenland has no roads between towns or cities. There are no railways either. To get around Greenland one must fly or if time and the sea permit sail. Seas do not freeze easily because of the high quantity of salt but these costal waters have been so diluted by melting ice that they freeze easily.
Our ship zigzagged its way ahead often squeezing between these white giants. We sailed a sea, littered with icebergs, which break off the enormous glaciers and then slide gracefully into the sea. Many of these icebergs have inverted as they thaw a little and appear an electric blue and translucent. Small rivers of water cascade into the sea down the sides of the mountains forging picturesque channels. We entered the iceberg-strewn waters at about five in the morning. It was breath taking. I have been up the Norwegian coast and round the Land of the Midnight Sun but nothing could prepare one for this quiet magnificence.
Greenland is larger than Australia or the whole of Europe, 840,000 square miles, and yet it only has a population of about 55,000. The population is predominantly Inuit, a people who have an affinity with the Inuit’s of Canada, Alaska and Siberia. It is only 130 years since the last migration from Canada took place. This island lies off the north east coast of Canada, and is predominantly within the Arctic Circle. An ice sheet, which is 14,000 feet deep in places, covers more than four fifths of the land area. Now that makes our occasional patches of winter ice look a bit pathetic doesn’t it? Most people live along the south west coast, where the North Atlantic Drift warms the climate a little.
The dwellers of this enormous island although few, or perhaps because of it, are a peaceable people and have never waged war with anyone and show a great openness to visitors. The word Inuit means human being in their language. Evidently to call someone an Eskimo is not polite. (One man came up to us and said ""Me Eskimo, where you from?"" so much for political correctness!!) The native Inuit is surprisingly dark skinned with a mass of beautiful straight black hair. Approximately 20 percent of the population was born outside Greenland. Greenland is actually part of the Kingdom of Denmark, but since the introduction of Home Rule in 1979 Greenland has moved towards relative independence based on Parliamentary democracy.
Economically Greenland is very dependant on Denmark although it does have a little trade of its own. Fishing is the all-dominating source of independent income and accounts for ninety-five percent of the total exports. In the hunter districts of the outer areas the seal and whale catch is of great importance. This form of hunting actually forms the main work for one-fifth of the population. These hunters actually live with nature, following its natural seasons. The philosophy has been to live at one with nature
We did not visit the capital of Greenland, which is a place called Nuuk, formerly Godthab, and lies up on the southwest edge of Greenland. We did, however, visit Qaqortoq, which is one its main CITIES, having approximately 3,000 people living there, all in brightly coloured houses, which are made of wood and TIN!! We also visited Narsarsaq where there is an ""International airport"" which has a weekly flight to Denmark! I wrote opinions on these latter places last year but I suspect that they are not of GREAT interest!
It was strange to be in a place, which did not ""accommodate"" tourists, just a State owned supermarket, which sold very familiar imported goods!! ! During our visit the only souvenirs we were able to buy were from a ’large’ American hotel near the ‘International’ airport at Narsarsaq. This hotel was comparatively large, having either 100 rooms or room for 100 guests. I do not remember which!!
South Greenland ruins from the Norse (Viking) settlers of 1,000 years ago are well preserved; these ruins include many Christian churches. (One does not imagine these raping and pillaging invaders to be Christian, but history much maligns them!) The inhospitable grandeur of the ice lands of Greenland proved a difficult land to colonise. Those Norsemen, who tried, seem to have disappeared into the annals of time. The name of the exploring 10th century Norse chieftain, Eric the Red, remains but of the descendants of the 500 Norsemen he brought with him to colonise this great continent there appear to be no burial grounds and the disappearance of them and their livestock remains a mystery.
Was it with perverse humour that this Eric the Red called the pleasant land of green hills and hot geezers Iceland and this land of desolate ice Greenland?
At any time a cruise is a very pleasant way to spend a holiday, but this was more than a holiday it was a WONDERFUL EXPERIENCE. What I really mean is an EXPERIENCE FULL OF WONDER.
"
|
