Wednesday 21 September 2022

Sisimiut

It rained all day, but it was a great day too! This morning I woke up looking at the coastline.



We got to Sisimiut at lunchtime. When I briefly visited Sisimiut on the ferry, I got the impression that it was very small, but it’s the second largest place in Greenland, and the largest in the Arctic circle. I managed to get on the first bus tour, so that I could also do other things. They took us to a lookout and the dog village. It was very cold and wet and windy, so I was glad at the end that we were docked so I could easily go back and get changed.




Although Sisimiut (like just about every North American Arctic settlement) was created by a European post and the Inuits moving to it and then being forcibly moved to it, there’s a UNESCO site here where four thousand years of Inuit occupation has been unearthed. It’s on a peninsula away from Sisimiut itself, and there’s a “trail” around the site that’s supposed to be four kilometres long. It has beautiful views of Sisimiut. Until I walked the trail I had wondered where all the extraordinarily  pretty pictures of the town had come from as I thought it bore no resemblance to the town I’d seen.



The archeological sites were well labelled, although most of them were difficult to distinguish.



Others were very visible.





As it was raining the entire time, I was a drowned rat by the time I returned. I’d spent a lot longer there than I anticipated, partly because it was difficult to find a reasonable trail that catered for short legs. After I got back we had an amazing kayak demonstration by the world champion kayak roller. He could even paddle his kayak while it was upside down! Pictures do no justice to his expertise.






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