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Since childhood, I always had a passion to travel to various
places within and outside India by covering all the continents.
I had finished covering five out of the seven continents when
last year an idea struck me: Why not cover Arctic first and then
Antarctic?
So, I took this adventure trip to the Arctic from Chennai. I
first flew to Copenhagen via Helsinki. The next morning, I took
Air Green Land where I landed at Kangerlussaq Airport (north
Greenland). The travel time between Copenhagen and Kangerlussaq
is 4 ½ hours. We have to fly over Iceland. The time difference
between Copenhagen and Greenland is four hours (minus). As most
of you are aware, Greenland is the largest island in the world.
Kangerlussaq is the only airport in north
Greenland (Arctic region) which can facilitate landing and
take-off of bigger aircraft like Airbus etc. This airport was
developed in 1960 by US Defence. The population of Kangerlussaq
is 400 and 50 per cent of them are employed by the airport
authorities. A 3-star hotel is attached to the Kangerlussaq
Airport called, Hotel Kangerlussaq. Greenland is the only Arctic
Island in the world. During World War-II, a
northern air route was desperately needed to ferry planes from
the US to Britain. Denmark was then occupied by Germany and the
Americans were responsible for the defence of Greenland. A
survey of Greenland found two locations suitable for an
airfield. The location selected was Stromfjord in September 1941
and work began with the code name Blue West Eight. In 1992, the
airport was handed over by the Americans to the Home Rule
Government. Technically Greenland is administered by Denmark.
Ice cap visit:
 From
the airport we took a specially designed vehicle to ice cap
which is around 40 km east of the airport; en route we saw a
herd of musk ox, reindeer, Arctic ranger, and also a few falcons
and ravens. There were also debris of an air crash which was
still not removed and kept for tourists to take back home some
pieces of aluminum. The last polar bear
sighted was reportedly killed by two American soldiers in
Kangerlussaq with the help of an iron rod in 1960 and after that
no polar bear has been sighted in Kangerlussaq.
According to the Greenland adventure tour operator, I am the
second Indian to explore Arctic Greenland on an exploration trip
to the eastern Ice Cap for about 2 km. And I am definitely the
first Chennaivasi to do so. From east of
Kangerlussaq, for a 500 km stretch, one can find ice and only
ice spread and covered - great ice-hills and ice valleys. Most
of my co-tourists asked whether I had come alone from India.
They were surprised to know that I had come alone. A Swede asked
me the same question twice.
This trip took roughly around eight hours,
including the trekking. Nature and
universal ritual
 The
Arctic is roughly around 2.2 million sq km, out of which only
5,00,000 km is without ice cap. The ice cap was formed millions
of years ago and the depth is about 3,500 mtrs. In the same
belt, around 2.4 million years ago, there were forest zones.
Because of which now people are exploring for black gold (crude
oil) and some mineral deposits. In the ice one
can find ponds, lakes and rivers too. Huge ranges of ice fjords
can move up to 40 mtrs per day. When air escapes from ice
fjords, you get a thunderous sound followed by pushing and
falling of icebergs into the sea. Titanic was hit by and iceberg
produced from Sermermiut (which means Southern Ice Cap in
Greenlander’s language). During June-August,
tourists throng the place to see the ice cap melting, and only
during this season you can see some shrubs and plants growing
for a very short time. Our guide told us, “Now you can see a
forest of Greenland,” and then showed us a small patch of shrubs
wherein you can find some grass cotton flowers, Arctic blue
herbal flowers, Niviarsiaq - a beautiful purple flower (which in
Greenlandic language means young unmarried maiden).
 These
fauna and flora can be seen only during summer. There are no
trees in Greenland.
The seagulls are almost double the size of
the Australian ones and this is due to the abundant availability
of fish and sea food. During summer, the sun never sets, which
is why it is called the ‘Land of the Midnight Sun’ and in the
winter, it is the other way round, where you cannot see the sun.
