On my first full day back in Nuuk, a wonderful sunrise woke me up at 7 AM. Ready for a beautiful day in my favourite city, I got up and started making plans to go hiking. I had been wanting to hike around the Quassussuaq mountain (Lille Malene) and through the Kuanninnguit valley (Paradisdalen), a 10 km round trip from Qinngorput, for a long time. In fact, I had planned on doing the hike when I was in Nuuk last year, but even with five months, I didn’t find time. But that day would be it, I would finally venture out on this popular and relatively easy hike in the incredible nature surrounding Nuuk.
My friend Torben decided to join me, and we set off at 2 PM. We parked the car at the trailhead and started hiking upwards towards Lake Qallusuaq (Cirkussøen), which supplies Nuuk with clean drinking water. The views of Qinngorput, Nuuk’s newest neighbourhood, were stunning as always.
Hiking along the banks of Qallusuaq, I breathed in the fresh air and cherished the moment. I couldn’t believe that I was finally back in the city of my heart after six months of missing everything about it.
We continued upwards from there, around Quassussuaq, the smaller of the two mountains in Nuuk. I have climbed this mountain twice before, but never walked around it, so it was fun to see it from a different perspective.
Soon we were awarded with the most incredible views of the Nuuk Fjord with the iconic Sermitsiaq in the near distance.
A few moments later, we stepped into the Kuanninnguit valley, which is called Paradisdalen (‘Paradise Valley”) in Danish. There could not be a more fitting name for this lush valley.
We had chosen the right time to come. The wild crowberries and blueberries were at their best, and there were more than we could possibly eat. We took a well-deserved break in the valley to enjoy the berries while looking out over the fjord, before continuing to the end of the trail. There we were met by a gravel road that we followed past the jail and the airport and all the way around to Qinngorput and the car.
This beautiful hike took us about three hours including several photo breaks and a berry break. We were lucky to have magnificent weather throughout, but towards the end of the hike, compact round clouds showed up, forecasting the rain that came the following day.
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