Tasiilaq, Ammassalik Ø, Greenland
Greenland is a maiden, shy but strong. She wears a heavy cloak of white, frozen, thick and heavy and at the edges her true form shows, beautifully adorned with colors. At night she sleeps beneath a filmy veil that evaporates with the coming of the sun and reappears as evening nears to hide her once again. We were an audience mesmerized from dawn to dusk.
Without a chart or compass we knew not where we were as the light struggled earthward amidst the fog. Somehow the fulmars found our flanks, slipping in to pace our rate and zipped out again. Above, the sky appeared revealing white cloudy ridges and pale blue valleys. A dark shadow became a mountain range and then rounded rocky shores. Giant bergs with towers and arches stalled within the shallows. Colors, red and yellow, blue and green coalesced into houses perched upon rounded granitic hills.
The island known as Ammassalik is famous for its Valley of the Flowers. But the tiny town of Tasiilaq was as cheerily colored as any garden. Bright houses climbed up and down slopes that were carpeted with magenta fireweed and cerulean harebells. Other wildflower species tossed in yellows and whites for accents here and there.
We sat on sealskins within a house of turf, transported to dark, cold winter days when families quietly shared stories and myths of why things go wrong or right. A tiny museum with finely crafted carvings and artifacts added more to our understanding.
Some ventured skyward in search of the source of ice and stood upon the frozen river. Others followed a valley towards the island’s heart reading the signs of glacial retreat along the way. The watery highway was chosen by many to silently explore the harbor’s edges in kayaks of modern day.
As if to signal that it was time to go, a furious rumble echoed through the air. All in town, visitors and locals alike ran towards the sea knowing the source of the sound could only be the mammoth iceberg sitting there. In slow motion it crumbled and tumbled casting a myriad of progeny across the bay. We too then waved goodbye and sailed away.
Greenland is a maiden, shy but strong. She wears a heavy cloak of white, frozen, thick and heavy and at the edges her true form shows, beautifully adorned with colors. At night she sleeps beneath a filmy veil that evaporates with the coming of the sun and reappears as evening nears to hide her once again. We were an audience mesmerized from dawn to dusk.
Without a chart or compass we knew not where we were as the light struggled earthward amidst the fog. Somehow the fulmars found our flanks, slipping in to pace our rate and zipped out again. Above, the sky appeared revealing white cloudy ridges and pale blue valleys. A dark shadow became a mountain range and then rounded rocky shores. Giant bergs with towers and arches stalled within the shallows. Colors, red and yellow, blue and green coalesced into houses perched upon rounded granitic hills.
The island known as Ammassalik is famous for its Valley of the Flowers. But the tiny town of Tasiilaq was as cheerily colored as any garden. Bright houses climbed up and down slopes that were carpeted with magenta fireweed and cerulean harebells. Other wildflower species tossed in yellows and whites for accents here and there.
We sat on sealskins within a house of turf, transported to dark, cold winter days when families quietly shared stories and myths of why things go wrong or right. A tiny museum with finely crafted carvings and artifacts added more to our understanding.
Some ventured skyward in search of the source of ice and stood upon the frozen river. Others followed a valley towards the island’s heart reading the signs of glacial retreat along the way. The watery highway was chosen by many to silently explore the harbor’s edges in kayaks of modern day.
As if to signal that it was time to go, a furious rumble echoed through the air. All in town, visitors and locals alike ran towards the sea knowing the source of the sound could only be the mammoth iceberg sitting there. In slow motion it crumbled and tumbled casting a myriad of progeny across the bay. We too then waved goodbye and sailed away.
