My wonderful time in Narsaq had sadly come to an end, and it was time to head to Narsarsuaq, where the international airport of South Greenland is located. Luckily, I still had two days to spend in Narsarsuaq before heading back to Nuuk, starting with a one-hour ferry ride between the two villages.
We set off early in the morning, at 8.30 AM right after sunrise, and were lucky to have the most perfect weather. I can’t believe how lucky I’ve been in general on my travels in Greenland – first amazing weather in Ilulissat and then absolutely perfect sunshine weather in the South.
Despite the ride only taking an hour, it cost me 580 DKK for a one-way ticket (!). It’s a ridiculous price for such a short trip, but because of that I also made sure to make the most of it. Despite the frosty cold weather, I stood outside for most of the trip so I could enjoy the incredible views as we sailed from Narsaq and deeper into Eriksfjord.
That day, I saw the most perfect reflections I’ve ever seen. The colours of the mountains were incredible, and the water was perfectly calm. For the first half of the ride, we had those spectacular reflections until we got to more icy waters.
The captain had to stop the ferry several times when the ice got too thick to break through – I think I was actually really lucky to even get to Narsarsuaq that day, as the ice was really thick! But he did a great job and got us there safely.
During the ferry ride, I saw something really strange. Two polar bears sitting on thin drift ice– or so I thought. When I looked again, I saw that they were in fact not polar bears, but sheep! I totally thought it was at first, but when I took a second look I could see that it was two poor sheep that were stuck on the ice, and seemingly had no possible way of getting off and back on safe ground.
Not knowing what to do, I asked the captain if it was normal to see this and if sheep could swim. He said they could swim, but I wasn’t convinced… Thankfully, a Danish woman who had been working as a vet in Narsaq overheard me and asked to see the picture. She then contacted her boss, who knew the owners of the land and promised to call them. I really hope those two darlings got the help they needed as it looked like such a sad fate.
At 9.45 AM, after pushing the ferry through tons of ice, we arrived in the harbour, located about an hour’s walk from Narsarsuaq. Thankfully, a bus was waiting to take us all into town, and most got off at the airport as Narsarsuaq is usually just used as a transit place (much like Kangerlussuaq). But I wanted to know what Narsarsuaq was all about – I didn’t just want to sail there and fly off straight away! I wanted to see the village, see the mountains and most of all, hike to the ice sheet! More on that later!
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