Nuuk; Sunday, 24 May, 2026

Another decent night’s sleep and quick breakfast and down to Tide Water Steps for today’s two tours with once again a long tour starting in the morning, followed by a shorter tour in the late afternoon. The morning tour was off into the Fjords again, this time to the Nuup Qinngua, but better known on the tourist literature as the Icefjord.

After leaving Nuuk we headed into the Fjords, briefly pausing at the Sermitsiaq Waterfall which is the run-off from an ice sheet that used to cover the whole of the mountain come island of the same name, but is quite quickly melting, leading to a big cascade falling down over the now exposed rock.

From the waterfall it was about another 30 minutes up the fjord to reach the next sail past spot – the abandoned village of Qoornoq. The village had been an important fishing village with two large processing factories built on the end of the island providing lots of employment, but in the 1970s the fish moved further down the fjord towards Nuuk and with nothing left to pull from the sea the village was quickly abandoned. The factory has fallen into disrepair, but the houses have been turned into holiday homes and summer cottages so are kept in very good condition, not quite what you’d expect from an abandoned village.

After Qoornoq it was then about another 30 minutes sail to reach the highlight of the tour the Nuup Qinngua AKA Icefjord. The Fjord is located at the foot of several glaciers which regularly have icebergs carve from them. During the winter months the fjord freezes solid trapping ice and icebergs together, but when the warmer weather thaws the sea ice it releases the icebergs. The smaller ones melt away but the bigger ones start to travel down the fjord system, past Nuuk and out into the ocean. As the thaw had only recently happened most of the icebergs were still located deep within the fjord, so we had to travel a bit of a way down the fjord to find them, but when we did, they were spectacular.

We spent quite a long time just floating between the icebergs, including stopping to pick up a small chunk of ice which the captain then chopped pieces off of to go into a small tot of whisky for all the tourists – the captain and guide sticking to water. After our time with the begs we started the return journey back towards Nuuk, using some of the other channels of the fjords to get back, including stopping at a large mountain that has been completely taken over by seabirds with every single flat surface home to a nest.

With all the stops on the tour we were actually running a little late, which might have been a problem for my second tour which was due to depart just 30 minutes after this one was scheduled to end, but it turned out that Frederick – my guide on this tour, and the puffin tour the previous afternoon, was also scheduled to be my guide on the Fjord Adventure tour, so there wasn’t much for me to worry about, just the other people waiting back at Tide Water Steps wondering if their tour was going to be on time.

In the end we made it back with about 10 minutes to spare, which was just enough time to use the facilities on land before hopping back on a different boat to head back out into the fjords. The first part of the tour was a bit of a repeat as we sailed out to the Sermitsiaq Waterfall, but after that we headed into a different part of the fjord system, spending a bit of time in the achingly beautiful Itisoq bay before it was time to head back into Nuuk, which was a much bumpier journey back as the wind had picked up in the meantime, making for some choppy seas.

Back in Nuuk I went for a long wander along the coast, first heading down to the Southern tip of the town and then following the coastal path and then boardwalk all the way along the coast back to Old Nuuk.

From Old Nuuk I wandered into the centre of town to grab a quick bite to eat before heading back to the hotel for a now well-earned sleep.