Monday 9 September: West Greenland – Sylvia

We woke this morning as we entered the Inukassaat fjord system north of Disko Island. The fjord is flanked on both sides by tall snow-capped mountains and dotted about with some rather large icebergs. there are a couple of tide-water glaciers deep into the fjord that obviously calve some quite large bergs from time to time. Unfortunately the light was not great for photography.

After breakfast we boarded zodiacs to head an hour and a half further into the fjord. The NG Endurance followed us along. Some of the icebergs are massive, at least the height of the ship. One had an impressive arch in it and even as we circled it carved a little. It looks like it is ready to collapse fairly soon. We admired the incredible rock formations and even saw a small group of ptarmigan on one of the cliffs.

Back on board we had lunch while we continued deeper into the Kangerdlugssuaq fjord. The zodiacs were lowered again and we headed ashore. I joined the long hikers and Roger the photographic group. An old, abandoned hut sits picturesquely on the shore. The tundra is lush. I am continuously amazed at the variety and volume of plant life that seems to thrive in this hostile environment. I thoroughly enjoyed the hike up the ridge on one side of the bay, around the end and back down the other, making it back to shore just in time for the last zodiac back to the ship.

Back on board we joined the briefing for tomorrow’s visit to Illulisat. Later in the evening Peter showed a very interesting and somewhat challenging movie called the Eskimo Experiment.

Tuesday 10 September: Illulissat – Roger

It was just after 0600 when we arrived in Illulissat. After a quick breakfast, we headed down to Base Camp and onto a zodiac for the short trip into the town. After weaving our way through a maze of boats, we arrived at a small wharf for a dry landing. After being met by a guide, a short walk up a hill took us to a bus stop. This is situated by a large shrimp and cod factory. There is also a halibut factory across the harbour, which apparently supplies mainly the Chinese market.

A short bus ride took us to the start of the long walk. The path took us around a bouldery headland, along a rough track, often with patches of ice along the way. As we reached the high part of the track we had an incredible view across the thousands of glaciers that have carved off the Jakobshavn Isbrae Glacier and are now sitting jammed up in the Illulissat fiord. About 45 meters per day calves off this glacier, making it the most productive glacier in the northern hemisphere. That’s around 46 cubic kilometres or 20 billion tons of ice per year.

Back in the mid 1800’s the glacier used to come right down to the peninsula, but it has been receding ever since. There is a shallow point where the glacier ended back then, which is only about 130m deep. This is where the island-sized bergs get hung up, until the pressure behind them shoves them out into the sea, which is several hundred meters deep on both sides of this shallow point. It is really hard to describe the enormity of this, even with pictures.

The walk took us above a board walk that runs out to the old settlement, which was first settled around 3000 years ago. The old town of Sermermiut, with around 250 people, was the largest settlement in Greenland until it was moved 2km north in 1741 by a Danish missionary. The town now has a population of round 4600 people and 2600 dogs. The dogs used to outnumber people up to a few years ago, but pet food has become too expensive for a lot of people to afford.

The later part of the walk took us past the town cemetery to the recently built ice museum. Here they have ice cores displayed going back to 142,000 years BC. There are interactive ice videos and lots of ice-like sculptures. A walk up onto the roof gives a view over the ice field.

Back on the boat we had a quick lunch then hopped on a local boat that berthed alongside the stern deck. This guy took us for a tour amongst the icebergs at the end of the fjord. Up close these are impressive, some reaching a height of 80 meters above the water; remembering that ±90% is under the water, that makes for a rather large chunk of ice. Many will break apart and/or roll over before heading out to sea.

Back on the boat again, I stayed and chatted to a few people, while Sylvia went back into town to do the boardwalk to the heritage village site and more views over the ice. She then walked back through the dog town and the people town.

At 1700 hrs we were on the move again. Parked beside us was a super-yacht, owned by a Swiss Billionaire, nearly as large as this ship, with 45 crew and catering for 8 passengers, complete with submarine and helicopter landing deck and hangar.

Sailing south past the icebergs gave us yet another perspective on this massive spectacle.

Wednesday 11 September: Itiullip Ilua Fjord – Sylvia

We were wakened by Bud’s drawl over the loud speaker at about 1:15am. The northern lights had come out to play. I bundled up warmly (Roger in shorts and jandals) and headed up to the Observation deck on the 8th floor. What a sight. To see the aurora borealis at any time is a thrill but here on a ship where there is no light pollution is outstanding. We observed for a while, trying to take photographs and just enjoying the spectacle as long as I could bear the cold. Eventually, and somewhat reluctantly I headed back to bed.

I rolled over and went back to sleep when my alarm when off at 6:30am. I felt I had a half decent excuse to miss the stretching class this morning. Bud woke us again at 7:30 with a call to breakfast and briefing for the morning activities. Everything was on offer – long walk, medium walk, kayak or zodiac cruise. I opted for the long walk and rugged up and headed to shore. Roger decided to stay on board and enjoy the views from the ship.

It is always good to stretch the legs and the walk today was over tundra, up the valley overlooking the  fjord. I continue to be amazed at the flora. At times it is like walking on a mattress. We crossed a couple of small streams, eventually climbing a rocky outcrop for fantastic views before heading back in time for the last zodiac at 11:45am.

