Monday 19 August – Roger

Arriving at Auckland International Airport, we picked up our boarding passes. Yes – no bags to check as we are travelling again with just carry on. We stopped at the Duty Free pick up to collect a new Nikon 28 to 400 lens. With our new Nikon Z7ii being a full frame camera, this lens should work for photographing most wild life. That’s assuming I can remember how to use it; the technology in these things is getting more and more complicated.

Just after 1230 we were in the air and on the 16+ hour journey to Qatar. The business class section is well designed, particularly in the centre rows, where there is a partition that drops down with the seats becoming a double bed. If travelling as a group or family one can open a partition up to the next row of seats. Good for keeping the brats under control.  A few chapters of a book and seven movies later we landed in Qatar.

With over a hundred thousand people passing through this airport every day it is always busy. We headed to the first class lounge for a shower and then to the restaurant for an a-la-carte dinner. Not only is this place spacious but it has a high standard of food and service. I went for a stroll at one stage to get some new compression stockings, which were a bit hard to find in my size. I had clocked up 3kms when I finally returned to the lounge with the mission accomplished. We had managed to book a quiet room for the last four hours of the 10 hour stopover. This was like a luxury hotel room with twin beds, crisp white sheets and an ensuite bathroom.

It was daylight when we boarded the business class bus for the several kilometre journey to the plane. With a sign on the side of the bus calling out the bus team’s mission: “COBUS – performance, purpose, passion” it delivered us to the right aeroplane. Quite an extortionate task with the distance, traffic and number of aircraft we passed on the way.

In the air we headed northwest over Baghdad and Mosel, then across Turkey to the Black Sea. Looking at the flight map the route was to cross the Black Sea and over Crimea, passing just east of Odessa and across Kyiv. Thinking ‘that looks a bit interesting’, I paid attention, only to find that as we crossed Turkey the route changed, taking us more to the east across the Black Sea then up the east side of Romania.

Landing in Oslo we just had time to grab a bite at the lounge before boarding the IcelandAir flight to Reykjavik. A 50 minute taxi ride over the rather uninteresting volcanic plains, and we arrived at the Grand Hotel, well ready for an early night and some decent sleep.

Wednesday 21 August: Reykjavik- Roger

After a leisurely breakfast we headed out on a large comfortable bus along with a number of others, mainly from the US, that will be joining us on the tour of Greenland.

First stop was the Perlan Museum. Originally a number of hot water tanks which provided heating to local homes and businesses, some of the tanks have been turned into a museum. We headed up to the fifth floor cafe, where breakfast was again being served. We strolled around the observation deck which provides great views over Reykjavik. It must be impressive on a fine day, but unfortunately the weather today was pretty gray, drizzly and cold. We headed to a planetarium style theatre back on the first floor, where a spectacular 30-minute video about the northern lights was played. Next, in another auditorium, a video on the many local volcanos played. We then watched a short video on the glaciers, followed by a walk through an ice cave. At minus 10 degrees, this was well done and quite realistic.

After looking at some interesting displays on the animal, bird, fish and insect life in Iceland, it was back on the bus for a short trip to Nautholi restaurant for a tasty 3 course lunch, including the local Atlantic Cod, a very tasty fish.

A short bus tour of the downtown part of this small, young city returned us to the hotel around 3 pm. We had a quiet afternoon, catching up and resting before joining the rest of the guests and the crew of the National Geographic Endurance for a quick briefing on hat to expect tomorrow when we head to Greenland.

Thursday 22 August: Reykjavik to Kangerlusssuaq – Sylvia

We slept pretty well again last night and are slowly recovering from our jet lag. We were up early for breakfast and then had some time to catch up on things before our first excursion. The Grand Hotel Reykjavik certainly wouldn’t be anywhere near the list of top hotels I’d recommend. Unfortunately we haven’t been able to get internet in our room despite numerous requests to reception. The water temperature in the shower is extremely variable and the breakfast is fairly average. On the plus side,  the bed at least has been comfortable and at the end of the day that was important. We have spent a bit of time sitting in the reception area so we could catch up on emails and news etc.

At 10:15 we boarded the coach for the short drive to the Iceland national museum. Our local guide is one of those who seems to feel a need to talk. My highlight was when he explained that a female or male staff member at the museum would give us a briefing….

