Greenland: July 26-August 10

For the next 34 days we will explore Greenland followed by the northwest passage from the Seabourn Venture.

Itinerary from Reykjavik, Iceland to Nome, Alaska

July 26: We boarded the boat, met our cabin attendants and unpacked our luggage - it was a real treat to be able to unpack all of our bags.

July 27: The first stop was at Haimaey Island in Iceland. There was supposed to be a zodiac tour in the morning followed by a city tour in the afternoon. The zodiac tour was canceled because the water was too rough, and we opted to skip the city tour as we had already done one last month. Instead we got off the boat and hiked up to the top of the volcano and then down into the caldera.  It was a great first day. 

View from the hike

Heimaey wouldn't be complete without a Filicki sticker

At the top of the volcano- it was very windy

July 28: Our first full day at sea and the water was pretty choppy. Even though there were no stops there were non-stop activities- some of which we participated in. We spent a lot of time in lower lounge to minimize the rockiness.

July 29, Umivik Bay:

As we sailed in the icebergs in the water were impressive

We had two excursions today. The first was zodiac ride to mostly look at icebergs followed by a submarine ride, which we were pretty excited about. Sadly, the zodiac ride was mostly just cold and while we went 180m below sea level in the submarine there was really not a lot to see.

From the Zodiac

From the submarine 

In the submarine

July 30: Skjoldungen Fjord:  We were really stunned when we opened our blinds in the morning at the beautiful valley out our windows.  (5353.mov) 

View from our balcony in the morning

The "unknown location" was Skjoldungen fjord and our first hike in Greenland

The schedule for today was to take a zodiac to the shore for a short "fast" hike.  The ground was pretty unstable (lots of holes) and the mosquitos were pretty bad, but there was no question that a fast hike was not particularly fast, although the views were pretty breathtaking.

The hike ended at the stream towards the outlet glacier

Filip taking a "Flower of the day" picture

Bugs were pretty awful- but the mosquito nets worked well

July 31:  We arrived at Prince Christian Sund in the morning to admire the outlet glacier in the small sound. It wasn't an option to get off the boat, and while most people were on the bow deck, we enjoyed it first from the gym and then the aft hottub.  After lunch the boat set sail again for Kangikitsok - a very beautiful inlet, somewhat similar to yesterday although known for small cones on the shore and the water.

Today's stops on the southern tip of Greenland -  Prince Christian Sund (AM) and then Kangikitsok (PM)

Outlet glacier at Prince Christian Sund

Iceberg behind some of the cones on Kangikitsok

Kangikitsok

Filip modeling our bug nets- bugs were pretty bad, although not biting and not as bad as yesterday

August 1: Today we had two stops, Qaqortoq in the morning and Hvalsey in the afternoon. 

Our morning began with a walking tour of Qaqortoq where we saw their famous multi-colored houses, pieces from a culture art project called "Stone and Man", the memorial fountain, and an old church.  The tour ended at the fish house where they were selling whale and lamb.

Multi-colored houses

Historically the red buildings were government buildings, blue buildings were related to fishing, yellow buildings were medical facilities and black buildings were for police. But now, the only rule is that you cannot paint your house the same color as your neighbors.

One of the local artists, Aka Høegh, of Qaqortoq started the open air art gallery known as "Stone and Man" which consists of around 40 sculptures. We saw several:

 

The memorial fountain in the center of town

The Venture from the shore

Whale meat for sale in the fish market (with Filip's feet in the top left)

Qaqortoq was also in need of a Filicki sticker

In the afternoon we stopped a Hvalsey, an abandoned Norse settlement. We were not there long and we opted to not get off the boat to see the old church, but we could see it from our balcony.

August 2: Today we arrived in Brattahlið early in the morning and were scheduled to take the zodiac to shore at 9am. Once on shore we walked around and explored the area, including a recreated Norse home - which was very similar to the one we saw in Iceland and a statue of Leif Eriksson (Eric the Red's son).  It was an overcast day, but fortunately the rain held off and we enjoyed the walk- particularly the hike up the hill to see the statue.

Outside the recreated Norse home

Filip with Leif Erikkson

We saw Greenland sheep here- the first ones we have seen in Greenland. Skulls were beside the statue

With the ship

On our hike down from the statue

We were back on the ship by 11am to set sail for Nuuk, which will take just over 24 hours.  

Iceberg from our back balcony

August 3: We arrived in Nuuk, Greenland around 11 and had booked the "long, strenuous" hike for 1 pm with about 25 other people. While it was really nice to get outside and move around, the long hike was only 4 miles and we took so many breaks along the way it took about 4 hours to do. We would have enjoyed it a lot more had we been able to do it at our own pace.

Beautiful views from the hike with many icebergs

One of our many breaks

The lakes were really clear, and this one, is particular, was very deep

We had heard from a few people that team trivia was really fun, so we decided to give it a try yesterday. Shortly after it started we both looked at each other and said, "That woman over there looks just like Christine Dingivan" - and it turns out we were right- it was her.  It had probably been at least 15 years since either of us had seen her and we may have surprised her more than she surprised us! Regardless it was great to catch up with her. We were happy to see she had signed up for the long, strenuous hike too.

With Christine

Nuuk is in the background

August 4th: We continued deep into the Nuuk fjord to Kapisillit, a spot that Seabourn was unable to get to last year due to too much ice and to a spot that they won't be able to go again as after this year it will be closed to cruise ships.  In fact there is only one crew member on the ship who has been here before- once.  Kapisillit is very small - only 43 people and the only way to get there is by boat or helicopter. We didn't visit the town, instead we took a zodiac to a beach where we did a cross-country hike (no trail) to see a glacier. The hike was about 2.5miles round trip with some pretty steep sections, lots of holes, and pretty boggy - but the views were outstanding. At the very end you went up a fairly steep section and then were rewarded by the glacier lagoon. We had a great time because they set you free to do the hike at your own pace.

