*Photography by Kim Hansen, Creative Commons Polar bears occassionally turn up around Nuuk. Maybe once every year or two. But they don’t belong here. Normally they would stay with the sea ice, and there is no sea ice this far south on the west coast. But changing times mean that the bears are being blown …
The car rejected reverse in any kind of cold weather. And in the winter it snowed on the inside. It was the worst car in Nuuk and it would have been ours. But, perhaps fortunately, it died shortly before our friends – the owners – bequeathed it to us on leaving Greenland. So we remain …
For someone who grew up in 30 degree plus summers, with winter holidays involving slushy snow and sleet, the plethora of forms of frozen whiteness in Greenland is fascinating. With two Greenlandic winters behind me, I am somewhat surprised to find that I look forward to them. Although it is a little heart-wrenching to watch …
*Still image from ‘Camp Century’ film (1963) Greenland is a big place. Things get lost, forgotten, hidden, and some things noone ever notices. Last week was the fiftieth anniversay of a catastrophic event, the details of which were not public until an investigation by the Danish parliament almost thirty years later. On the afternoon …
Air Greenland is the proud owner of the world’s oldest operational helicopter – a nineteen-seater Sikorsky S-61. Well, in truth probably every component in the helicopter has been replaced multiple times in its history, aside from the fuselage. But there has, nonetheless, been a continuity of fifty years for this one machine. In 2015, Air …
Last winter the snowfall in Nuuk was more than locals could remember for decades. It snowed and it snowed. By the time we returned from our Christmas holiday, the stairs leading to our front door were buried thigh-deep. The balcony was already an intimidating snow-clearing task and it only got worse. My husband dug out …
We moved to Greenland in mid winter, almost three years ago today. Our son, then five, was culture-shocked by his sudden transposition from Australian summer to an icy darkness where he could no longer communicate with any of his peers. So one of our first priorities was to get him socialising with other kids. On …
Arctic travel requires patience, I reminded myself as I waited in a queue for a hotel voucher at Keflavik ariport. We were stuck in Iceland – again – our connecting flight having never left Nuuk because of winter blizzard conditions. Of course it’s nice to get home, but being stuck in Iceland isn’t so bad. …
It was pitch black, five o’clock on a late January afternoon, when my son and I walked the few hundred metres from our home to the local supermarket. Crisp and dark, but the street lamps glowed yellow on the deep snow. Immediately we noticed the familiar, deep, heavy grind of helicopter blades – whack, whack, …