One can find 320 degrees of light in the spectrum of the horizon
in Arctic Greenland. When wind blows, the
iceberg’s profile and contour change drastically, and likewise,
when the lighting changes, the colour of the iceberg and ice
fjords change. In Illulisat, the ice fjords produce 20 million
tonnes of ice every day and push the same into the Atlantic
Ocean in various sizes of icebergs and particles, which is the
water consumption of one year of New York City.
The Arctic has 10 per cent of the world’s fresh water stock. An
iceberg which was pushed from Illulisat ice fjord into the
Atlantic Ocean was the one that hit Titanic.
 In
general, the Arctic is a place of God-made beauty and you cannot
find such a beautiful place in any part of the world. Every
square inch of the Arctic land is so beautiful and is an
architecture fully made by the Almighty. If you were to visit
this place once in your lifetime, the memory will stay in your
mind forever. You can also experience pin-drop silence in most
parts of the Arctic, in which silence one can experience a
pleasant sound which relaxes your body, mind and soul.
During winter, which is from November 1 to January 13, you will
not see daylight here. After a dark winter, the first and fresh
sun is witnessed by locals on January 13. Surprising, isn’t it?
On January 13, the Illulisat people go to the mountains to have
the first glimpse of new sun every year and on January 14, the
sun can be seen in the plains. We, Indians
celebrate Bhogi on the same day, and on 14th Jan we celebrate
Pongal/Sankranti and pray to the Sun God. And the Egyptians too
revered the same Sun God: They did not even cover their temples
with roofs in order to invite the Sun God into their temples.
This is a clear example that Vedic life originated from the
Arctic along with the food cycle. According to
Vedic life, the origin of living being has evolved and
originated from the Arctic and from where the entire world
spread, with all kinds of living beings, including human beings.
Hence, the first food chain was formed in the Arctic.
In the Arctic, the low temperature is not really intense and
harmful as it is suppose to be when you go by the reading of the
temperature. For eg., in Copenhagen, 2 degrees Celsius is more
intense than minus 25 degrees of the Arctic; this is due to the
moisture content in the air in Copenhagen. In the Arctic, the
air is dry and hence it is not harsh though the temperature is
minus 25 degrees.
 So,
if we travel to the Arctic, it is not as scary (the cold) as we
might assume. If we carry some good thermal wear, it is
sufficient to go and enjoy the beauty of the Arctic northern
Greenland. Why I stress on northern Greenland is because the
Arctic Circle is in northern Greenland and not southern
Greenland such as Nuuk, the capital of Greenland, and other
places. The highest population in Greenland is in Nuuk, which is
17,000. The third highest population is in Illulisat.
Illulisat: The next morning, we took a Dash 7 aircraft of
Air Green Land and landed in Illulisat which is further north of
Greenland, after 1½ hours of travel. Illulisat means iceberg in
Greenlander’s language. Illulisat is the third largest town in
Greenland the port in Illulisat is called Jakobshaven (in
Greenlandic ‘haven’ means ‘port’). This port
was found in1741. A Zion church was constructed during 1779 in
Illulisat. Here the population is around 4,500, of which 1,000
people work for the shrimp and fish processing plant at the Port
of Illulisat. Fishing is the only major economic work in
Illulisat. Everyday a fisherman is assured of 500 kg catch for
which the government pays 6 Danish Kroner per kg. The fish is
then sold at Denmark @ 110 Kroner per kg. Denmark gives 3
billion Kroner per year to Greenland to meet the deficit budget
of this country.
 The Government of Greenland
and Denmark is ready to offer free of cost huge fishing trawlers
to the locals, but the locals refrain from taking such grants
fearing some riders which means they need to work extra hours,
which they don’t desire to do so. Greenland is planning to open
a university in Nuuk or Kangerlussaq, As of now, they don’t have
any colleges or institutions to educate engineering graduates,
or heath education. Most doctors and engineers travel from
Denmark to Greenland to carry out their vocation mostly on a
part-time basis. One cannot find a thief in Illulisat, the
reason is he/she will be caught before they can escape.
