FINALLY! After a full day at sea we closed in on the coast of the national park of Northeast Greenland, and what a day we would have. It was 12 degrees Celsius with bright sunshine, and the clouds looked very lonely up among all the blue.
From the bridge, the early birds could already feel the excitement developing among the staff members while we scouted out over the Mosquito Bay, Myggbukta, where three lonely structures and a flagpole greeted us in the sunshine.
After the staff had secured the landing, we began our shore operations, and the different groups headed off to explore the tundra landscape and the historical cabins.
The long hikers went up high to get a good look out over the bay and valley. The photo groups went down on their bellies to secure a photo of the flowers, including the national flower of Greenland, the Broadleaved fireweed or Niviasiaq as it is called in the local language. At the cabins everyone was greeted by a “near manic” Kasper. He was trying his best to convey how very special this place is, not just for him, but for the entire history of this part of Greenland.
After leaving Myggbukta, we headed south around Cape Franklin and into the fjord system of the great Kejser Franz Joseph fjord. Here, among mountains coming straight out of the ocean to heights nearing 2000m, we sailed in the sunshine. This is definitely how a high Arctic summer is supposed to look. On the slopes, a few muskox were spotted, but without binos or a scope they looked like black dots on the mountain. We all hoped for closer encounters of these strange animals.
Since there were are no more landings in store for us today, the afternoon was spent listening to our guest speaker Minik Rosing about exploration history in Greenland. After dinner, the master took the vessel into a small side fjord to Kejser Franz Joseph, called Nordfjord, where we found a large glacier front and many small icebergs to enjoy. While we were all enjoying the scenery, the radio suddenly called out “POLAR BEAR! In the water!” That sent everyone out of the dining room and onto the decks. And YES it was a swimming polar bear crossing the fjord in front of us. Though it was definitely on a mission, and we quickly we lost sight if it, this sighting boded well for the rest of the voyage. As a final salute from Nordfjord, we witnessed the power of floating icebergs, when the biggest of the bergs in the fjord suddenly started to disintegrate and roll, first one way and then the other. We observed this with awe from the bridge and several of us made comments about never wanting to get too close to big ice.
For a first day in Greenland, this was magic both for guests and staff, and we have just started this epic journey.