We went to Kapisillit today

View at the end of the hike (I did get yelled at for going too far just after this video).

For each expedition, the expedition team goes out first and scouts the area, setting up flags to mark where it is safe for us to explore. In addition, several of them carry riffles and strategically place themselves along the path. The riffles are a last resort in case of a charging polar bear - they also carry flare guns that they would use first. We asked one if they needed formal training to carry the gun- and in fact they have quite extensive training including recertification every 3 "turnovers". They have to hit a small target accurately multiple times from 30m away.  Today, though, they were mostly enjoying the sunshine.

Micki with one of the Expedition Guides and his riffle

 View from our back deck as we sailed towards the next destination

August 5th: Today we went to Evighedsfjorden, or Eternity Fjord. We arrived in the morning and we were scheduled for our turn to go ashore at 10:30am.  

Today we explored Evighedsfjorden (red dot) but also sailed to the other side just for fun

The zodiac ride was quick, dropping us off on a set of light-colored boulders just beside the large glacier. Champagne was offered and we were given instructions of where to go. We hiked up to the first waypoint which was a huge surprise - a blood-red lake, which was stunning, particularly juxtaposed with the blue-green sea and the glacier behind it.  Filip looked up what made the water red when we got back to the ship- chlamydomonas nivalis algae. Next you could continue up towards the top and then back down and around the rocks.  

Filip in front of the red lake

Part way to the top

In front of the red lake on our way down

After our walk we got back into a zodiac for a closer view of the glacier and some bird watching.

From the zodiac

When everyone was back on board we started to head back but took a quick detour to the end of a different fjord that Seabourn had not cruised down previously.  It sounded like there was recent evidence (from an app) that it was passible, so we gave it try.  Views continued to be stunning for the rest of the day.

August 6:  We arrived in Sisimuit around 7am which means we crossed the Arctic Circle last night.

We got off the boat around 8am to walk to the edge of town because we wanted to see the dogs. Sisimuit is the southern-most town in Greenland allowed to have working dogs- they are not pets so they don't live with their owners. There were a couple of puppies that ran up to meet us but we didn't pet them, as instructed.  We walked back to the boat just as it was starting to rain.

In the afternoon we were scheduled for a 1pm hike along a small portion of the Arctic Circle Trail but by 1pm the rain had picked up and it was pretty cold so we canceled the hike.

August 7: We arrived in Kangerlussuaq early in the morning and we had a 7:45 departure for a tour ending with a walk on the Greenland Ice Sheet- the second largest body of ice in the world (after the Antarctic Ice Sheet)- which covers most of Greenland. 

It was about a 2 hour drive to the ice sheet and we stopped a couple of time along the way. The first was at large lake called Aajuitsup Tasia and the second was because we saw some muskox in the distance. 

Lake Aajuitsup Tasia- part of an UNESCO heritage site

This was our first sighting of muskox- and it was pretty cool. There was one very large bull, two females and 4 babies. Our guide thought the male was about 12 years old and two of the babies were from this year and 2 from last year. We were pretty far away and really happy we brought our Nocs.

Muskox - female standing on the left, large male sitting on the right

Walking on the ice sheet itself was very neat. The walk started through the moraines (piles of rocks and sediment that are pushed and deposited by glaciers and ice sheets) and ended about 200 meters into the ice sheet. Our guide said it snowed yesterday (likely from the same rain storm we had in yesterday Sisimuit) so we were walking along fresh, crunchy snow. 

The hike through the moraines in front of the ice sheet

The ice sheet

Filip on the ice sheet

That might be a Filicki sticker 

August 8:  Today was a day at sea and we were surprisingly very busy, including team trivia, a submarine garage tour and a galley tour.  The ship we are on has 2 submarines - they weigh about 10 tons and cost $5m each.  They are named 711 and 712 because 71% of the earth's surface is covered with water and these are the first 2 (of 4) submarines that Seabourn owns (the other two being 713 and 714 on their other expedition ship).

Submarine 711

Looking into the seats and cockpit of submarine 711

The galley tour was interesting, although there were a lot of people (relative to the size of the galley) making it difficult to hear the chef as we were towards the back. We have befriended the hotel manager on the ship and mentioned that it was nice but we would love to have a private-behind-the scenes tour. He said, "OK- how about right now?" He then took us back through the galley and then down into the holds (which wasn't part of the original tour) to see the provisions for the rest of the journey. It was pretty cool, and we were happy we asked.

The executive chef in the galley

August 9: Today we were supposed to visit Ilulissat but when we arrived there was so much ice that the ship couldn't make it into the harbor. 

Seabourn arranged for everyone to board smaller boats for an up-close tour of the icebergs. We opted to skip- it was really cold and we thought we would it enjoy it more from the hottub. As we were heading down to the fitness center we asked our cabin steward to fill our ice bucket for some champagne and he suggested he order us some caviar to go with it. 

Champagne and caviar for the afternoon of hot-tubing 

August 10:  We went back to Sisimiut, and this time it wasn't raining. Neither of us was very motivated to get off the boat in the cold, but we put our warm gear on and headed out with AllTrails in hand. We hiked 11.5 miles through dog town and then along the Arctic Circle Trail. 

We weren't sure how far we would hike so we grabbed a couple of hard-boiled eggs before getting off the ship- which was a perfect snack just as we turned around.  On the way back we got to a windy hill and flew the kite.  It was a great way to spend our last day in Greenland (although our feet were very tired.)

The kite at it's highest latitude (~69°)