Crossing the Denmark Strait, 8/4/2016, National Geographic Explorer
Aboard the
National Geographic Explorer
Arctic
Beginning the crossing today felt particularly significant after listening to our first speaker, archaeologist Jette Arneborg. She reminded us that we are following the route of the Vikings who left Iceland to settle in Greenland. Recent isotope analysis has confirmed that while Iceland’s Vikings came from both Scandinavia and the British Isles, Greenland’s Vikings came from Iceland. Jette didn’t get to finish her presentation though, because we came upon a series of whales mid-morning that included fin, sei, and minke whales. They were accompanied by a few seabirds, and we were particularly excited to see several greater shearwaters.
Crossings can be a good time for reflection and preparation, and today we went through the Arctic briefing to get ready for both the landscape and cultural interactions we will experience in Greenland. However, there wasn’t much time to rest today, as we came upon our first icebergs early in the afternoon. We passed beautiful slabs from the Greenland ice sheet and admired both their blue tone and the dark gravel and stones that adorned them–all hewn from the landmass of Greenland itself.
Mid-afternoon, Brent Stephenson presented on seabirds of the north Atlantic so we could understand more about the birds we have seen thus far. He was hardly finished when we were back on deck to observe a small group of humpback whales. Three of them surfaced together and breathed in unison. Their blows reached high into the sky and hung in the still air for minutes at a time. We could see their white pectoral fins glowing blue beneath the surface of the water, and we got close enough to see the unique patterns under their flukes.
This evening we can already see the mountains of east Greenland welcoming us. With very little sea ice on the coast this year, we anticipate our first Greenlandic landing first thing tomorrow.
Jennifer Kingsley is a journalist and writer from Ottawa, Canada who specializes in personal stories from around the world. In 2015, she founded Meet the North, a three-year storytelling journey to six Arctic nations. Her work then expanded to island...
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On Saturday, National Geographic Explorer pressed her way through the low-lying fog of the Davis Strait and into the Nuuk fjord. Arriving just at the opening of the fjord, the fog cleared, giving us blue skies and a stunning view of Greenland’s capital and largest city, Nuuk. An Arctic urban environment held in check by some of the oldest known geology in the world, guests set out to explore what Greenland had to offer by way of city life. But there was more than vibrantly colored homes, welcoming shops, and sun-deck coffee shops. Nuuk’s nearby nature was also worth beholding. Guests experienced the expanse of Nuuk on a bus tour led by a local guide. Meandering through roundabouts and up and down hillsides, we saw firsthand the urbanization of the city. The tour began in the colonial harbor where the history of Nuuk was first recorded, but we then quickly made our way through Nuussuaq, which in Greenlandic means ‘the new place’. Our guide remarked that while the neighborhood of Nuussuaq was only built in the last 30 years, it was already beginning to show signs of aging. As we moved into the newest expansion of Nuuk, called Qinngorput, we could see how rapidly Greenland is modernizing and expanding. Both before and after, many guests were also treated with a cultural history lesson of not only Nuuk, but of Greenland and the Inuit culture. The National Museum of Greenland has in recent years also expended its exhibits, which cover the colonial history of Greenland, traditions within Inuit culture and a special emphasis on kayaks, larger boats, and other seagoing vessels. Importantly, the museum also houses the Qulakittsoq mummies. Nearly perfectly preserved in snow and icepack, the mummies from North Greenland were on display as a fair and somber reminder of how difficult it must have been to live a subsistence livelihood in Greenland several hundred years ago. While some of us found great joy in exploring the shops and cultural center of Nuuk, others sought to see a little bit of Nuuk and the Nuuk fjord from above. We traveled by charter bus through the town and its neighborhoods to the Nuuk Airport, a modest and cozy airstrip where daily flights come and go from the capital. There, we were met by our local guide as well as the two Greenlandic pilots of our charter flight. They described the path that we would take from takeoff to landing. Their enthusiasm and excitement was infectious. And before we knew it, we were boarding the twin prop plane and taking off with the cockpit door open. Cruising at about 4 to 700 meters between the mountains of the fjord, we saw the beauty of Greenland’s geology up close. We flew south to one of two of the hallmark mountains in the Nuuk fjord, called Jordetakken, after which we headed into a somewhat infamous fjord. Ameralik fjord is known for its waves, wind and swell, and as we banked around Jordetakken, we certainly felt the crosswind as our Dash 8 shook and stabilized. With the tailwind, we traveled eastward to the mouth of the fjord. The water turned from a cerulean blue with whitecaps to a milky, turquoise blue. It was there that the silt from the glacier was entering the water column, painting strokes of white in the mouth of the fjord. We went lower and over the very valley where the famous Norwegian explorer Fritjof Nansen came along the land of West Greenland following what was the very first ski across the Greenland Ice Cap. What a sight it must have been for him–and for us–to see this stunning landscape. The views were only just intensifying, though. Within a minute, we were at the foot of the Greenland Ice Cap where we watched in awe the patterns and crevasses of this magnificent Arctic wonder. We saw ice melt pools of water so blue and clear as well as darkened patterns of minerals that gave the glacier its stripes. Moving northwest, our local guide pointed out the small settlement of Kapisllit where a genetically-unique Atlantic salmon run in the late summer months. With our memory cards nearly full and our minds overwhelmed with the landscape, we came in on our approach to Nuuk, touched down and snapped a few photos with our plane. After a full day of adventure back in time, around town and up high, we disembarked from Nuuk with a deeper appreciation and amazement for life in an Arctic urban environment.
