Greenland. Days 48 to 50. 15th to 17th August 2013.
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So this was the last post for Spitsbergen and Greenland. In the weekend I’m off down the south coast of New South Wales to cover the Narooma Festival. Then directly after that I’m off on another photographic trip that lasts two months. More on that tomorrow.
Greenland. Days 43 to 48. 10th to 15th August 2013.
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Mountains and clouds from Antarctic Sund.
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Gary Rolfe and Huskies, Ittoqqortoomiit.
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Nordvestfjorden, Scoresby Sund, Greenland. Day 49. 16th August 2013.
In our last afternoon in Greenland we glided round Nordvestfjorden in zodiacs, admiring the icebergs.
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The kayaking group from our ship.
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And finally back to the ship, from whence we sailed for Iceland.
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In Denmark Strait we encountered a huge pod of maybe one hundred humpback whales. Denmark Straight is between Greenland and Iceland but it is Greenland you can see in the background.
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So, as we leave Greenland at the end of our Arctic wilderness expedition, a humpback whales bids us farewell….
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(Three monochrome posts still to come)
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(Trivia note: The blog has just passed 100,000 views. View number 100,000 came from the US of either Eskimobugt or Bear Islands & Syd Kap).
Eskimobugt, Nordvestfjord, Scoresby Sund, Greenland. Day 49. 16th August 2013.
Eskimobugt or Eskimo Bay is in Nordvestfjord, the north west extremity of the Scoresby Sound fjord complex. I can’t be more specific than that.
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There was a sad sight when we landed. There were some musk oxen wandering around in the distance, both adults and young. However, rather closer to us there was a dead mother musk ox and her calf lying down beside the body, waiting to die of starvation.
This is a group of our expeditioners observing this from a polite distance. This also has the element of a sad scene. The central tall person with a light coat and blue hat, the genial Dr John Boyd, is no longer with us. He died of a heart attack at the unreasonably early age of 50 or so.
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Musk ox calf on the left; dead mother on the right.
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An adult musk ox, maybe moulting after winter.
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Musk ox skull. There had been fatalities here before.
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Views over Nordvestfjorden.
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This is a two-image panorama and expands to a larger size.
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The inevitable accompaniment to a walk in Greenland or Spitsbergen.
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This image also expands to a large size if you click on it..
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Another musk ox.
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Arctic hares.
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There was no walrus to talk to, no-one in our party called Alice and this is not even a white rabbit. For one thing, the ears are too long. It is of course, an arctic hare.
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Hare we go again….
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Some icebergs attain quite fetching shapes.
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Eskimobugten. Well, here is the remains of an ancient Inuit residence.
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Part of a reindeer antler …
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… and I guess, part of a reindeer backbone. Perhaps leftovers from an Inuit feast.
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Inside wall of an ancient Inuit house. Bones at the top and probably a safe at the bottom.
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That same dwelling wall in the context of its environment.
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Bear Islands and Syd Kap, Scoresby Sund, Greenland. Day 48. 15th August 2013.
We went out in the zodiacs in the morning at the Bear Islands, navigating around in a forest of huge icebergs.
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It was raining most of the day but that didn’t dampen our enthusiasm for the spectacular scenery around us.
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Some remarkable patterns in the ice, too. I think the blue bands are fissures that have refrozen.
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Then we encountered a polar bear swimming in the water (water trail at bottom left).
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He got to land, looked at us for a while, then disappeared out of sight.
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Later in the afternoon we had a landing at Syd Kap. Even some places in eastern Greenland you can find wildflowers.
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This is an ancient Inuit meat safe or fridge in the context of the environment. They could put say a seal kill in there with stones over the top, safe from arctic foxes and polar bears.
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Hare Fjord, Scoresby Sund, Greenland. Day 47. 14th August 2013.
From Red Island we moved up Rødefjord and around the corner to Harefjord. Perhaps there was a prehistoric Krishna community here but I think it a touch more likely the fjord was named after the Arctic Hare.
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There are many places on the eastern Greenland coast with the remains of ancient Inuit habitations. Here Carol, our resident archaeologist, explains such a site.
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This I think is the view from the same place but looking in a different direction.
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Same view, longer lens.
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Many of us went for a walk and visited the ice river that you can see above.
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Up close, of course, it’s a lot bigger.
