Kulusuk to Talisaq on Ammassalik Island, East Greenland

 

The flight to East Greenland takes just less than two hours from Reykjavik in a twin-engined Dash 8.

Kulusuk airport is tiny – it was built by the American Air force back in the fifties and looked like it hadn’t changed much in the way of renovations since then – although, to be fair, the arrivals hall was being painted when we arrived. We had to wait 40 mins for the Greenland Air connection to Tasilaq to be ready – then a quick dash out onto the landing strip and into the chopper for the 15 minute flight across King Olaf Sound to Tasilaq. Nine passengers and a load of luggage.

It’s an impressive sight choppering across a massive fjord surrounded by high mountains dotted with ice and snow. In the winter the bay would be full of icebergs. Today it had only a few – although you could see far larger icebergs in the open sea a few kilometres off the coast.

The helicopter pulls right into the fjord and makes a lazy turn into Tasilaq airport, a tiny helipad to the south side of the town. With a population of 2100, this is the capital and largest settlement in East Greenland. It’s quite a sight.