A dark rock wall rising from the sea into rose-lit cloud in Scoresby Sund, a band of fog along the water and one small blue iceberg beneath it

Greenland

You sail in, and the world goes quiet.

Scoresby Sund, East Greenland

Twelve guests or fewer. By private arrangement.

Scoresby Sund, East Greenland

Season: August and September
Length: Around ten days
Party: Twelve guests or fewer, or the ship to yourselves
Held in the arrangement: The ship and her crew, a guide ashore, every meal aboard, and the flights in and out of the fjord

The place

One of the longest fjords on Earth, and almost nobody on it.

Scoresby Sund runs some three hundred and fifty kilometres in from the Greenland Sea, branching as it goes, between walls of red and black rock. One small village stands at its mouth.

Past the village there is water, ice and light, and whatever your ship brings with her.

A wide view across Scoresby Sund in low sun: tundra and bare rock in the foreground, small icebergs scattered over calm water, a long wall of banded cliffs beyond and a glacier reaching the fjord on the right — Scoresby Sund, in late summer. Draw the picture sideways: it keeps going.

The way in

At the mouth

One village, then none.

You come in by air, low over the coast, and land on a gravel strip beside the water. Across the fjord is Ittoqqortoormiit: a few hundred people, and the last painted houses you will see for a week. The ship is waiting offshore.

The village of Ittoqqortoormiit seen from the water: red, green, yellow and blue houses crowded on bare rock, snow lying in the hollows of the hill behind — Ittoqqortoormiit, at the mouth of Scoresby Sund

A day in

The sea closes behind you.

By the first evening the open water has gone. Rock climbs in dark steps on one side, a glacier reaches the fjord on the other, and the ice begins to arrive, one piece at a time. Nobody says much at dinner. Everyone is looking out.

An iceberg and a red mountainside doubled in glass-still water in Scoresby Sund, small pieces of ice drifting between them

Deep in Water so still it keeps the mountains. Go in among the ice Scoresby Sund

Then someone cuts the engine, and you can hear how far in you are.

A walker in a green jacket, seen from behind, standing on dark rock above a misted fjord scattered with ice — Above the fjord, waiting for the mist to lift.Scoresby Sund

Ashore

Walk up until the fjord fits in one look.

The ground is soft with dwarf willow, already turning red by the end of August. You climb towards a ridge, and some days the mist climbs with you. Wait for it. When it lifts, the fjord is all there below, and you stay longer than you meant to. If musk oxen are grazing the slope, your guide will have seen them long before you do.

Pale icebergs standing in flat calm water, seen from lichen-covered rock on the shore — Ice, from the shore.Inner Scoresby Sund

A green band of aurora across a starry sky above dark hills and still water, a last glow of dusk on the horizon

The far end In September the night comes back. And with it, on a clear evening, the first aurora. Stay up for the first dark Aurora over Kulusuk, East Greenland

That is the shape of it: about ten days, in and back. The plan itself is drawn with you, then redrawn by the ice and the weather, as every plan is here.

Plan your journey Sail the fjord

The ship

No roads, no lodges. Your home here is a small ship.

She is chosen with you: a small vessel of the kind built for this coast, with a dozen berths at most, a warm saloon and a deck you will rarely want to leave.

Small matters here. It means the anchorages the larger ships pass, a boat ashore whenever you ask, and a crew who know your name by the first evening.

A figure in silhouette, seen from behind, at a ship's window; beyond the glass an iceberg on blue water under a brown mountainside — At a ship's window, Uummannaq, West Greenland

A small wooden ship seen from directly above, lying alone in a wide field of thin ice and scattered floes — A small ship in the ice, from above.Scoresby Sund, East Greenland

Looked after, a long way from anywhere.

A guide walks ashore with you, every time. Someone has coffee ready when you come back cold. And dinner waits for the light, which in August is in no hurry.

Field notesThe figures, for those who like them.

Daylight there today
Daylight in the middle of August
Daylight at the end of September
Ittoqqortoormiit: 70°29′N 021°58′W
The fjord, mouth to farthest arm: about 350 km

Open the chart of the fjord Watch the night return

Snow-streaked peaks in silhouette against an orange and violet sky at sunset in Scoresby Sund, ice floating on dark water in front

Your invitation

How far in?

August for still water, long gold evenings and a sun that barely leaves. September for red willow, the first frost, and the night returning with the aurora.

Plan your journey

Eight short questions, about two minutes. Then a letter in your own words.

Scoresby Sund, at sunset