After the boat trip from Ilulissat to Eqi Glacier Lodge, we gathered outside of Café Victor (more about this later in my blog) and available cabins were divided.

We had a lunch on the boat but I had skipped that completely because it was served when we were in front of the Eqip Sermia Glacier. Didn’t want to eat anything then. The glacier was way too interesting.

After I had installed myself at the cabin (more of the cabin in my next blog), I decided to go for an afternoon walk in the cabins vicinity.

The area around Eqi Glacier Lodge is ideal for long walks in a tundra landscape. Several walks started from the Café Victor and I decided to do the short but steep walk towards Lac des Canards. The trail I was following is the     – – – – marked line starting at the red Glacier Lodge Eqi cabins (just behind Café Victor) and going in a diagonal line towards Lac des Canards (see map above)…

The tundra landscape at Greenland’s edge is a fragile, beautiful landscape with delicate flowers that have only a short span of time to bloom and spread their pollen. All plants stay low because they don’t have time to grow trunks. Everything we humans leave behind stays there for decades or even centuries. I’m talking about polar expedition materials and machines, camping gear, plastic cups, toilet paper and even the occasional sanitary napkins or towels…(yes even those).

I left the Eqi Glacier Lodge behind me and enjoyed the view. The trail was contiuously ascending, sometimes crossing a small river. Somewhere during that climb I found this marvelously colored flat stone…..

And up the trail went…

This trail was used by famous french polar explorer Paul-Emile Victor, who used it to get from the coast at what is now known as Port Victor and used to unboard and board travellers, to the inland icecap. Near that icecap a second camp was made and lots of machinery was moved there. It can still be found there, slowly rusting away.

From up here, the views over the tundra in the direction of the Eqip Sermia glacier were magnificent…

The view beneath is towards the Glacier Lodge Eqi and beyond…

Near Lac des Canards were some stones where I sat down to start reading a good book about travel…

The mosquito nets were no luxury here but a necessity…

Small chunks of ice were floating towards open water…

A small bird was searching for mosquitoes…

Then I slowly returned towards the Glacier Lodge Eqi for a sturdy diner. On the pic below the larger wooden buiding to the right is Café Victor and from Café Victor the 2nd building towards left was my cabin…

A few days later I repeated this rather short walk up to Lac des Canards in the morning whereas in the early afternoon my boat would leave to bring me back into the civilized world, to Ilulissat. The views over the calving glacier were always spectacular from up here…

From up here I could see the wooden cabin that famous french polar explorer Paul-Emile Victor had used. I was now walking on the very trail that he created to reach the inland ice. From Port Victor it is relatively easy to get to the inland ice and from the lodge different 1 or multiple day hikes were organized that included some walking on the ice. But I had done that twice now and I was more curious to get close to the glacier…

The tundra is very beautiful in the sunlight and I saw the typical Greenlandic tundra vegetation again which I saw earlier when walking near the edge of the Kangia icefjord. E.g.: the purple Campanula rotundifolia or Harebell which grew and bloomed in abundance…

After a while I sat down and just started to enjoy the views over the water and the glacier…

I did spot some mushroom and small arctic birds…

Next stretch I decided to just walk tiny stretches and just sit on rocks, enjoying the views and hoping to see some wildlife like polar foxes or snow hares, but instead I had to be satisfied with some small arctic birdlife and views over the wonderful environment…

At last I was treated to a spectacular ice calving…

The boat would pick us up at about 14.00 o’clock in the afternoon and we were actually leaving at about 15.00 o’clock. But that is another story for another blog.