Goodbye Greenland

The last photo is on arrival in Iceland.

At this point I summarise my thoughts about the country I've seen been visiting.

I'm really glad I visited Greenland - especially when I did. Seeing the autumn colours, the swift changes as winter arrives is really special. Being a lone tourist also has a lot of advantages - I was able to talk to locals, I got individual treatment, and I could change my plans easily. Of course, being here in the off season has meant that there is less choice, and that things were more likely to go wrong so plans needed to be changed. I was also the only tourist on several tours, which meant that one was cancelled while others weren't available. The ones that went ahead were very special. Everything I did was fantastic.

Greenland is a very special place. It has more potential to be overwhelmed with tourism than just about anywhere else - it has 58000 people, and last year Ilulissat (4000 people) had 60000 tourists, mainly in the three months of summer. Too many people come for the facilities - Ilulissat has no campgrounds, and no public toilets, yet people are staying in tents when they can't find accommodation! And the environment is very fragile - for instance, they built a board walk in 2004 to reduce wear, and the original path is still bare.

The Greenlanders have to work extremely hard. In Ilulissat they were desperately trying to install a new set of water pipes throughout the town before winter made it impossible. They were working day and night. There were enormous holes and ditches everywhere. They were also building several new big buildings (probably hotels). There is even supposed to be a new visitor centre (the only evidence was a concrete slab). This is as well as preparing their own lives for winter (including hunting). While museums may only open at noon at this time of the year, the supermarkets are open from 7am until 10pm in Ilulissat, and those that are still open elsewhere also have ridiculous hours.

Danes own everything and are in every management position that I saw. About one third of Greenlanders live in Denmark - many need to go there to complete their own education and then stay, but there are also a lot of unemployed Greenlanders in Denmark. The tour guides were mainly young Danes who told me that they had difficulty finding work in Denmark. There are critical shortages of skilled people - for instance, one Danish nurse had decided to take time from her job in Denmark, and had just finished a five week contract in Nuuk. She was going on holidays in Nepal, but was willing to come back and work for three weeks before she had to return to her job in Denmark.

Yes, it was cold in Greenland, but not as cold as I expected, and I didn't need everything I brought  - but I could have, and for the boat trip in the icebergs I really needed another jumper and a second pair of mittens (maybe three), but I thought that what I brought was overkill, and everyone else had less. Most of the time, I was dressed in the sorts of clothes I wear in Winter.

The tour was well put together, and I saw a great crosssection of Greenland. When problems occurred, they were fixed quickly and effectively. I was amazed at how good Greenland Tours was. Greenland is quite cheap. I tried to have an expensive dinner on my last night, but the most expensive meal I had was about $25.