DISKO BAY CRUISE

Ilulissat lives to the rhythm of its port, with fishing and tourist boats winding their way between the ice. While flying over the Sermeq Kujalleq glacier gives you a unique view of the break-up zone where the icebergs calve to accumulate in the 60-kilometre fjord, cruising from Ilulissat to the mouth of the bay gives you a closer look. Such gigantism, different shapes, dazzling white and luminous blue, fascinate and frighten at the first cracking sounds that lead us to imagine the worst. The most common sight is to see huge blocks detach themselves from the most vertical parts, falling with a huge crash and creating huge waves. But the balance is precarious, and the break may be deeper. An unbalanced iceberg can easily change its center of gravity and waterline. The black spots on the ice are actually parts of the iceberg that have scraped the bottom of the fjord and, due to the movement, found themselves in the open air. If there are straight lines characteristic of the breaks, there are also rounded shapes, changes in texture, a few arches, cavities... all this is the play of water currents around the icebergs, snowfall that has inserted itself into the crevasses over time, and different types of more or less compressed ice. Nature's creativity seems limitless. When the sun pretends to set, the horizon blazes and a spectacle of astonishing colors transforms the cruise. Blues, yellows and pinks emerge depending on the composition of the iceberg: more or less old snow, highly compressed ice, ice that has been in the water... Its position in the glacier and the way it has been subjected to pressure, then its life as an iceberg, naturally create this phenomenon, which seems unreal. The cold is intense as the hours pass on the water, but the magic of the icebergs keeps all tourists on deck, listening to what the Inuit call "the song of the icebergs". Several tour operators, including Albatros Arctic Circle, World of Greenland, Arctic Friend and Ilulissat Adventure, offer day cruises as well as midnight cruises (from 9:30 p.m.), when the colors become incredible with the flamboyant reflections of the setting sun on the gigantic icebergs... all while enjoying a good drink on board! Not to be missed.