16th – 18th – Finishing touches

We were woken early as we had to hand over our bags by 0700 before going to breakfast. At 0815 most of us had disembarked and were saying goodbye to the guides standing around outside the ship. The tour had officially ended and we were now on our own.

As it was too early to check into my hotel I had a walk around town with a few others and had some lunch (as if we really needed more to eat) before retuning to my hotel and getting my room. As I entered the room I decided to set my alarm to remind me to get to the restaurant I had booked a table at, and it turned out to be a good idea as I ended up passing out only minutes after settling in.

The 5275 pipes of the organ in Hallgrimskirkja.

When the alarm woke me up I realized I hadn’t prepared for my northern lights tour that evening, didn’t know where I would be picked up and was generally just a bit besides myself. I managed to eventually sort everything out and left to go and have dinner. The place was basically a meat restaurant where I started with langoustine/whale/puffin sliders followed by a lamb/duck/beef platter and finishing off with a tasty chocolate & salty caramel concoction, assisted by a large glass of red wine and port (of course…) for dessert.

I had just an hour to spare so I went to a bar in town where the ship’s musician had a gig to meet some of the guides and other passengers before having to leave early to go on the night’s tour. At the pickup point I bumped into 2 others from the ship and we had a blast. The evening was improved by the fact that the lights were putting on an impressive show almost non-stop for the entire time we were there. And we could agree on trash talking some of the other people from the bus as they had no idea how to adhere to the light-discipline necessary to have the best chance of seeing the lights under the best of circumstances. Returning to Reykjavik around 0200 we once again said our goodbyes and I went back to the hotel and straight to bed for some much-needed sleep.

Last day in Reykjavik and as my flight was during the afternoon and I had nothing planned I decided to wait until the last moment to check out and then spend a few hours having my last walk around before getting picked up and going to the airport. The lounge there was not very busy, had an excellent selection of food (and desserts!) and had seats pointed out towards the tarmac. Flight home was brilliant; awesome food, free functioning wifi and great service. What a nice way of ending another trip!

The Icelandic Opera.

Big thanks to Lauren Farmer (expedition leader), Catherine Ardagh (assistant expedition leader), Stephen Anstee (zodiac master), Blaise Guld (musician), Kerstin Langenberger (naturalist), Mario Placidi Spring (naturalist), Gerard Baker (BBC documentary maker/naturalist), Dr. Annette Bombosch (marine biologist), Michael Bowen (firearms master), Phil Hunter (naturalist), Bismarck Sommerfelt (naturalist), Vera Thaler (naturalist), Heidi Krajewsky (marine biologist), Luyang Zhao (naturalist), Dr. Trond Hansen (ship’s doctor) and Jacqueline Deely (photographer). Big thanks to the captain Juraj Zeikan and the rest of the crew whose names I don’t remember or don’t know. You all did some mighty fine work making this tour amazing.

Big thanks to Andre, Kimbrie, Brian, Daniel, Lora, Brittany, Graham, Allison, Fiona, Yogin, Britta, Meg and everyone else I should have mentioned but haven’t. You were a cool pile of people and I hope to get to meet you again some time in the future.

You can find the complete album here.

14th – 15th – Crossing to Iceland

Due to the crossing and having nothing important scheduled there would be no wakeup call so I set my alarm to 0800 when breakfast started which would still give me an hour to get something to eat. Waking up a few minutes before the alarm when off I decided to skip breakfast and instead just take my time getting up and ready. A while later I overheard that a sperm whale had been spotted during the beginning of breakfast which annoyed me to no end. It did help a bit when I later found out that not much else than a dorsal fin was seen.

A recovery from the morning’s disappointment was made when I was standing outside during the day looking for whales (or anything else interesting that decided to make themselves noticed). With the assistance of a helpful guide’s sharp eyes we saw a humpback whale breaching. I only just caught the first jump out the corner of my eye but the second was spot on as we now more or less knew where it was. It was far away with low visibility but I was still satisfied as it was something I had been hoping to see for some time.

Greetings from a humpback.

Pomarine jaeger.

A mother humpback and her calf.

The rest of the first day was uneventful and in the evening the ship held its first Expedition Got Talent show where anybody could step up and show off a (hidden) talent. While there was singing, playing, recitals and a guide couple showing off skills in African Boot Dancing the evening slowly turned into a karaoke show – which for the record wasn’t a disappointment as it was its very own level of entertainment.

Things took a slight turn during the night as northern lights were spotted above us. As opposed to last sighting we had overcast weather so we didn’t get to see the lights directly. Instead they lighted up the clouds in greens which resulted in a quite surreal view. But I can’t help think that if the lights were enough to make the clouds that green there must have been quite a lot going on above.

Second day of the crossing we were still having great conditions. We were (still) on the lookout for whales as we were nearing the point where it might be the last chance to get to see them on the tour. During the period of 0900-1700 we had two confirmed spouts and 2 maybes. The wind picked up during the afternoon when we first saw the coast of Iceland, followed by light random drizzle devolving into rain, and while this did make it harder to spot anything it felt like nothing but a wet desert.

Reaching the coast of Iceland. 

Northern gannet.

Reykjavik by night.

We had our final briefing that evening with cocktails and snacks with the captain, a raffle and as usual auctioneering off the ship’s flag. Dinner was enjoyed and during our drinks in the bar afterwards we docked in Reykjavik.

Third time's the charm....

13th – We all float down here

Wakeup call was at 0700, an hour before breakfast as opposed to the normal only half an hour before. This was due to traditional arctic plunge being on the schedule this morning from the ship’s gangway. People lined up and as it got to their turn they got a belt in which a rope was clicked onto so if they needed assistance they could just be pulled up and out. The air was around 3°C and so was the water, so it wasn’t quite the Blue Lagoon outside Reykjavik.