Sermermiut: You can find an abandoned
settlement in this place called Sermermut. This settlement is
around 4,000 years old. Close to this place you have a place
called Bitches Gorge. In this place, the older generation would
go and commit suicide to pave way for the availability of food
for the younger generation. This shows that they had shortage of
food (Bitches Gorge is a 100 per cent translation from Danish
language.)
 In
2004, Sermermiut was identified as a world heritage location by
UNESCO. Here the houses were built with rock and the main
structure used for stability is the whale’s spine. Whale skin
was used to for the roof to prevent rainwater from entering the
house and also to act as a good insulation, and thus avoiding
atmospheric temperature inside the house. The entrance to the
house has a drift below, which is designed in such a way as to
prevent cold air from coming in. Seeing the intelligence of the
people of olden days, suddenly a phrase popped up in my mind:
“When everything is there, man does nothing. When nothing is
there, man does everything.” Which is also a moral for our
younger generation.
 Disco Bay: This is
once again a lovely place and is a feast to the eyes. The
seawater in Illulisat (Disco Bay) is not frozen. In Ilullisat,
each and every iceberg and ice fjord changes colour according to
the lighting of the sun and the same iceberg looks different
during such changes. Here, the locals believe that the Sun
really does not melt the ice it is only the air which is trapped
in ice which is released and in the process a thunderous sound
comes and pushes the icebergs into the sea. An iceberg can be to
the size of up to 310 ft in height above the sea level and width
will be more than a few thousand feet.
Midnight sailing: Midnight sailing in-between the icebergs
in a boat cruise gives a unique play of colours, which one loves
to do again and again. During night sailing, the sun is still
active with good lumens which is a fantastic and unusual
experience. It will be too cold while sailing the temperature
goes down to minus 38 degrees Celsius.
Helicopter trip to the glaciers: Illulisat Glacier is the
most productive glacier in the northern hemisphere. It is 7 km
wide and moves at a pace of 3,000 millimeter per hour. Here it
is really a feast to your eyes to see such infinite amount of
ice. The pilot takes you in very low altitude to disturb the
thousands of birds below and it is really a spectacular view
from a birds eye view. Along the glacier’s edge, the helicopter
lands on the mountain for 30 minutes where one can enjoy the
fantastic scenery created by God.
 Food:
On specific arrangements, you can get Indian food in the Arctic
in some places. Otherwise, Greenlandic food is not edible, as
most of their food is either uncooked or partially cooked. They
eat raw sliced musk oxen meat, whale meat, reindeer meat, seal
meat. All these meats are red in colour.
Whales: Hunting for whales started by European whalers in
the 16th century. The introduction of bigger and stronger ships
made it possible to sail to Greenland and hunt for the whales.
Whale oil was used for lighting, lubrication and tanning
purposes. The whalers were interested in bow head whales. They
are a little slow moving and just one bow head whale will
provide 20–30 tonnes of oil. One can imagine what the tonnage of
meat will be. Now hunting this category of whale is banned. Only
a few categories of whales are allowed for hunting. Whale meat
is red in colour. Here the fishing harbour never stinks as badly
as in other places. This is due to the ambient temperature which
keeps the products fresh, and never lets them decay. The dead
ones are as fresh as green salad. Legal
system in Greenland:
 Greenland
is the only place in the world to legally permit whale hunting
and consumption by human beings. The legal system is very much
lenient as a murder convict gets only three years imprisonment.
The judge here is an unqualified person, the court is a small
room which is like a tea stall. The appeals court for any case
is in Nuuk where there is the Supreme Court of Greenland. If a
criminal is incorrigible even after such mild convictions,
he/she is sent to mainland (Denmark) for correctional treatment.
In general, Greenlanders are loving and friendly people and very
helpful. Apart from the above trips, you have
so many other adventure, pleasure, pilgrimage and relaxing trips
to the Arctic. The author can be contacted by email: pyromat@satyam.net.in
or by his phone: +91 44 24890009 or 24890710.
P Sridhar
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