Our visit today was perfectly timed after a visit to Viking ruins yesterday. At Brattahlid, we explored reconstructions of a Viking longhouse and a tiny church. The buildings were raised by archaeological experts in the year 2000, and a visit to these places helped to stir our imaginations and make us even more curious about what life would have been like 1,000 years ago. The longhouse was built of sod walls and roof, and the inside was lined with wood paneling. A stone floor formed the base, but low, wide wooden platforms on either side formed the main living area, where people would sleep, eat, and work on indoor tasks. There was a beautiful loom at the far end to make use of the sheep’s wool. The central fireplace was a key characteristic of Viking homes, and it was beautifully built here. Just 50 meters away, enclosed in a low sod fence, we entered a tiny sod church. The story goes that the founder of this settlement, Eric the Red, was a lifelong follower of the Norse belief system, but it was a different story for his son, Leif. Leif went to Norway and became very interested in Christianity. When he returned to Greenland he brought some priests with him, and, according to the Sagas, Leif’s mother (Eric’s wife) became a Christian and a tiny church was built for her. Although the reconstruction is up on a hill, the ruins of the original church, called Thjodhild’s church in her honor, sit just meters away from the small modern church still used by this community. Some of us wandered the town and others climbed the rocks to get a better view. The combination of horses, streams, ruins, and reconstructions within a small community made for a picturesque scene. We spent the afternoon at sea with presentations from National Geographic photographer Karen Kasmauski and naturalist Carl Erik Kilander. By night, we danced and sang along with our brilliant in-house band, the Spice Boys. We are bound for Nuuk, the capital of Greenland. Onward!
This morning National Geographic Explorer approached the town of Qaqortoq. This large, by Greenlandic standards, town on the southern side of Greenland is home to some 2,500 inhabitants. A Zodiac was dispatched to pick up two local guides for our morning outing farther up the fjord. After breakfast we visited one of the last remaining and oldest examples of Norse settlement in what they called the “east” settlement, even though it was in the south. The walls of a church and social hall plus other small building still exist. The church is called Hvalsey church, which basically means the place of the whales. From 985 to sometime in the early 1400s the Norse settled here and amongst other means hunted the abundant right whale that plied these waters. According to the sagas, the land around Hvalsey was settled by a close relative to Erik the Red who was the father of Leif Erikson. Christianity arrived into this part of the world close to the year 1000 and several churches of this style were built in Greenland. This particular church was built on top of graves and the foundation of another older church that may be from the time of Erik the Red. The last recorded church function was a wedding in the fall of 1408. The married couple later settled in Iceland. This date and people moving out of Greenland coincides with the advance of the Little Ice Age that drove many Norse away from Greenland as the climate became inhospitable for farming and ranching for several hundred years. During the afternoon we repositioned back to the town of Qaqortoq for a walking city tour, photographic opportunities, and a local food tasting. The weather was amazing with warm air and clouds for composition. It was all capped off by a local kayak master doing multiple rolls in the frigid waters as only the locals can perform.
