Day 4 Ilumanaq Settlement boat trip, tour and gourmet lunch

Ilamanaq is a small settlement of 46 people. It has as many Huskies as people and sits on the opposite side of the Icefjord to Ilulissat

Two types of work At the settlement fishing and tourism

Local church has a helipad just behind it in case the settlement is cut of in the winter, apparently this is not unusual

There is a school in Ilimanaq and it goes up to 8th grade – they have 6 pupils

The settlement graveyard has lots of white crosses many unnamed. They normally dig graves in the summer for the winter as during winter ground is too hard

This image is pretty much the whole settlement looking back from the graveyard, the Icefjord is in the background

The boat trip from Ilulissat to Ilimanaq takes about 40 minutes depending on how thick the ice is and how many icebergs are in the way. The journey skirts the edge of the ice and as you approach an iceberg the boat slows then speeds up. Just fascinating how the locals navigate the ice as there is never one route that repeats itself.

Lunch was in the old mission house now an upmarket restaurant – quite bizarre. I had a Greenlandic platter, smoked lamb, prawns in mayo, fish cakes, smoked halibut and a musk ox pate. All quite 😋.

I was due to do a kayaking trip in the evening but unfortunately due to choppy sea it was cancelled. Probably just as well as I heard that in an earlier group 2 kayaks capsized.

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