Here’s the view from my porthole this morning. It was chilly and lightly rainy, when I came down the stairs to get into the zodiac and saw this:
Lovely!
We were heading to a landing spot with the basalt lava rocks that I saw in Ireland and again on the black beach in Iceland.
I tried to get a decent shot but I was on the wrong side of the zodiac.
This was what we had to clamber all over while getting to the top of the steep cliff. A couple of men slipped and fell, so you’d better believe that I was testing each footfall before I put my weight on them!
Look at the fresh snow on the mountains! At least, I’m reliably informed that it’s fresh snow. How would I know?
The aim was to get over to the top of the basalt cliff to get some photos. Mission accomplished.
Woo hoo!!! One of the guides took this for me. You can see the size of the iceberg next to the ship.
See the size and length of the stones?
When we were putt-putting across from the ship at 5 knots/hr, it was cold and I thought that I wouldn’t be here for long. But once I was on the top of the cliff, standing and gazing out across the fjord, things were different.
Look at that glacier, with the levels of sediment and fresh snow. You’d swear someone organised it as an art installation or something.
I remembered standing , looking out across a bay in Antarctica and feeling the same feeling of peace. There, of course, we could hear the penguins calling, but I had the same urge to simply stand and observe the sheer beauty of the water and ice.
I started talking to Pilar, a woman from Chile, who informed me that I have a doppelgänger- her best friend.
As a joke, I said, “She must be a very good looking woman!” and I felt a bit embarrassed when she seriously replied, “Yes, she is.”
You have to be careful when joking with people whose first language isn’t English.
Our afternoon excursion was a zodiac cruise for 3 or 4 hours. Last week bears were sighted where we were scheduled to land, so in the interests of safety, we were staying on the water.
We were warned to dress VERY warmly, because it was 4C, rainy and we’d be sitting in a zodiac for over 3 hours. Do I put on every layer I had… all 8 of them. It was good that I did.
We headed for the glacier. We were back in the 5 knots/hr speed limit because of the narwhals, so it took nearly half an hour to get to the glacier. Lots of beautiful icebergs around, though.
We hung a right. There were 5 waterfalls, and a small smudge of white near the water’s edge.
On the first night of the cruise, we were taught that polar bear sightings are always small pale dots on the horizon. I was thinking, there’s no way that’s a bear! It’s too small!
I was correct. It wasn’t A polar bear. It was three.
We crept closer in the zodiacs. For around 30 minutes, they stayed together, sleeping. I had lots of photos of this, but they’re not all that interesting. I love this one where, at the end, you see the water coming off her coat.
In Greenland, if you’re on land and you see a bear, the law is instant evacuation of the area. But because we were in zodiacs, we could hang around.
Sasha, our guide in our zodiac, has lived for years up in the north and is very familiar with polar bears. He said that these cubs would be around 7 months old.
They’ll live with their mother for another year before she’ll chase them away.
When they were born, they were as big as a lemming.
She’s fairly skinny now, but Sasha said in a week or so, when the pack ice starts to form, she’ll be able to walk out and start hunting seals and she’ll put on weight.
He said he’s never seen a mother bear with two cubs like this. “Of course, this happened on the day I forgot my camera,” he said sadly.
What a magnificent thing to see. I know that I booked this trip mainly to see the Northern Lights, but in a contest between polar bears and the Lights, the polar bears are always going to win. I’m so very happy.
Poor Morgan. He chose to stay behind and get some work done. He missed the bears entirely.
We swung by the glacier on the way back.
It was funny. No matter how long we drove to get back to the ship, the glacier never seemed to get smaller.
The interesting thing was that in the time that we were gone from the ship, the ice floating loosely in the fjord had dramatically increased. We had to slow right down and take care, in case the propeller was damaged by running over too large chunks of ice.
People were getting cold. My 8 layers were holding fast, but my hands were starting to feel the chill. As we rounded the corner of the ship to reach the shell doors to disembark, I felt the first shiver run across my back. Perfect timing!
Everyone was very happy about the day’s events. What a wonderful thing to have seen!
Honestly, you wouldn’t be dead for quids, would you?
Tomorrow is our last landing in Greenland before we head back through what is apparently going to be a raging storm back to Iceland.
Viking Girl, if you’re reading this and you still want to meet up in Copenhagen, can you email me at lisaisateacher2@gmail.com ? I can’t access the blog email.
Dad joke of the day:
Ha, I had to look up dead for quids – agreed! Wouldn’t miss for anything!
What a thrill to see a polar bear and TWO cubs. Poor Morgan. I laughed at the little waterfall pic after all the magnificent ones he brought you to in Iceland.
Also: the picture of all the ice starting to solidify had me thinking of Shackleton and other explorers who got iced in for months or longer. You can see how it happens!!
What a lucky day!