Why this ride
It goes by way of Igaliku, Qaqortukulooq and back through Igaliku. The line favours views over speed.
CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
Qassiarsuk and Qaqortukulooq
Plan this ride
- Recorded distance
- 18 km
- Riding-time estimate
- 19 min
- Journey
- Recorded itinerary
Distance and timing basis
Ordered leg totals agree within rounding. Stop distances are approximate sums of rounded legs. Stops, delays, approach and any separate return travel add time. Basis: planning record, not independently verified geometry.
Reading history stays on this device. My road watch requires a separate selection; opening it does not subscribe this ride.
Distances and riding times are planning figures. Check local closures and conditions before you ride.
Waypoint introductions and full write-ups
1. Qassiarsuk
Qassiarsuk is a sheep farming settlement of a few dozen people on the green side of a fjord in southern Greenland, and for a few years around the year 1000 it was the centre of European Greenland. The Norse chieftain Erik the Red, banished from Iceland for killing, arrived here in the 980s, built a farm that he named Brattahlíð, and became the leader of a colony that would eventually number several thousand. His son Leif, called the Lucky, sailed from here to the shores of North America.
Read the complete Qassiarsuk write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Qassiarsuk is where the day begins. Next is Igaliku.
2. Igaliku
A motorcycle is an awkward guest in southern Greenland, and Igaliku is the reason to think about it carefully. There is no road network linking the settlements here; you reach them by boat, helicopter, or on foot, and the tracks between the farms are short and local. Nevertheless this is one of the great historical landscapes of the Arctic, and it deserves a place in any ride that dreams about the edge of the map.
Read the complete Igaliku write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Igaliku comes up about 3 km into the recorded legs. Next is Qaqortukulooq.
3. Qaqortukulooq
The last time anyone wrote about a living person at Hvalsey, they were writing about a wedding. In September 1408, a couple were married in the church there, and that is the final entry in the written record of the Norse settlement in Greenland. What happened afterwards, whether people died out, left or moved on, is still a mystery. The ruin, which the Greenlanders call Qaqortukulooq, is the best-preserved Norse building in the country, a church of grey stone with high gables, built around the year 1300, standing beside a small bay under green hills, with its walls still more than four metres high.
Read the complete Qaqortukulooq write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
about 9 km into the recorded legs you reach Qaqortukulooq. Next is back through Igaliku.
4. back through Igaliku
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Igaliku write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
back through Igaliku, late in the day. Next is Qassiarsuk.
5. Qassiarsuk
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Qassiarsuk write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Back at Qassiarsuk. That is the ride.
Leg by leg
Qassiarsuk to Igaliku
Qassiarsuk → Igaliku is 3 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Igaliku to Qaqortukulooq
Igaliku → Qaqortukulooq is 5 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Qaqortukulooq to back through Igaliku
Qaqortukulooq → back through Igaliku is 5 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Igaliku to Qassiarsuk
back through Igaliku → Qassiarsuk is 3 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.