ICELAND AND GREENLAND 12 - 24 JULY 1997
I
was so impressed with the icebergs that I saw in Antarctica that I decided to
see the icebergs in southern Greenland. I
chose Marine Expedition's 'Iceland & Greenland'
tour on the ship R/V Akademik Ioffe.
This ship, registered in Russia, is 383 feet long, 59 feet of breadth,
has a crew of 52 and can take 80 passengers.
We arrived at
the misty Keflavik airport at 6:30 am, local time, on 12 July.
After clearing customs we met our Marine Expeditions representative and
got on the bus. It was a 40 minute
drive through barren countryside to the city of Reykjavik.
The low level clouds, misty rain and volcanic landscape gave an eerie
feeling for our first sight of Iceland.
The rain let
up as we stopped at a hotel so that a snack could be picked up for us.
We toured around the city and highlights were pointed out.
We stopped at a botanical gardens and sandwiches and juice were passed
out. I was badly in need of a cup
of coffee since the Icelandic Airlines flight did not provide coffee with their
'wake-up' breakfast prior to landing. My
coffee was not obtained until much later, at McDonald's.
Around 11 am
we were dropped off near the ship, which was very near downtown Reykjavik.
We spent about 5 hours walking the town, the Natural History Museum and a
cemetery. The city was very modern
and it was a good time to check out the gift shops, have lunch and send post
cards. At 4 pm we were allowed onto
the ship and to our cabins.
Sunday, 13
July, during the morning we arrived near the harbor entrance to Heimaey,
Westmann Islands (Iceland). The
town of Heimaey became famous on 23 January 1973 when the island's volcano,
Eldfell, erupted. The lava flow
ruined about 1/3 of the town and threatened it's natural harbour. Most of the people and their portable belongings evacuated to
Iceland. The townspeople were
courageous in insisting that they return and rebuild. Through a giant effort by the fire department, water spray
was used to cool the lava flow and prevent it from flowing into the harbor.
We spent the
morning in the town seeing the film "Fire on Heimaey", which was about
the disaster, and we then visited
the natural history museum, walked the town's streets and visited a gift shop.
During the afternoon we took zodiac rides to see the bird cliffs.
We happened to be there during the puffin hunting season and we observed
several puffin hunters at the top of the cliffs catch puffins with their long
handled nets.
Everyday at
about 4 pm we had 'tea', this consisted of coffee, tea and a pastry.
All of the meals were good and we certainly did not go hungry.
Monday, 14
July, we arrived at Flatey Island, which is the largest island in the
Breidafjordur archipelago. Flatey
is a well preserved example of how an Icelandic village used to be. We spent the morning on the island visiting the church,
cemetery, library and the tops of some bird cliffs.
I was able to photograph two Puffins who did not fly away as I came into
their view over the top of the cliff. During
the afternoon we cruised in the zodiacs between the islands and observed the
birds on the cliffs.
During the
late afternoon we started our journey towards Greenland. Whales were observed, but mainly at a distance.
At about 9 pm we passed the Latrabjarg Cliffs (511 meters tall and home
to Razorbill birds). Once we passed the Bjorgtangi lighthouse we had passed the
most westerly point of Europe.
During the
next two days we sailed the Denmark Strait towards Greenland. This was a good time for more lectures about birds and Viking
mythology. We also took tours of
the ships engine room and saw the huge underwater antenna, listening device,
that could be lowered below the ship. This
ship was originally a scientific research ship. Most of the research equipment has been removed as the ship
is now exclusively leased to Marine Expeditions for tours.
At about
midnight on 16 July we spotted our first iceberg.
It was located 10 miles
ahead and it took us about an hour to come up to it.
It was about 1/2 the size of our ship.
We had entered the ice zone off the east coast of Greenland.
The early
morning of 17 July found us off Cape Farvel, near the entrance to the Prins
Christian Sund. This sund is a very
long fjord which cuts through southern Greenland.
The mountains on each side of the sund were very beautiful and contained
snow and glaciers. The lower levels
of the mountain sides were green in color.
During our traverse of Prins Christian Sund we stopped at Sermerunerit
Glacier and we took the zodiacs close to the glacier face.
We also rode around close to a few small icebergs.
Back on board we enjoyed a barbecue lunch on the stern deck.
During the
late afternoon we visited the village of Augpilagtog. The people of this village were out enmasse to watch us come
ashore from our zodiacs. It was
quite a change for us to be observed rather than the other way around.
We had a local guide, one of their schoolteachers, walk us through the
village. He showed us a fresh polar
bear skin which was hanging on a clothes line.
This bear had become stranded on an iceberg in Northern Greenland and
when it came ashore the local Intuit villagers shot it for its skin and meat.
Our guide showed us much of his village, and then performed an Intuit
dance/song while beating a skin drum.
Friday, 18
July, after spending the night at anchor in Narsap Sarqaa, the ship moved across
the fjord to Herjolfsnaes.
At Herjolfsnaes we explored the ruins of what was once a major Norse
settlement. We saw steps that were
cut into solid rock leading to the sea. The
steps were used as an easier way to get down to the sea during the Norse trading
era. On our way back to the ship,
we also used the zodiacs to cruise around some very beautiful icebergs.
