Indian Summer in Iceland's West Fjords

In the morning we reached Grundafjordur, a little tiny village in Iceland´s West fjords. It looks like that we have more than one angel aboard as the weather is still more than fine. That meant we had still the best weather conditions for our planned excursions – and there have been quite a lot of them again.  
Iceland is a very special Island. Some regions are only covered with real green grass; here you will find the Icelandic sheep and Icelandic horses. Please, you should never ever call these horses ponies; the Icelanders are very sensitive in this point. Other areas are covered with vegetation that is similar to the tundra vegetation. In these areas you could get the feeling of Indian summer as the vegetation changed already to autumn color. Some areas are covered with huge glaciers. Here in the West fjords you can see the Snaefellsnes, Iceland´s smallest but more than nice glacier on top of a vulcaniv. Today we could see it even without clouds. Then of course we have the real volcanic areas. These surroundings give you sometimes the feeling to drive in a landscape you know only from pictures from the moon. And you should also never forget, that Iceland is a part of the middle ocean ridge system what means, that you are here on the ocean floor and not on the continental crust anymore.  

After a long excursion day we have been invited by our Captain Rune Andreassen to the Farwell Cocktail. Just before our last dinner we joined a Charity Auction. The proceeds went to the Association for Greenlandic Children. All together we collected more than 2500 € for the children – A good feeling after all our good experiences we had in Greenland. 

Iceland - here we come!

Our crossing to Iceland was calm and beautiful. Even through the night we had to be outside as we had a wonderful Northern Light again.

But we could sleep a little bit longer in the morning because we should reach our first destination, Isafjordur, around lunch time. The morning was filled up with lectures, so that we could start our Iceland adventure well prepared.
The sun was shining out of a clear blue sky. There have been different kinds of excursions offered to us. See at the blog pictures and you will understand how wonderful our time has been.
The evening ended with the very famous crew show. Thanks’ to the crew for this nice experience.

Scoresbysound and Denmark Strait

Today we visited the Greenlandic settlement of Scoresbysund. The town was established in 1924 by Ejnar Mikkelsen. Approximately 460 people live in this settlement, most of them Greenlandic. The weather was not the best, low clouds with a few rain drops. During the morning the wind picked up but everyone seemed to be enjouying a stroll on land and to sea all that the town had to offer. For a Sunday morning there was an impressive amount of people out-doors to give us a good day in Scoresbysund. Several puppies were also loose, roaming around trying to get some attention, which was not difficult!
Mid day we lifted anchour for the last time in East Greenland and set a course southbound for the Denmark Strait and Iceland...

Alpefjord and Mestersvig

Early this morning the FRAM dropped anchour in the bottom of Alpefjorden. This fjord is a part of the Staunings Alps, a very alpine and mountainous area. Some of the peaks are over 2800 m and the landscape is impressive! We lowered our polarcirkel boats and the passengers got a cruise a long on of the glaciers terminating in the fjord. The glacier actually two glaciers mergin together. The names are the Gully Gletcher and the Sefstrøms Gletcher. The weather was a bit cloudy with light snow showers on the summits. As we sailed out of the fjord and into Segelselskapets fjord the sun broke through the cloud cover and a spectacular rock face with many different layers of rocks in different colours were visible to everyone. 

We dropped anchour in Nyhavn, the harbour facilities of the Mestersvig area at1600 hrs. After landing at the pier with our polarcirkels we were greeted by three of people living at the Danish Naval Guard at Mestersvig. Mestersvig was built when a lead and zinc mine was opened in 1950s‘. They needed a harbour to ship the ore to Europe and an air-field. The mine closed in 1961 but the air-field continued to operate for the people in Scoresbysund. In 1985 the air-field was closed down as Scoresbysund got their own air-field in Constable Pynt. The military then took over the air-field in Mestersvig and has since „guarded“ the air-field with normaly two former members of the SIRIUS patrol, Station Nord or the other branches of the Danish Military.

Blomsterbukta & Ella Ø

We started our day early again as we wanted to use our time as best as possible. Our first landing place was called “Blomsterbugten” what means nothing else than Flower Bay in English. The bay was named by Gunnar Seidenfaden and Arne Noe-Nygaard during Lauge Koch´s expedition in 1929. During this expedition they made an important botanical collection which helped to get so much more information about the tundra so far in the north.
Next to the landing side we found a trapper hut again that is still used by Sirius Patrol. 
The vegetation was nearly gone. It looked like that the winter is coming early this year. But as the weather was still good many of us enjoyed a longer hike to a little lake in the inland. Some Snow Hare and a Hermine showed us that we have not been alone in the National Park. 

