My Air Greenland flight from Nuuk to Kulusuk was delayed by 3 hours due to terrible weather once again in the capital. I love how on these internal Greenland flights there is no allocated seating 🙂
We eventually took off, and I headed to my third destination on this enormous island – East Greenland.
I was originally meant to immediately get a boat transfer across to Tasiilaq, but there was still a lot of pack-ice and the company I had booked through recommended that I switch to a helicopter transfer instead (surprisingly it was only twice as expensive). However, there were no flights available after I landed, and none the next day either.
So I had 2 days in Kulusuk, and was the only person staying at the incredible Kulusuk Hostel. This is yet another awesome hostel, that is extremely well equipped and has an amazing view out the living room window or from the front porch, including Greenland sled dogs!
It is run by the company Icelandic Mountain Guides – the same company through which I’m doing the 12-day Unplugged Wilderness Trek – and it turns out that the hostel is mostly used for trekking groups rather than individual travelers. I’m so glad they let me stay!
Kulusuk itself is very small (only about 250 people) but very picturesque. In fact, the tiny part of East Greenland that I’ve seen so far indicates that the scenery in East Greenland is going to be a lot more dramatic than what I saw in South Greenland and Nuuk.
Hiking from Kulusuk to Isikajia
On my one full day in Kulusuk, I decided to hike out to the viewpoint at Isikajia on the other side of the island.
The lovely Jóhanna (who looks after the hostel during summer) suggested that I cut across country rather than follow the road for the first part, but in the end, I decided not to. I did, however, take an off-road shortcut across a short section a little further along. Thanks Jóhanna, but I’m glad I didn’t take your original advice – it was incredibly damp and boggy and I had to backtrack several times, and still my feet ended up wet! 😉
The hike is not difficult at all – you simply follow the road around behind the airport and up over the centre of the island.
It was pretty, but not spectacular, unless you looked behind you back towards Kulusuk and the fjord and mountains beyond.
Just at the point where I thought the views might get spectacular in the direction I was walking, I ran into low cloud.
I persevered for a little further until I got over the next saddle point – and it did look like it would have been amazing if I could have seen the surroundings.
But, alas, it wasn’t to be. Having studied the movement of the fog for the previous 1.5 hours, I doubted that it was going to clear, and so rather than continuing on to the end of the road and the “viewpoint” (which was well and truly in the fog), I returned to the hostel – getting buzzed by the helicopter shuttles going between Kulusuk and Tasiilaq along the way.
I went for a bit of a wander around town. It really is a stunning place
with Greenland sled dogs chained up absolutely everywhere waiting for the winter to arrive.
I loved listening to their chorus of an evening
and the ever-so-cute sled-dog puppies were a bonus 😊
I’d read some pretty meh reviews about Kulusuk – but I thought it was beautiful and really enjoyed my time there chatting with Jóhanna and hanging out in the hostel.
Discover more about Greenland
If this post has piqued your curiosity about Greenland, learn more about this amazing country at Visit Greenland, and check out the wide range of tours and accommodation available at Guide to Greenland.
