Take a heart-racing cruise around wild Greenland

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HX Expeditions’ ship MS Fridtjof Nansen can move at a fair rate of knots (15, to be precise) but, even though we’d been powering along Greenland’s west coast for 40 hours since leaving capital Nuuk, there had been few signs of human habitation.

The largest island in the world is a truly wild place. Mountains, however, were in abundance and, when we approached the town of Ilulissat so too were icebergs. These floating giants had been borne by the Ilulissat Icefjord which produces three per cent of the world’s icebergs.

It was amid the ice that we embarked on a Tide to Table boat excursion with award-winning local chef Inunnguaq Hegelund, who has created a variety of Greenland-inspired dishes for HX Expeditions.

Humpback Whale & Iceberg in Disko BayDennis – stock.adobe.comAmong the icebergs we bought dinner from a fisherman hauling in his catch, then we paid a visit to an Ilulissat resident. Our host lives in a typical wood-clad home which belies its warm and spacious interior. Emily (who was among the last generation to be given Western names before Greenland began restoring its traditions and culture) produced a generous range of dishes including dried fish, reindeer patties and narwhal skin. We learned about the tradition of “kaffemik”, where people gather at someone’s home for special occasions. Later that day Emily was expecting to welcome over 200 people for a kaffemik celebrating her grandson’s school graduation.

At the town’s edge I followed a boardwalk behind the informative Icefjord Centre. Less than half a mile into the walk I watched the constant flow of icebergs as they calved from the 65km-long Jakobshavn Glacier, which itself is fed by the 1.7 million sq km Greenland ice sheet. Here the only sound was the trickle of ice flowing through the water, punctuated by loud booms as pieces cracked or broke off.

That evening Inunnguaq treated us to his exceptional cooking skills, using today’s catch to conjure dishes such as halibut tartare and breaded cod fillet, all presented in a way that would impress the finest of diners. Later in the cruise he displayed his local ingredients prowess once again, a popular dining option among the 490 passengers. There was scallop and snow crab, and beef from the only cattle farmer in Greenland. Such is the menu to be found on land and beneath sea.

In warmer months Greenland is a vibrant place of blue sky, green moss and pretty wildflowers. In the 24-hour darkness of winter the colourful houses must help lift the spirits (the colours once denoted a building’s function: red for churches and schools, blue for anything fishing, green for technology, yellow for hospitals).

Uummannaq must surely be one of the world’s most scenic towns. It sits on an island of the same name beneath a twin-peaked mountain that sharply soars 1,170 metres into the frigid air. All around are snow-capped ranges and glimpses of ice sheets and here, too, icebergs occasionally float by.

The town of Uummannaq HX Expeditions organised a hike to the mountain’s base. We were accompanied by two of the expedition team, one of whom carried a firearm just in case a polar bear makes a rare visit (and one did, a few days later). About an hour into the hike we reached Santa’s House, a squat wood building erected in the 1980s by a Danish TV crew filming a series about Christmas elves. No sign of Santa, but plenty of other delights all around: the myriad colours of the rocks; an Inuit cairn built on a small island; gazing at the mountain’s immensity. Uummannaq is replete with places to visit, including turf houses that were occupied until 1989, and a museum filled with exhibits on exploration and Inuit history.

At Salliaruseq Island I had two opportunities: walking to a viewpoint from where the ship looked tiny among the icebergs, and a “polar plunge” in the 6C sea. Both options proved exhilarating in very different ways. Part of the joy of these wild excursions were the righteous indulgences aboard Fridtjof Nansen that followed, such as a sauna with large windows framing dramatic scenery, or restaurants serving wide-ranging menus, or my suite and its pale-wood-and-dark-metal Scandi design.

So far we’d been blessed with blue skies, but at Vaigat Sound clouds descended, creating a gloomy atmosphere. Zodiacs ferried us from ship to shore. On the other side of a muddy isthmus, a whale skeleton added to the ambience. Chef Inunnguaq accompanied me, pointing out the herbs and flowers he forages as well as the tracks of reindeer, which he occasionally hunts.

View of the frozen sea in the Uummannaq Fjord system and Salliaruseq IslandAFP/GettyChampion of Inuit rights Aleq Peary joined the cruise as cultural ambassador. An Inuit himself, he convincingly defends his people’s right to hunt. “Without seals or seaweed we as a people would not exist,” he says. “If we could be farmers we would farm, but up here we have to hunt.”

Because of the distance from Nuuk, which itself only has a population of 20,000 people, Greenland’s small communities must be self-reliant. Hunters even more so. They may be on or near the ice sheet for many days at a time. “As a hunter you have to be many things: a carpenter, vet, butcher, weatherman, mechanic,” Aleq explains. “I told my uncle when I was younger it would have been easier for me to become a doctor than a hunter.”

There’s no high streets in Greenland, no outdoor spaces in which communities gather, but in Qeqertarsuaq I watched as the town’s small population came together to celebrate Greenland Day (June 21) with a seal hunt. During an 8km walk to giant basalt cliffs I saw hunters race below on speedboats, returning to the town beach with their catch shortly after. The winner later spent time chatting with me and showed off his prize rifle.

That experience illustrates the juxtapositions on this expedition cruise: the warm atmosphere in small communities and the hostile wilderness all around. This is an unpredictable place; cruise itineraries often must adapt to conditions such as excessively icy seas. But on the last day we managed to sail into a fjord where the Eqi Glacier spills between snowy mountains.

This turned out to be a delightful end to a very special journey. Here we kayaked between iceberg chunks, paddling close enough to the glacier to see dark blue ancient ice. Kittiwakes squawked overhead, guillemots bobbed confusedly; we were in an Arctic wonderland. I departed this fjord-riven mountainous place knowing that it must not only be protected and respected by people like Aleq and Inunnguaq, but by us all.

Grand Greenland — The Icy Giants of Disko Bay, from £7,341 (excluding international flights, all-inclusive when on the ship); travelhx.com