Mon
7 Sep
2015

Jyt­tes Havn in Bjør­ne Øer­ne (Bear Islands) is one of the most beau­tiful natu­ral har­bours in Score­s­by­sund. Grundt­vigs­kir­ke and other moun­ta­ins around eas­tern Øfjord, almost 2000 met­res high, have per­fect mir­ror images on the calm water in the mor­ning sun. The hike up the rocky hills is a bit deman­ding, but easy for strong hikers and the views are extre­me­ly rewar­ding.

Fur­ther south, Char­cot Havn is the only useful bay on the eas­tern side of Mil­ne Land. In con­trast to the very old crystal­li­ne bed­rock that makes up most of inner Score­s­by­sund, the­re is some sedi­ment rock on the sou­thern side of the bay, a wes­tern out­lier of the Jame­son Land Basin, and some fos­sils would be inte­res­t­ing for a chan­ge. The slo­pe does not look too pro­mi­sing, the lower part cover­ed with morai­ne rem­nants, all crystal­li­ne base­ment rock, whe­re no Meso­zoic frut­ti di mare would have got lost. Fur­ther up, the­re are coar­se sand­stone blocks. And they have got it all: bival­ves, bra­chio­pods, coral frag­ments, belem­ni­tes, the who­le lot. Juras­sic wad­den sea, pre­ser­ved in the rocks for more than 150 mil­li­on years, brought to day­light by gla­ciers and frost action.

Gal­lery Bjør­ne Øer­ne & Char­cot Havn – 07th Sep­tem­ber 2015

Click on thumb­nail to open an enlar­ged ver­si­on of the spe­ci­fic pho­to.

Huge ice­bergs are drif­ting every here and the­re in the late evening light, while Ópal is sai­ling through Hall Bred­ning, the wide-open midd­le part of the Score­s­by­sund. The water is flat calm, a beau­tiful evening.

Sun
6 Sep
2015

The late night brought ano­ther high­light: a nor­t­hern light. The sky was glo­wing with green colours abo­ve the sou­thwes­tern moun­ta­ins when a beau­tiful auro­ra star­ted to shi­ne, coming and going a cou­ple of times. That was defi­ni­te­ly ano­ther wish that all of us here on board had.

Pho­to Nor­t­hern light – 06th Sep­tem­ber 2015

Sun
6 Sep
2015

The coun­try in inner Score­s­by­sund is most­ly steep and rather alpi­ne, and it is not easy to find a place for a lon­ger hike. No ques­ti­on that we had to go out once for a good walk to get lost in the arc­tic natu­re with body and soul. Today was the day, both the ter­rain and the wea­ther were per­fect for it.

Pho­to C. Hof­mann Hal­vo – 06th Sep­tem­ber 2015 – 1/2

The tun­dra is glo­wing in all autumn colours: the Arc­tic wil­low in green and yel­low, the Dwarf birch in red and brown and the Crow­ber­ry with a red so inten­se as if they had an light­bulb inbuilt. The hike is taking us from one hill crow­ned with a huge erra­tic bould­er to the next one, every sin­gle one invi­ting for shorter or lon­ger breaks to let the eye wan­der over the wide tun­dra and the colourful moun­ta­ins. A first class arc­tic expe­ri­ence, fault­less polar plea­su­re. A sno­wy hare and some musko­xen are the icing on the cake.

Pho­to C. Hof­mann Hal­vo – 06th Sep­tem­ber 2015 – 2/2

The pas­sa­ge through Øfjord makes the round trip through the inner fjords of Score­s­by­sund com­ple­te. 40 nau­ti­cal miles through this migh­ty sound, whe­re near-ver­ti­cal rock­walls drop a kilo­met­re below sea level and rise simi­lar­ly high abo­ve. A feast for tho­se inte­res­ted in geo­lo­gy and in aes­the­ti­cal struc­tures in rocks, and tho­se who want to be impres­sed by the dimen­si­ons of a huge land­scape, will find their hea­ven here any­way.

Pho­to Ofjord – 06th Sep­tem­ber 2015

Sat
5 Sep
2015

The dis­play of colours at Røde Ø was impres­si­ve, but even more impres­si­ve was the big­ger dis­play of the same colours in one of the can­yons fur­ther north. Nor­mal­ly, natu­re expe­ri­ence is not a mat­ter of get­ting the same thing big­ger, bet­ter or fas­ter, but in this case, refer­ring to the colours, this was the impres­si­on. We just went into one of the­se can­yons wit­hout kno­wing how far we would get. We got ama­zin­gly far. Hundreds of met­res of near ver­ti­cal rock­walls to all sides, screa­ming dark red, crow­ned by a deep blue sky. An explo­si­on of two colours, an ama­zing inten­si­ty.

Pho­to Rodefjord Can­yon – 05th Sep­tem­ber 2015

Fur­ther north, musko­xen are gra­zing not far from the shore, then we reach a smal­ler out­let gla­cier that comes down from the inland ice. After a litt­le climb, we get nice views down onto a crev­as­sed gla­cier. On the way, an unex­pec­ted, hap­py mee­ting with a small musko­xen fami­ly. Sur­pri­se on both sides, came­ras here, some moments of thin­king the­re, then they move away. Ama­zing how fast the­se arc­tic, ice-age-style goats can climb up the steep slo­pes.

