Greenland 2018 - colours of the land

The beauty of Greenland is sometimes hard to capture due to the sheer scale of some of nature's ice sculptures. We spent two days dog-sledding across the icecap. Two teams of dogs and an overnight stay in a hunters' cabin. The cabin represents the limit allowed for snowmobiles to travel as they are not allowed to enter the UNESCO site beyond. For the fisherman to fish out on the sea-ice, they must then take their own dog teams.

The fishermen lay out 1km of line under the ice, with multiple hooks leading from the main line. The huge fish they catch are hauled ashore, loaded on to the dog sleds for carriage back to the camps around the hunters' cabin and from their they are hauled back to Ilulissat in large plastic containers via snowmobile.

This system protects the UNESCO site and also keeps the art of dog sledding alive for purposeful reasons and not just the very few tourists that get this far.

And is it cruel to the dogs? Everything we saw screams the opposite. The dogs' excitement the instant they know the day's work is about to begin, their enthusiasm as they run for miles, their howling anguish if it's their day off! And if a tether breaks and the dog is separated from the sled, he just trots back to the camp, goes exactly to his bed spot and waits patiently. And all of the dogs are extremely well fed, not least because they are an essential part of the men's livelihood. This to me was a fascinating symbiotic relationship between man and dog and we loved every minute of our journey.

Ilulissat, Disko Bay

Not everything always goes to plan. Whilst stopping briefly to check on something, my team decided to make a break for it, without the musher but with me still on board (taking photographs - OK so the camera settings weren't right but needs must when the dogs drive!). The dogs ran out of control down the mountain, without the usual safety brake the musher would have used and the dogs could barely keep ahead of the plummeting sled. Tangled in the tracers, falling and tripping, they stopped very sheepishly at the bottom of the hill and awaited for the panting musher as he chased after us.

Out of control!

Normal service resumed

The eyes have it

An ice hole bored by a fisherman. The small cable roll pays out about 1km of line with baited hooks.

Impervious to the cold, the huskies will sit and sleep out in all weathers.

Home from home.

Heading to work.

Loading the cuts of fish into the plastic containers (pre-frozen by Mother Nature), for hauling out by snowmobile.

Waiting for the day's work to begin.

Not happy to have a day off and get left behind. He howled for ages.

They're off! Massive excitement as the team begins their first run of the day.

Ilulissat, Disko Bay

Aerial scenes

Icebergs the size of small villages cluster the surrounding bays. We asked our pilot to fly lower given the weather and the freedom of empty airspace. He replied that the lowest he was allowed to fly was 750ft. This seemed quite high under the circumstances, until he explained that, when these massive icebergs melt from the top and become unstable, they flip over. At some point during the flip, the berg is raised out of the water so far that it could easily bring down a passing aeroplane!