Prins Christian Sund & Tasermiut Fjord

 Today we spent the morning cruising up Prins Christian Sund, and then had 4 hiking options in Tasermiut Fjord.  First, the staff had to go ashore and A) check that there weren't any polar bears in the area, and B) find hiking routes, because this was a totally new location for them.  The dive team were excited to be diving somewhere nobody had dived before, and curious what creatures they would find.

All hikes were accompanied by 2 staff members armed with flare pistols and rifles, in case of bears. You are absolutely not permitted to stray from the group.

But first, the cruise up the sound. We spent some time on the Bridge.  Lindblad has an "open bridge" policy, meaning you are free to wander in and chat with the captain and crew at any time. Happily for us, Captain Heidi is from Sweden, so we get to chat in that language a bit. It's nice to have a place toward the front of the ship where you can see very clearly, but still be out of the wind.









Some of the mountains here are quite ridiculous!




Fair warning--there will be LOTS of iceberg pics over the coming days!

We opted for the easiest hike--which proved to be more strenuous than one might have guessed, largely due to it being over tundra.  Or in this case, over various short bushes--Labrador tea, blueberries, crowberries--which is a lot like walking on an old-fashioned spring mattress.  One step, you go up a bit, the next goes down and shifts sideways as you put your weight on it. Every step has to be at least a foot off the ground.  It was tiring.



We could have gone for a nice walk on this stony beach...

...but noooo, we had to walk here instead!

There were some rewards, though! Blue harebells were everywhere.




 
And then we sailed on, through more icebergs, which got ever larger, and more crazy mountains.






That straight white line is all glacier.  
Not sure if it's the Greenland Ice Sheet or not, or if it's just so tall we couldn't see what's behind it.
















Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

And we're off again!

Image
We weren't planning a trip this summer, until one day Lars said "You know what? I've kind of always wanted to go to Greenland!"  And so after a bit of searching online, we found Lindblad Expeditions, which is partnered with National Geographic!  We'll be on the ship National Geographic Resolution, which you can read all about here: https://www.expeditions.com/ships/national-geographic-resolution The ads make it look like a typical cruise ship, but it's much more than than.  Only 138 passengers and 116 crew make for more interaction with the staff, many of whom are photographers and naturalists.  Most trips ashore require boarding Zodiac boats, debarking into the water and splashing ashore in the rubber boots we've ordered delivered to the ship.  There are multiple excursions every day, at varying activity levels to suit everyone.  At the end of the day, right before dinner, the leader of each group does a presentation, so that you get to see what the other...
Read more

Difficult choices!

 We've gotten close enough (3 weeks out) that we've started to get questionnaires about what we'd like to do on the cruise.  This is our first hint of what SORT of activities will be offered.  It's a bit curious that they started with activities for Day 12. Here's a slightly-edited version of what we received today (we were kind of giggling over the "elevation gain" parts! Ooh, a whopping 300 feet!?!). Dear Sheila and Norman: We hope you are looking forward to your expedition, Iceland and Greenland: Edge of the Arctic aboard  National Geographic Resolution . Your voyage will be filled with a variety of optional activities for you to choose from, which we would like to begin preparations for in advance. We want to make sure you can arrive on the ship with your main focus on the experiences at hand for the first few days of the voyage. Our excursion options will be offered on a first come, first served basis, and knowing your preferences in advance will help...
Read more

Akureyri Botanic Garden

Image
 We spent a couple of hours here today. We'll mostly let the pictures speak for themselves.  The garden began as agricultural land which was set aside in 1910 for the formation of a park, the design of which was entrusted to the Akureyri Park Society, which unusually for its time, was composed entirely of women. The park was officially opened in 1912 and was Iceland's first public park. After subsequent donations of plant collections, the park was officially incorporated as a botanic garden in 1957 run by the municipality of Akureyri. The Café serves sandwiches, soups, pastries, beer, wine.... The Arctic rock garden has alpine and arctic plants from all over the world The tiniest Columbines I've ever seen! Less than 1" across. The bluest blue! Meconopus baileyi, from the Himalayas Veggie soup at the Café
Read more