A water tour to Qoornoq island

Sunday, 05-May-2024

I had originally booked two tours when I was settling into my trip planning for Greenland. I’d found a good looking tour company, and picked out both a water-based tour, and a hike from the city.

That water tour into the Fjords had been delayed, but Sunday morning bloomed brightly and I was sufficiently recovered from the Sunrise hike the day before to be pulling at the reins to go on another adventure. I had my breakfast at the Airbnb, packed up my bags, and sallied forth to the harbor.

The tour was simple and glorious – There were only five of us, comfortably stuffed into a small (yet capable) little water taxi. We headed North through the Fjord for nearly an 90min, surrounded by soaring cliffs that put the Columbia River Gorge to shame (though not by as much as one might expect, truth be told). I did well with the rocking of the boat, much to my appreciation – I was allowed to sit up front with the captain, and so had an amazing view of the full horizon to help keep my ears level and my stomach settled. I took a few pictures, but frankly very few of them came out well… At least, until we reached the island itself.

Qoornoq is an abandoned settlement, previously focused on drying fish caught by local fishing ships. However, the Danish government (who oversees Greenland) focused on consolidating settlements in the 1970s, and so the last fulltime resident left in 1972 – in theory, this was to streamline education and healthcare, though I got to hear a bit about how the native Greenlanders (unsuprisingly) aren’t universally in favor of this program.

Anyways, the houses still stand, vibrant in their colors against the white glacier, and are used as summer homes by descendants of the original residents. We went ashore, explored around a bit, and I even got the opportunity to fly my drone around a bit! We saw the church, the abandoned fishery, and even a small railway that had been used to help move the sheer amount of fish that was processed here back in the heyday.

It was… bleak? A bit strange – Qoornoq wasn’t actually that far from Nuuk, all things considered, and could easily have been reached by helicopter in a medical emergency. It didn’t seem any more remote than any settlements in Alaska that I’ve heard of, or small island homes up in New Hampshire or upstate New York, but… I understand that these are completely different social ecosystems. Nuuk itself has ~19,000 residents, with Greenland only having approx. 50,000 in total… and so perhaps the idea of having dedicated emergency medical transport is a bit harder to come by with a smaller population?

Regardless, the tour was absolutely worth the time and price. We visited a frozen waterfall and iceberg on the way back, had some lovely chocolate biscuits, and I didn’t even get too woozy by the time I stepper back onto the solid land of Nuuk.