As Steven and I walked down to the boat in the western Greenland town of Ilulissat for our 2.5-hour nighttime iceberg tour, we spotted plenty of kayaks belonging to patrons of Ilulissat's Kayak Club.
After seeing icebergs up close and personal by the gazillion the last few days, Steven and I needed our heads examined about why we'd thought it was a brilliant idea to sign up for a "Sailing Tour" leaving at 9:30pm to look at still more icebergs!
Aasiaat and Ilulissat were the only towns we'd visited in Greenland that had the brightly decorated smokestacks. Wish that towns in other countries did that, too.
Even though we'd already been gobsmacked by icebergs galore as we traveled up Greenland's West Coast, I was still utterly astounded by the blue-tinged ones. Thomas mentioned that the blue ice was caused by sand in the glaciers.
This was the first of several times we observed kayakers that night. It was scary seeing them later, when they were so close to mammoth icebergs, where the risk of a vast chunk falling off or calving posed a serious threat to kayakers. We'd first been made aware of the issue while touring a fjord in southern Iceland earlier on the trip, when kayakers were also present.
I can imagine, however, the thrill the kayakers must have felt being out on the vast open sea late at night, with nary a sound.
Another company's tour boat was also taking its passengers out to see the beauty of the sea at night.
Not land, but a filthy iceberg caused by the sand the iceberg had come into contact with.
It was chilly being outside on the boat for almost three hours at night, but hot chocolate and the never-ending spectacular vistas warmed us up.
Thomas told us that whales often feed near icebergs, especially in the gaps between them.
A few minutes later, we happened on a baby seal. It was the first time Thomas remembered seeing one there, reasonably close to the city. Usually, baby seals are killed when they're in close proximity to the city.
Our boat stayed close by the seal for what seemed like a good twenty minutes, so everyone could take photos. At no point did our presence appear to unnerve the seal, although I don't know what that might have looked like.
When we came across these kayakers so close to another immense iceberg, Thomas shook his head in disgust at the "lots of stupid people taking chances." He mentioned the rule of thirds, one of the Golden Rules for kayaking near icebergs, which meant staying at least three times the iceberg's height away.
I don't recall ever seeing holes in icebergs before our tour in Ilulissat. They were from rivers or small lakes that formed in the main glacier during the summertime. Thomas informed us that when the ice freezes, the holes still remain.
Ten to twelve thousand humpback whales make their way from the Caribbean to Greenland. Thomas thought that there were likely two or three (I can't remember if he meant two or three thousand) in this area. One out of every 50 whales seen in Greenland is a 75-ft.-long fin whale that can weigh up to 50 tons each!
As we followed our sister Albatross boat, Thomas mentioned that 7km of ice blocked the entrance to the fjord! He reassured us that there was no danger in having the boats plough through the ice, as they were also used in the winter. Like the small ferries we'd used up the coast once we left Aasiaat, the tour boats were therefore accustomed to the icy conditions.
Remember when you've had to follow a Lead Vehicle in a long line of single-lane traffic as construction took place? That was precisely what it felt like following this boat through the powerful current and in between the enormous chunks of ice.
I wish I had the sound effects of our trip through these chunks of ice, which sounded like they were about to tear a hole in the bottom of our boat, regardless of what Thomas had said earlier! It was thrilling and scary, all at once.
Thomas told us again that the dirt was caused by a sandstorm on the glacier as it crashed down the mountain.
Some samples of ice Thomas had retrieved with a net:
The spire-like iceberg on the left reminded me of what one of NASA's space shuttles looks like before taking off from the launch pad in Florida!
A fishing trawler:
After finally getting through the bergy bits, the water was totally calm.
What does this image remind YOU of? I thought of a dinosaur's spiny back and of a monster's mouth with its jagged teeth!
We felt pretty privileged to view the "teeth," as Thomas said, they weren't there when he had led another tour two nights previously. He said, "That a day at the office up here (meaning in Greenland and not home further south in Denmark) changes daily." How amazing to think nature changes at such a rapid pace.
As we live in the Rocky Mountains, these icebergs immediately made us think of the rocky crags in our adopted state of Colorado.