Pho­to Harefjord – 05th Sep­tem­ber 2015

A litt­le evening walk into the colours of the sun­set – again colours, that is just how Green­land is on a nice late sum­mer day. Ópal is alre­a­dy ancho­red in a litt­le bay as we arri­ve.

Fri
4 Sep
2015

Fønfjord has got its name for a reason, and it lived up to its repu­ta­ti­on. Of cour­se the kat­aba­tic wind blows down and away from the inland ice, straight on the nose for us, that is. It is safe to bet the house on it. Pret­ty strong today, the wind.

But who says you can’t go ashore in Fønfjord?

Pho­to Fjord of wind – fjord of colours – 04rd Sep­tem­ber 2015

The­re is a nice litt­le bay on the shore of Mil­ne Land, whe­re Ópal cele­bra­ted her love­ly water cerem­o­ny. Mea­ning that we fil­led up our water sup­pli­es the­re. The cap­tain put the bow straight on to the beach, and down into a litt­le clear stream with the pump. Small ship plea­su­res!

Pho­to Røde Ø – 04rd Sep­tem­ber 2015 – 1/2

Rødefjord also has got its name for a reason. Deep­ly red sand­stone. Near Red Island, natu­re has crea­ted an ama­zing wall of basalt colum­ns like a pile of fire­wood. Ver­ti­cal rock faces, just like Marl­bo­ro Coun­try.

Pho­to Røde Ø – 04rd Sep­tem­ber 2015 – 2/2

But the ice­bergs are of cour­se the best part. The famous ice­berg gra­vey­ard north of Røde Ø, ice­berg alley, ice­berg city, wha­te­ver you want to call it. An incre­di­ble gathe­ring of huge ice­bergs, migh­ty giants, groun­ded and sur­roun­ded with water calm like a mir­ror, sca­ry dimen­si­ons and ama­zing num­bers. Deep green colours indi­ca­te mas­si­ve volu­mes of ice under water. After the zodiac tour, cap­tain Hörður asked me if I lik­ed it. What a ques­ti­on. If you don’t like that, then Green­land is not a place to go for you. The sheer beau­ty would make ever­yo­ne speach­l­ess, I guess.

Thu
3 Sep
2015

The night has brought a fresh, white cover of snow to the ship and to the land. But it is tha­wing alre­a­dy, get­ting grey and wet, and it will not last for long.

The crew has to fight some near­go­ing ice floes off with long poles during the night.

Pho­to Basalt hea­ven in Vikin­ge­bug­ten – 03rd Sep­tem­ber 2015

The who­le coun­try south of Score­s­by­sund con­sists of basalt. The blood of the Earth, shed when a crack star­ted to split a huge con­ti­nent from south to north. The crack kept gro­wing and today we know it as the Atlan­tic oce­an. The Earth’s blood that was spil­led during ear­ly stages of that pro­cess, that is the basalt. A huge basalt pla­teau that later bro­ke into two parts. The Færøer Islands are part of the eas­tern bit.

Pho­to Taen­der­ne – 03rd Sep­tem­ber 2015

East Green­land south of Score­s­by­sund is the wes­tern bit. This is why we find so many of nature’s archi­tec­tu­ral mas­ter­pie­ces, the basalt colum­ns, in this area, in all shapes and sizes. The snow makes the struc­tures very appearent in many places.

Pho­to Hecla Havn – 03rd Sep­tem­ber 2015

It is clea­ring up in the after­noon. The rocky hills of Dan­mark Ø invi­te for some good hiking. Colourful rocks pro­vi­de insight in bil­li­ons of years of Earth histo­ry next to ama­zing views over a very fine bit of Green­land.

Wed
2 Sep
2015

It could have been a love­ly calm night of despera­te­ly nee­ded good sleep if that film team had not picked the litt­le street just out­side my guest­house room to start film­ing at 5 a.m. I hope it will be a suc­cessful film, at least.

At 8 a.m., our small group of Green­land explo­rers met at the litt­le dome­stic air­port. Crossing the Den­mark Strait in 27000 feet alti­tu­de is much fas­ter and more com­for­ta­ble than riding the waves for days.

Pho­to Blos­se­ville Kyst – 02nd Sep­tem­ber 2015

The first part of Green­land that we saw was the Blos­se­ville Kyst around Rømer Ø, south of Score­s­by­sund.

Pho­to Consta­ble Point – 02nd Sep­tem­ber 2015

In Hur­ry Inlet, Ópal was wai­ting for us next to her sis­ter ves­sel Don­na Wood, a new mem­ber of the North Sai­ling fleet.

The first ice­bergs never fail to attract atten­ti­on, and so do the moun­ta­ins south of Score­s­by­sund. This wild coast is cal­led Vol­quart Boons Kyst, a very inhos­pi­ta­ble shore, with rug­ged moun­ta­ins rising stee­p­ly more than 1000 met­res high from the fjord, sepa­ra­ted by some crev­as­sed gla­ciers. A view as for­bid­ding as attrac­ti­ve.

Pho­to Hall Bred­ning – 02nd Sep­tem­ber 2015

We want to get to the inner bran­ches of the fjord, so we spend the after­noon sai­ling until we reach Vikin­ge­bug­ten. The anchor goes to the bot­tom and we go to bed.