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A view of Hare Fjord from near the ice river. Click image for a larger view.
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Later that evening, the weather was closing in and we were sailing on, along Øfjord. All following images are from the ship.
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Red Island, Scoresby Sund, Greenland. Day 47. 14th August 2013.
From Scoresby Sund we sailed through the much smaller Fønfjord. Next morning we were at Røde Ø or Red Island, at the intersection of Fønfjord and Rødefjord, out in the zodiacs, puttering around amongst the ice. These images start before dawn, at around 5am.
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You will notice here the diagonal lines etched into the large iceberg at the right. This indicates the berg has turned over in the water and is now sitting at a different angle. It’s not advisable to get close to an iceberg in a zodiac. Two thirds of the berg is below the water. The top slowly melts and it becomes unstable so it turns over, suddenly and without warning.
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This is still from the zodiac and must be looking at a glacier on the western side of Fønfjord , near Red Island. I have no idea of the name of the glacier (or even whether it has one).
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This is later, at 9:30am and must be from the ship, probably steaming up Rødefjord.
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Now at noon, it is time for the “polar plunge”, where people elect to take a dip in the somewhat chilly arctic waters. This is Bonnie Yap, a photographer from Kuala Lumpur.
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What made this particularly different is that she never learnt to swim but she wanted to have an experience beyond the bounds of her normal reality.
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For a few long moments the spectators were starting to get quite concerned.
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Then the zodiac turned up and all was well. There was also a sauna waiting for her below deck..
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Scoresby Sund, Greenland. Day 46. 13th August 2013.
From Ittoqqortoomiit, we sailed in Scoresby Sund towards our destination for the next day. We had been scheduled to have a landing near Ittoqqortoomiit at Kap Stewart but this was abandoned due to poor weather. However, there were plenty of icebergs to observe along the way. All these images were taken from the ship, rather than from a zodiac.
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Ittoqqortoomiit, Greenland. Day 46. 13th August 2013.
Some of you may know of Shanghai, the vast metropolis of the east coast of China. Others may know of New York, the vast metropolis on the east coast of North America.
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Well, this is Ittoqqortoomiit, the vast metropolis on the east coast of Greenland. It is quite similar to Shanghai in that not very many people from Madagascar live there (if any) and the population is over 400.
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This is a multi-image panorama that expands to a larger size when you click on it, if you want to see more detail.
Well, OK, at 452 people in 2013, Ittoqqortoomiit is actually the second largest conurbation in eastern Greenland though that one’s about as far away as Reykjavik and there’s nothing to the north. As you can tell by the name, it’s an Inuit town and Denmark (the colonial power) subsidised settlement here to guard against potential encroachment by other countries or more likely, mining companies.
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I visited the small and charming museum.
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Here are some of the historic Inuit artifacts inside the museum.
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And here is a view out the window in the loft.
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There some family groups and individuals wandering round in colourful traditional costume but it seemed presumptuous to take photographs without asking and I didn’t want a posed image. However, these people zotting round town in their tiny vehicles were fair game.
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An interesting architectural extract from one of the buildings. At first glance it looks like a fire escape under the window but why would one bother? Well, I think it is in case of heavy snow. If there is ten feet of snow and the front door is under it, you can get in and out through the window on the top floor.
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Here we have a village of dogs.
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We saw something like a canine concentration camp near Longyearbyen. This by way of contrast is a habitation of happy huskies with their owner living on the premises.
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They’re all standing up now. Must be close to feeding time.
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… and here we go ….
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The white dog at the front is particularly interested in the prospect.
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This is Gary Rolfe, an explorer and adventurer who has traveled over 20,000 miles with his dogs over the polar regions.
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And here he brings some puppies to show us.
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Gateau Point, Segelsällskapets Fjord, Greenland. Day 45. 12th August 2013.
From Alpefjord in the morning, we sailed to nearby Gateau Point for the afternoon.  If I correctly identify where this is, I think it’s near the mouth of Segelsällskapets Fjord, not far from Karlene Island.
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What makes this location special is the incredible layered rock formations..
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This is an ancient Inuit trap, for a fox or a hare.
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Anthropomorphic, it seems to me but just a natural rock assemblage.
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You can also clearly see the layers in the strata of the surrounding cliffs.
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Murray Foote 