Some Greenland ice facts: The Greenland Ice Sheet covers a staggering 1.9 million acres, according to Thomas. The height of the ice sheet at the center is 3.2 km, equivalent to almost two miles! The ice sheet is so immense that there is a 70m x 70m x 70m block of ice for each person in the world! Scientists are concerned that the world's oceans will rise by 7m or almost 23 feet if the ice sheet melts.
80% of Greenland is covered by ice. The remaining 20% is equal to the size of Norway. Six thousand years ago, Greenland was totally surrounded by ice, but Thomas said that it was ice-free 2.3 million years ago. Even though 65% of the country's icebergs are over 2km or 1.25 miles in height, 90% of all icebergs are underwater.
I hadn't realized there are tens of thousands of glaciers in Greenland, and that they move at a rate of 40m or 121 ft per day. Also, news to me was that 70 million tons of water are produced daily. Not surprisingly, given the evidence of climate change worldwide, Greenland's Ice Sheet hanging on the sea floor was larger 20 years ago. Climate change is no stranger to Greenland, as glaciers have receded significantly.
When I asked Thomas why some of the icebergs were rounded, he said they had just flipped over and that it had been approximately one year since the icebergs had broken off from the glacier.
It has been estimated that Greenland's glaciers are up to 250,000 years old!
Even with the dire warnings about climate change, Thomas said that this area of Greenland was very rich for animals, including fish and birds. When local fishermen fish for halibut by dropping 700-1km-long lines, they can catch up to a half ton of fish per night! Of the estimated ten to twelve thousand sled dogs in Greenland, three thousand are in the Ilulissat region. However, there are no reindeer because they don't like to pass the glacier.
Because of climate change, the sea ice is thinning. In winter nowadays, the fishing boats, built in Denmark's Faroe Islands, can be out all winter long. Fishing and tour boats are the same style. Speaking of tourists, Thomas mentioned that of the 50,000 visitors to Greenland (or did he mean Ilulissat only?) per year,15,000 come from nearby Iceland, and most of the rest come from throughout Europe. It sounded like there were only a few from North America, and "none" from Asia.
There were 85 cruise ships in 2024, compared to only 60 by early August 2025 in Ilulissat. The reason was that the town's mayor complained to the cruise lines that more local people should be hired, and there were significant protests against the cruise ships. However, Thomas believed there wasn't enough infrastructure to train locals to work for the cruise lines.
Having learned enough about the centuries of mistreatment of the Greenlandic Inuit by the colonizing Danes while traveling in Greenland over the last couple of weeks, I thought Thomas was more than a tad biased when he spoke frankly about relations between his native Denmark and Greenland. He stated that 8 billion Danish kroner, or USD1,232,001, is spent annually on Greenland. The country "couldn't survive without that financial support. So many young Greenlandic people are leaving their homeland to live elsewhere."
We had an interesting discussion about why Greenland's indigenous people fail to succeed in high-paying jobs at home, at least in his mind. Thomas felt there were too few educational opportunities locally for them. They "always" have to move to attend school, but they don't speak Danish well enough to succeed in Denmark. I understood where he was coming from, since we knew there were only four high schools in the entire country and one university in the capital, Nuuk. I certainly don't know of a solution, but I found Thomas' attitude too paternalistic for my comfort.
I'm relieved to say that, despite our misgivings about spending a chunk of money to see even more icebergs that night, the tour was great fun and immensely interesting. Like our sled dog owner the night before, Thomas had a wealth of knowledge about his subject area, and he was a fascinating guide.
I've discussed the color-coding system in effect in Greenland for hospitals, government offices, police stations, schools, churches, etc. Typically, (i.e., almost always!) hospitals are yellow throughout Greenland. I think that was why, on our return to shore, Thomas pointed out the unusual colors of Ilulissat's hospital. A Danish architect built it and painted it all red. His only deference or nod to tradition was the yellow-painted balcony!
Nighttime revelers at 12:30 am as we walked back to our hotel!
Next post: Illulissat's magnificent UNESCO World Heritage Site Icefjord.
Posted on November 5th, 2025, from our Denver home, where some Coloradans are even wearing shorts and t-shirts during our fall's unseasonably hot stretch! As if the marvelous weather wasn't exciting enough, last night's national political news was extremely positive at last for many Americans. Please take care of yourself and your loved ones.
Everything I ever knew about icebergs I learned from this post.
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