The icebergs of southern Greenland were much smaller than those that I
saw in Antarctica but we were able to get closer and had great sunshine for some
beautiful photographs.
After lunch
we visited the town of Nanortalik. This
visit was like coming back to civilization for this town has two major stores, a
post office, gift shop and telephone service.
We toured a museum and the museum outbuildings had been the actual homes
of Danish colonists. We also went
into an Intuit house that had been preserved by the museum.
That evening a local choir, ten people, came out to our ship and sang
many Danish and Intuit songs for us.
Saturday, 19
July, we sailed through Unartoq Fjord to Unartoq Island and walked about 1/2
mile to Greenland's best hot springs. There
was a pool of water which was about 90 degrees F. in which we could sit and
observe icebergs floating in the bay. We
also visited depressions in the ground which were surrounded by some rock
building stones, which were ruins of Norse homes from about the year 1100.
During the
afternoon we visited Alluitsup
Kargerlua Fjord to see a spectacular waterfall.
Sunday, 20
July we visited the small village of Igaliku, which is located near the head of
Igaliku Fjord. The Norse word for
this village is Garoar. This is the
site of St. Nicolai's Cathedral, built in 1126 and the seat of Greenland's first
bishop. Only a few foundation
stones are left of the church. This
site is mentioned in Jane Smiley's fictionalized history book 'The Greenlanders'.
During the visit to this village we watched the local people walk to
their church. It was Confirmation
Sunday and some of the ladies wore colorful national costumes and the men and
boys wore black trousers and white anoraks.
During the
afternoon we visited Hvasley which is the site of the most extensive Norse ruins
in Greenland. Hvasley was the first
inhabited during the late 10th century and is mentioned in the Icelandic
Flateyjarbok, the book of Flatey Island. The
church ruins were very impressive - all four walls were still standing (or had
been restored). The ships chef,
Kevin Beall, his Sous Chef, Rolf Stauffer and the bartender, Jen Whittle,
brought their entire barbecue setup to shore so that we could enjoy a barbecue
dinner on the pier at this remote site.
Monday, 21
July, fine weather allowed our schedule to include Qassiarsuk. This is where Eirikur Rauoe, Eric the Red, made his home in
982. It was possible to see the
depression and rise in the ground that was the foundation of the first Christian
church in Greenland. This very
small church, holding only about 6 people, was built by Pjoahildru, the wife of
Eric the Red. Eric was not a
Christian and demanded that she build the church away from their home. Our
guides were not able to tell us the exact location of Eric the Red's home as the
houses were built of sod and had eroded away.
Tuesday, 22
July, we saw a replica of a Viking ship that was being rowed by at least 10
persons. A support vessel was
following behind. We did not get
close enough to see if the crew were dressed in Viking costume. We sailed north through the Davis Strait - the seas became
rougher as we headed north. It was
enjoyable to stand at the window in the bridge and watch the ship's bow catch
some of the swells and have the sea spray over the entire bow area.
Finally it got rough enough that they closed the bow area to passengers.
We began to see less and less of the beautiful icebergs as most of the
icebergs in Southern Greenland come around from the East coast of Greenland.
Dinner that
evening was especially well done as Captain Apekhtin joined us for the 'Captains
Dinner'. I do not think I have ever
had a better Filet Mignon dinner.
Wednesday, 23
July, we missed our stop at Kangaamiut due to high winds. We continue on to the entrance to Sondre Stromfjord.
This fjord is Greenland's third longest fjord, reaching some 100 miles
inland to the settlement of Kangalussuaq. We
spent most of the day slowly traveling up the Sondre Stromfjord observing the
numerous glaciers and a couple of times seeing the edges of the ice field which
makes up most of Greenland. The
upcoming crossing of the Arctic Circle was announced by our Expedition Leader,
Tomas Holik. Some of us went to the bridge so that we could observe the GPS
instrumentation go to 66.33 degrees north latitude as we crossed the Arctic
Circle. I went out to the bridge wing to see if Greenland had placed
any kind of monument to this "line" but none was observed.
After dinner
that evening we waited for our last zodiac ride to shore to leave our ship for
the last time. On Shore we got
aboard rickety old US Air Force
Buses for a 1 1/2 hours drive around the Kangalussuaq area.
This town came into existence when the US military decided it was an
ideal place to locate their WW2 Blue West Eight base due to the stable climate
found this far inland. Our bus
driver pointed out the numerous concrete foundations of buildings which were
still left from World War II. We
were taken to see a large antenna disk that was currently being used by
scientists to study the ozone layer. Our
bus driver also stopped to show us his sled dogs and some new puppies.
While we were touring east
of Kangalussuaq we observed that the ship Akademik Ioffe had turned on its
outside lighting. This may have
been done to help the inbound charter flight locate the Kangalussuaq airfield.
The air base was closed in 1992 and now Kangalussuaq is one of the main
air terminals in Greenland.
The chartered
First Air Boeing 727 landed at about 2:15 am and discharged the new passengers
for Marine Expeditions next segment, Greenland & Churchill.
As we flew out of Kangalussuaq we had a splendid view of the main
Greenland ice field highlighted in the pink glow of the dawns sunshine.