Icebergs, snow and a language that has more 'q's than the post office on pension day but as playgrounds go it's a novel alternative to all that bungee jumping and jet-boating in the southern hemisphere. Grab your moonboots, waterproofs and good pair of gloves and let's go.

Greenland's ice-bound environs stretch some 1290 km (800 miles) from Baffin Bay in the west to the Greenland Sea on the east and 2655km (1650 miles) from tip to toe give or take the odd bits that periodically crumble into the ocean to annoy shipping. The island is actually a dependency of Denmark though geographically it's much closer to Canada. Most cold weather travellers make it as far as Iceland just 600km (370 miles) to the east but that final hop over to Greenland always seems one hurdle too far.

Perhaps its proximity to the Arctic puts people off. Almost two thirds of the island is within the Arctic Circle. The ice cap consumes 1.8 million sq km of the island, is over 3km deep and the ice at its base is over two million years old. The cold must also be a factor. Summer can see temperatures as high as 20?C (68?F) and twenty-four hour sunlight but in the depths of the long, dark polar winter from October to April they can plunge to a chilly -30?C (-22?F) and in the furthest northern reaches the cold is accompanied by almost permanent darkness.