We are travelling in the wild, where the elements are powerful and relentless. And it is certainly no good idea to be stubborn and lean up against them, as it is not wise to see changes as problems instead of opportunities. Sometimes the result can be surprisingly beautiful.
To prove our point, we decided this morning NOT to follow our plan A which would have led us to the admittedly very picturesque glacier Eqip Sermia. The ice situation, however, seemed precarious, it would have taken the whole day or more to get through in the first place.
But why not convert a bad hand into a winning one? Boats to the water, and everybody on board got an ice ride of the unforgettable kind, zig-zagging through the white and blue labyrinth, getting a glimpse of the cold forces that govern our planet on both ends. And as if to underline it, a couple of humpback whales showed up in front of the ship. And on return all faces were glowing with delight, nobody regretted this decision. King Neptune was on our side when he came to visit and baptise the guests.
But that was only half of Plan B. In the afternoon, the mind still full with impressions, we landed in Camp Frieda, named after our Friederike who spent a good part of her early life here, in a tent and researching. It is a pretty plateau at the bottom of a gentle valley. Right into this valley we go with a group of intrepid hikers, while many others joined a shovel-and-book excursion on the topic of tundra vegetation in Camp Frieda, led by - Frieda...
Oh, and shall we forget about our Kayakers? The ones who set off to paddle through the frozen alleys and along the ragged coastline, to brave wind and waves and ice? We wouldn't do that, would we?
So, at the end of the day not a single soul still thought about Eqip Sermia, our initial Plan A.
We instead had Plan A+.
