First published: 08/07/19.

Zoë Sheng 3.0

Aasivissuit - Nipisat

Aasivissuit - Nipisat (Inscribed)

Aasivissuit - Nipisat by Zoë Sheng

Landscapes are always a bit tricky to see or understand. Hunting grounds of the Inuits even more. There is little infrastructure to get into these places. The base to explore is Kangerlussuaq, 1h away from Ilulissat or Nuuk either way. The town is small but hotels are plentiful. (I stayed at the Old Camp mainly because the Polar Lodge was already full but it is also that much cheaper, although then you are 2km away from town and need to take an hourly bus to move around. The tours still pick you up here though.)

You can only organize tours via the same agency and the programs are set by date and time slots. I was told one could potentially customize a tour but that ended up not being done. I took two tours: the ice wall and the sightseeing tour. The sightseeing tour will explore the hunting area and other parts like the harbor, the shut US research station (apparently ordered to be moved by the Trump administration), the town and Husky puppies (sho qwute!!).

The main reason this was worth is because of the Inuit guide Kimmi. She is Greenland's unknown superstar and I shall not go into details of what her personal life holds. All I can tell is that she's a really good guide and a hunter. I don't mean this in a advertisement but having her as guide means she will try to understand what you want to know about the area and tell you more about it. If you come for knowledge about the world heritage site she will focus on that. As mentioned, she's a secret superstar so later this year a German TV documentary will shoot her hunting and I'm really looking forward to checking it out.

So in short if you are coming please check if Kimmi will be your guide. I was told she usually does the sightseeing tour though.

As for the hunting grounds, you drive past/through them but you don't really see anything spectacular. All I learned was that Caribou and arctic hares leave a trail which even the arctic fox uses to wait for its prey, and that the (i think) eagles will show the hunter where the game is (caribou or musk oxen) because they will know they can feast on it while the hunter is butchering the kill. I'm usually not into killing animals but I understand the Inuit hunting has a long history and they only do it for their own food etc, not for commercial reasons.

Not as spectacular as Ilulissat's icefjord but better than the farmlands of Southern Greenland. Also surprisingly warm here in June, even warmer than Iceland and more of a South Norway style climate.

I also saw some people hiking the Arctic Circle Trail. This will take you from Kangerlussuaq to Sisimiut and pretty much through the hunting areas. It also goes through rivers and along dirty roads and takes up to 9 days so that's not for me.

P.s. try to the ice field tour over 2 days I hear it is amazing. They only do that twice a week or something.

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