This morning we were gently caressed out of our deep slumber by the soothing tones of our expedition leader Michael’s voice as he made his morning announcement. As we peered out of our cabin windows we gazed at a thick fog that had enveloped the ship overnight.
After another delicious breakfast we joined our naturalist Magnus in the lounge for his presentation on the iconic Arctic species–the polar bear. After a short coffee break we headed back to the lounge this time to listen to Grace, another one of our naturalists, as she detailed the interesting history of Greenland’s Geology.
After lunch with thick fog still surrounding the ship we reached right into the bottom of the mystery lecture barrel and discovered an interesting presentation from Adam, another of our naturalists, this time on the History of Ocean Navigation.
The ship sailed out of the fog and into beautiful clear skies just as Adam’s presentation ended so the plan was quickly announced: We would spend the afternoon visiting a remote Inuit village called Ittoqqortoormiit, in Scoresbysund on Greenland’s southeast coast.
After stepping ashore we were immediately overwhelmed by the many smiling friendly faces that welcomed us with open arms into their small community. We visited the local museum receiving an intriguing introduction to the local culture and also dropped by the local art store to buy a few souvenirs for our friends back home. On our way back to the Zodiacs we couldn’t help ourselves and had to stop by the kennels to get our share of husky puppy kisses before departing this special little town.
As National Geographic Explorer weighed anchor it once again sailed back into the thick fog from the brilliant blue skies that seemed to only shine above this small town and nowhere else. As we sat down to dinner to regale our own different adventures we had had in the village we could only wonder to ourselves, was it all just a dream?
