Greenland. Day 1 (B): Davisstrædet.

The view of sea and mountain from the helicopter yesterday was awe-inspiring, breathtaking, other-worldly, astonishingly beautiful. Everything becomes cliched, inadequate and soulless in response. Slivers of ice floated like sharp-white boats in the bluer-than-blue water. The harsh, jagged mountains spread out towards heaven, engulfing, disinterested, eternal, hypnotic, ferocious, bigger than imagination, harder than God, animalistic, not even bothering to mock our human insignificance or shy away from our warming, destructive power. 

I've never seen anything remotely like it. It didn't make me want to cry like the Taj Mahal did, or the Cliffs of Moher, or Edward Thomas' summer hill in Steep, or morning mist over the Thames, or the view from the Montparnasse Tower, or the time Arsenal beat us 5-0 at White Hart Lane... it just made me stop. Stop thinking, stop feeling, stop it all. I broke the spell and took this picture on my phone through the helicopter window. And then stopped again. 

Until we landed in Qaqortoq. 

#Greenland #Greenlandpioneer #Qaqortoq