East Greenland

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By Mark Stratton

MAY 16, 2024

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East Greenland destination overview

Scoresby Sund is a bewitching place. Frosted high mountains rising 2000 metres cradle a fjord system that is the largest on earth, covering 38,000 kilometres square. Everything feels immense. Amid deep fjords hewn from millions of years of glaciation, shimmering glaciers reach down to the sea and icebergs the size of small office blocks, drift by. It’s rich in wildlife, look out for the blow of whales and herds of musk ox, and with luck, a polar bear. The remote Inuit villagers of Ittoqqortoormiit who are frozen in for most of the year call this breath-taking place Kangertittivaq.

If you have never heard of this immense fjord system on the East Greenland coast, that’s because relatively few ships, compared to the western coast, make voyages to explore it. It’s a wild coast that is lightly populated. Figures suggest just 3,000 people live along the entire eastern coastline – out of a national population of 56,000. Scoresby Sund itself lies at 70º latitude yet beyond it remains thousands of kilometres of craggy coastline frozen by pack ice to the north - all the way up to the most northerly point of high Arctic Greenland, into the realm of the prosaically named North East Greenland National Park. This protected area’s 972,000 kilometre square expanse, which is roughly the size of Nigeria, is the largest national park on earth.

My first exposure to wild East Greenland was twenty years ago when I was staying in the coastline’s largest settlement, Tasiilaq, in the southeast region known as Ammassalik, home to the Tunumiit Inuit culture. Two Danish fishermen took me north on their small boat, where they planned to fish for Arctic char. It was May and cold. And with little warning a fierce onshore wind locked the fractured sea ice shut and we were trapped to spend a night on the floe under a chilly full moon. Next morning, the wind changed direction and it magically unlocked, and no harm was done, although I missed my flight back to Iceland. This coast is beholden to nature’s elements, so travellers to it should expect the unexpected.

Rest assured these days there is no need to float on the icefloe to experience East Greenland’s wild side because a number of comfortable expedition cruise ships capture its pioneering spirit of adventure. Some vessels enter from Iceland, crossing the Denmark Strait, then sail north towards Scoresby Sound via the dark-walled sea-cliffs of the Blosseville Coast. Other options include longer and wonderful explorations crossing the Greenland Sea from the east after a tour of Svalbard. A few vessels venture further north beyond the mighty King Oscar Fjord towards the high-latitude national park, where ships will travel through pack ice and hikers can experience pristine wilderness on foot. If you are planning to visit, don’t forget a major solar eclipse on this coastline in August 2026.