Back on board preparations for departure tomorrow were the main order of the afternoon. Briefings, packing, returning borrowed equipment and general preparations occupied a lot of the time. There was still time for an interesting presentation from the scientists on the evolution and ecology of phytoplankton. I studiously avoided the delicious sounding afternoon tea (Icelandic pancakes and ice cream).

At 6pm we headed back to the Ice Lounge for our last Cocktail hour and to enjoy the guest slideshow. Each of us was allowed to provide up to 5 photographs for this and it was a great way to reflect back on everything we have seen and done these last three weeks or so on board.

Thursday 12 September: Kangerlussuaq to Reykjavik – Roger

At 0545 the wake up call came over the PA. In a well organised manner we dropped our bags down at Base Camp on deck 3 before heading to breakfast. We were with the first group to disembark at 0745. As the zodiac headed for the shore we looked back on the NG Endurance, our home of three weeks, with its dynamic positioning system keeping it in place in the centre of the fjord.

On arriving at the jetty we boarded a large truck-type bus and headed east along the road back towards the Kangerlussuaq Airport, where we had arrived 3 weeks ago. During the Cold War there was a population of around 3,500 mainly US military personnel here. That has now reduced to around 600, mainly civilians with a few Danish troops based here.

We continued east past the airport, passing the world’s most Northern, now almost abandoned, golf club. To our right is a large river, fed from the glacier we are headed for. Next we passed a house at the edge of a small lake; the driver explained someone had got permission to build it as a summer house. One small problem, the two warmest months of the year there are so many mosquitoes there, they have calculated that if a caribou stood still for a day it would lose 3 litres of blood.

Our first stop was described as an open-air aircraft crash museum. On 8 December 1968, three Lockheed T33A training jets, en route from Canada couldn’t land at the Kangerlussuaq Airport because of thick fog. While waiting for the fog to clear they ran out of fuel and the pilots bailed out. This is one of the crash sites. People are encouraged to look around but not remove anything. Apparently the pilot of this jet returned here in 2018 looked in the cockpit and found his wallet still there; that, he was allowed to remove.

Next stop was the 13-mile lake, where the Inuit herd caribou and musk ox into the lake. Originally shooting them from their kayaks with bows and arrows, today they use motor boats and rifles. Back in the day they would bury the meat down in the permafrost to freeze it through the summer.

Finally reaching the Reindeer glacier, we dismounted the bus and walked down a track toward the ice. A couple of musk ox grazed near a waterfall some 500m away, trotting off up the hill after spotting us. The glacier is ones of hundreds fed from the famous Greenland ice sheet. At its thickest point, the Greenland Ice Sheet measures over 3 kilometres thick and contains about 2.9 million cubic kilometres of ice. If the entire Greenland Ice Sheet melted, it is estimated that the sea level would rise about 7.4 meters.

After our short walk we got back on the bus and headed back to the airport, spotting a small bunch of caribou at some distance, along the way.

After a light lunch at the Musk Ox lounge, we boarded our charter flight to Reykjavik. On arrival we were bussed to a hotel and, once checked in, Sylvia relaxed in the room while I went to the bar and caught up with a few of the many nice people we had spent an enjoyable few weeks with.

 

Friday 13 September: Reykjavik – Sylvia

It was nice to sleep in a bit after some very early mornings and losing another hour to time zone last night. Half of the cruisers had left on the 7:30am bus to the airport when we arrived down at breakfast at about 8:30. The other half were leaving at 12:30pm but we had opted to stay an extra day here. I had a call with Royal Canin at 9:30. Before I retired I was working on a major project and the team had arranged to call to update me on progress, which was really nice of them. I was very pleased with the progress but it didn’t make me want to go back to work. I am really loving this retirement lark.

The day after we left Reykjavik for our cruise, the volcano near here had started erupting for the sixth time in recent months. We had hoped it would still be erupting today but it stopped again on 5 September. We decided it would be good to take a helicopter over the lava fields anyway but needed four people to book the flight. If the volcano had still been erupting I’d have been happy to pay for four seats but given it was just steaming lava we decided to save our money.

Instead we wandered around Reykjavík. It was a gorgeous sunny day, showing off the city and harbour areas well. We visited the whale museum. With scale models of some 23 species of whales and dolphins it was quite interesting. We enjoyed one of the movies they showed on the wisdom of whales. Some incredible footage and a reminder of how intelligent these beautiful marine mammals are.

Taxiing back to our hotel in Keflavik (about an hour out of Reykjavik and about 10 minutes from the airport), we could see the eruption site steaming in the distance. Our driver offered to take us out to where the lava flow from the February eruption had crossed the main highway, cutting off Grindavik and the Blue Lagoon. A new road has been put in place for the Blue Lagoon but Grindavik has largely been evacuated.

We were dropped off at the ‘Troll House” in Keflavik. This charming place was built for the giantess, Siggur, who is the subject of a number of children’s stories. She snorts and grunts in her room, but apparently is a super sweet and friendly troll so nothing to fear.

We wandered back to the hotel to pack and prepare for another very early wake up tomorrow as we start the long journey home. This has certainly been an interesting and informative trip.