People who do this stuff voluntarily are insane.

Weirdos.

The face of regret.

Big thanks to Jacqueline Deely for this very... flattering photo of me.

After breakfast we went out on our last zodiac cruise of the trip. We puttered about among icebergs and for once it was dry and the sun started slowly burning through the cloud cover. It’s always amazing getting up close to the large blocks of ice and the surrounding area was stunningly covered in a mix of red vegetation and dark grey rock.

Back on the ship we had lunch and at the same time the we raised the anchor and started heading back east again, leaving the fjord. When we came near Hall Bredning a large amount of huge ice bergs were drifting about, and as the bridge determined that we would have plenty of time to get to Iceland they decided to spend a few hours just zig-zagging through the area getting to see some absolutely stunning and enormous icebergs. They are still not nearly the same size as the ones you get to see in Antarctica (massive tabular icebergs) but here they feel like they have more personality as opposed to the tabular ones due to the large differences in sizes and shapes. After dinner we had a beautiful sunset, a fitting goodbye from Greenland which has shown itself from a very positive side despite the at times slightly questionable weather.

At around midnight we reached open waters and while the rocking did increase it is – so far – nothing to really worry about. Yet.

12th – Walking on no sunshine

Most of the night had been spent on bringing us to the next spot, near Sydkap, where it would be possible to come out and have a walk. They promised (or threatened, depending on preference) that this would be the longest walk but the environment would also be significantly flatter than the previous ones, thus making it easier and potentially more relaxing.

The walk, which ended up being close to 6km, went through an area parallel with the shore line which was absolutely stunning with warm red and yellow colours covering the ground. Due to the vegetation when walking it felt almost bog-like with your feet softly sinking down for each step you took. We started off by ascending quite steeply but following that the rest of the walk was slowly descending back down to sea level. The soft conditions made the walk much less of a strain than the usual rocky gravel that we had gotten used to. During the walk we did get quite a bit of rain but with a view over the water with numerous icebergs and the nature around you it was easy to ignore the increasing wetness.

In the afternoon we sailed further into the fjord with the goal of getting as far in as the concentration of icebergs would allow us, and approximately an hour before dinner we arrived at our destination for the day, Rypefjord. On the way there we sailed through amazing views of 2000m rocks on both our sides and large and oddly-shaped icebergs floating by. As the cloud layer was at around 1500m we never really got a chance to see the peaks along the way, though. Rain and visibility (or lack thereof) marred the enjoyment a bit but it was definitely doable sitting inside seeing life drift by, occasionally running out into the cold, shooting a bunch of photos before hurrying inside again before any body parts froze off.

Anchor point.  

The place we anchored is in a small corner sheltered form the elements and with a view to some seemingly lush hillsides going down to the beaches. A few musk oxen were lurking about on a ridgeline but disappeared when we approached.

After dinner we had an arctic quiz. We ended up with 29/44 which put us in second place – unfortunately first place was taken by three different teams each having 30/44 points.

11th – Stroking my ego

We had a late wakeup call at 0730 which meant we got to sleep in today which wasn’t unappreciated. During the night we had relocated to the town of Ittoqqortoormiit, more or less the only settlement on the east coast of Greenland.

After the authorities had visited the ship and OK’ed passports and stuff we were allowed to get into our zodiacs and land in town. We spent a couple of hours here just walking around and taking in the sights before returning to the ship and had lunch.

Ittoqqortoormiit seen from the ship.

Ittoqqortoormiit seen from land.

The main attraction in town was the husky puppies that resulted in a lot of oohs and aahs, but otherwise there wasn’t much. It was a small town with a couple hundred inhabitants and houses in colourful variations. There obviously was a supermarket, church and school, but also a tourist office and a science station could be found. At the tourist office we got to taste a bit of musk ox; it was quite gamey but unfortunately also quite chewy.

Guides Heidi and Annette getting their ration of cuddles.

Never underestimate a good butt scratch.

When booking the trip, the 51 Chinese on the ship did not need visas to come to Denmark (which Greenland is part of), but a month before departure the requirements changed and which meant that they now did need one. Unfortunately maybe only half of them got theirs in time, so the rest were unfortunately not allowed to come on land and had to settle with driving up and down along the coast in zodiacs. I can’t imagine how big a disappointment that must have been.

After lunch we were meant into a specific fjord but due to 40+ knot winds and high swells we had to change plans and instead we went to Vinkingebugt for a walk. And that plan changed, too, as there were polar bears in the area, so instead we once again went into the zodiacs and tried getting closer to the two separate bears. The area also had beautiful icebergs and basalt columns. 

Snow red from algae.

Basalt columns.

The weather today was as other days; cool, overcast and limited visibility with the occasional drizzle. In the afternoon during the cruise it had turned into actual rain so we ended up getting quite wet from being outside. But with the sightings it was worth it.

Even though icebergs are made from the same thing the differences in size, shape and structure is astonishing.

During the afternoon’s relocation the ship photographer grabbed hold of me and asked to see some of my photos from the tour so far. It does feel great having a professional photographer tell you she wants some of one’s photos so they might be used for the end-of-tour slideshow. And she is struggling with her equipment – we have the same camera body/lens combo and yet mine tend to turn out much sharper than hers. While it is a technical issue and not a matter of lack of skill on her part it still feels, on some level, great being told that she prefers mine photos over her own.

Like yesterday, I have no expectations for northern lights tonight.