The flight from London to Chicago started very cloudy with little to see but occasional waves. As the flight screen showed us approaching Greenland however, the sky cleared and an amazing expanse of ice appeared.
Ice in the sea near east coast of Greenland
Mountains spread across the southern tip of the world’s largest island. For some reason, my head was playing Joni Mitchell’s song of a flight but substituting “Greenland, Greenland.”
With dreamland coming on
Dreamland, dreamland
Dreamland, dreamland
In a plane flying back to winter
Wings over Greenland, Greenland
The middle of the island was a big sheet of glacier and snow. Slovenian National Geographic photographer Ciril Jazbec has a remarkable project of the Inuits of Greenland and the devastation climate change has on their life: On Thin Ice.
Mountain peaks over glaciers
Watching the flight path and mileage counter on the seat back showed an incredible coincidence. At the precise halfway point between London and Chicago we were flying over a seahorse-shaped island on the west coast of Greenland.
Seahorse island
Because of the distinctive shape of the island and this last one on the east coast, it was easy to find on Google Maps. Remarkably, there is a small village just southwest of here named Arsuk. Can you believe there is a Google Maps street view! Very soon the flight was completely cloud covered.
Lands end, east coast Greenland