The museum does a good job of showcasing the history of this country from the initial settlement by Vikings in about 870 AD, through until the end of the 20th century. Initially the country was pagan, worshipping Thor and other Viking gods. After about 130 years it became nominally Christian after a committee meeting agreed that the country would be publicly Christian but individuals could continue to practice their pagan religion privately. Later, the Lutherans arrived with their preaching of hellfire and brimstone and this became the dominant religion. It must have been a pretty tough life for the early settlers. The climate here is pretty harsh and there have been numerous volcanic eruptions, plagues and famines.

We explored the different exhibits for a couple of hours then back on the bus and back to the hotel for a buffet lunch. After lunch we were back on the coach, heading to Keflavik airport, the main international airport in Iceland, about 45 mins from Reykjavik, to check in for the charter flight to Kangerlussuaq. The check in was painless and we made it through security with plenty of time to spare… lots of hurry up and wait as is normal with travel these days.

It was an easy flight just over two hours to Kangerlussuaq. This is the main airport in Greenland, originally built by the US airforce. It is about 120 miles inland at the end of a long fjord, apparently to be more sheltered from the weather.

Another bus took us for a short drive to the small floating dock, where we boarded zodiacs to take us to the National Geographic Endurance, which will be our home for the next 23 days. It was a remarkably efficient process but I was happy that it was not too cold, especially as we hadn’t yet received our parkas. It must be a bit challenging if the weather is not so good.

We checked out our parkas and rented boots for size, attended the mandatory lifeboat drill and had a light buffet dinner. After dinner we explored this beautiful ship. She is absolutely stunning with some gorgeous lounge spaces and a bridge that looks like it would be right at home on the Star Ship Enterprise. It is so good to have free access to the bridge on these trips. From the bridge, we watched as all our luggage arrived in a container on a barge and was then rapidly unloaded and distributed to the cabins. After unpacking and getting settled in it was nice to settle in for the night.

We have already met some very interesting people among the other guests. By far the majority are from the US, many are retired, and all seem to be very well-travelled.

Friday 23 August: Sisimut – Roger

It’s early morning when the ship finishes its 120km journey down the Kangerlussuaq fiord and slips into the Labrador Sea for the journey up the coast to Sisimut. I had woken at 0300 and not really gone back to sleep. At 0730 I headed to the gym for a short exercise program. The gym is at the stern of the boat with great views. There is a yoga room and a spa on the deck above.

We headed for a late breakfast then off to a briefing  and introduction to the huge range of experts travelling as part of the National Geographic team. One in particular is Wade Davis, who has written ±25 books, some of which have been turned into movies. Many of the people, including naturalists, photographers, divers, geologists and scientists have been associated with Lindblad and National Geographic for over 30 years. There is even a professor and a PhD student from Finland excited to be here studying phytoplankton.

Around noon we crossed into the Arctic Circle and then arrived at Sisimut. There was another boat at the wharf so we waited in mid-harbour. After enjoying a rather nice lunch of cauliflower soup followed by swordfish we pulled alongside the wharf at 2pm.

Hopping on the bus I get the impression there is only one in town. We headed to ‘Dog Town’ on the edge of the main town. With a population of around 22,000, the town had a dog problem with the some 1000 plus Greenlandic dogs roaming the streets and living among the houses. Around 20 years ago they moved the dogs to the edge of town, put in some kennels and tied up the dogs letting the young pups run loose. These dogs came from Siberia around 1,000 years ago and have been used as sled dogs ever since. During winter many sled races take place all over the country. It is illegal to import a dog into Greenland north of the arctic circle to prevent cross breeding of these unique dogs.

From dog town we took a stroll up a shingle road, which leads back to Kangerlussuaq. This is the famed Arctic Circle trek, a walk of about 150km with significant changes in elevation that usually takes walkers 8-10 days to complete. The record for the shortest time was recently broken and now stands at about 32 hours. There are no roads between towns in Greenland. All travel is done by plane, helicopter or boat. This is the only connecting route between two towns. They have been working for a number of years to make it accessible for ATVs but it seems that is still many years away. The terrain here is pretty unforgiving.

After climbing a small hill on the road we then headed back to the bus, which dropped us off in the town centre. From there we strolled back to the boat after checking out some local food: snow crab caribou, salted cod and capelin.

Everywhere one looks here there is another photo opportunity. It’s really a picturesque place. After a chat with some local kids we wandered back to the boat.

Early evening we had cocktails in the Ice Lounge with an address from the captain. He explained that the NG Endurance is a Polar Code PC5 Ice class vessel. (There is only one passenger boat that has a higher class.) It has pod type drives that can be turned 180 degrees to back the ship out of trouble should it get stopped in the ice. Let’s hope we get to experience that.

We enjoyed a dinner with two other extremely well-traveled couples, like many of the guests on this expedition.