During lunch time and the early afternoon FRAM sailed through Kong Oscar Fjord in the direction of Ella Ø where we should have our 2^nd landing of the day. First we visited Lauge Koch´s scientific station that was built in 1931. It was used as a summer station for scientists until 1958. During World War II the station was taken over by Sirius Patrol and called Blue East 4. Today the station is still used by Sirius during the summer. Sirius rebuilt most of the houses and added some store houses they need for their own. We have been happy that we still met some men from the Sirius Patrol as they should be picked up by a helicopter the next day. 

Nearly everybody made an easy hike behind the station. The surrounding landscape has been unbelievable. Again we have been happy that the modern digital photography made our life so much easier. Back on board we could directly seen if we have been successful as a photographer.

Another sunny Day in the National Park of North East Greenland!

In the early morning we sailed through the wonderful Kaiser Franz Josef Fjord into the Nordfjord. There we planned a longer Polarcircel boat cruise along the calving front of the very large Waltershausen Glacier. Dressed in warm thermo and floating suites we got aboard FRAM we felt warm and cozy during our 45min. trip along the glacier. The glacier front has been 11 km long and up to app. 20m high.  Some huge icebergs swam just in front of the glacier. We enjoyed each minute in our little boat and made all together thousands of pictures. The glacier was named after the German Geologist Wolfgang Sartorius von Waltershausen. He was working on minerals in this region in the second half of the 19^th century.  

The afternoon we spent in the Strindberg Valley in the Nordfjord. Her we found another trapper hut. It was built in 1935 by several trappers from Hoelsbu. It was a special place for char fishing. In 1938 the trapper even started an experiment to can the char. But this was really not successful and was not repeated. We used the place for hiking and nature watching. Especially the huge amount of foxes we will never forget. 

War, Inuit, Ice and Polar Bears

Early this morning we lifted anchor at 0500 hrs and set course for the East side of Clavering Ø. At 0800 hrs we landed with the first boats on Dødemandsbugten (dead mans bay). In 1823 this was the first an last encounter between Europeans and an unknown Inuit settlement. Many eskimo ruins are within the beach area.
In the area the remnants of the first HQ of the North East Greenland Sledge patrol during the war is present. It consists of one main building and the foundations of two others. Two fortifications made of old fuel drums filled with rocks and sand are placed in the vicinity, littered with .50 caliber cartridges. The station was built in 1943 but was moved to Daneborg in 1944.

Today we saw two saw 2 polar foxes at Dødemandsbugten.

At the moment we are sailing south in the pack-ice, trying to reach Nordfjord tonight...

Sailing in the ice we saw many polar-bear tracks on the ice, but now bears. Suddenly during dinner we heard „polar-bear“ on the speaker, so everyone ran away from dinner and desert. The disapointment was big as we could not find the bear again, but a few of the passengers saw it.
Half an hour later the loudspeaker roamed again "Big polar-bear on the pack-ice" everybody ran out again and there it was! Not only one but two, three and four. It was a mother with 3 large cubs, which is very un-normal. Usually a mother bear only get 1-2 cubs and if she get 3, usually they get skinny and die. What a GREAT evening!
still water in the river, unfortunately it was to late for us to fish since it is late autumn now.

Science and Dogs

Today we visited the scientific station of Zackenberg. The station is beautifully situated amongst high mountains and the fjord. They even have one of the best salmon fishing rivers in Greenland!
We did a walk up to the station, where we were greated by the logistical people running the station and some 20 scientists. The scientists are making different research, as biology, geography, glaciology etc.

The logistical personell  and some of the scientists gave us a tour on the station, showing us their different fields of research.
All day long the weather was beautiful, with cool, crisp air.
On the landing site the guides and guests had huge problems with falling water due to the tide. This meant getting wet! Eventually after 1 1/2 hours of delay the expedition team had managed to get everyone out to the ship.
During lunch FRAM sailed over to Daneborg, HQ of the Sirius patrol only 22 km away from Zackenberg. Anchour was dropped at 1600 hrs and after a quick lunch and some dry clothes we were all ready to go ashore again.
The patrol only numbered four men now, while the others are on Ella Ø taking part in a search and rescue exercise.
Our guests were divided into five groups and the patrol members and Bjarki took each one group and gave a guided tour around on the station and even visited the dogs of the patrol. After the SIRIUS patrol were invited on board for dinner and a tour on the ship. 
Late in the evening we said good bye and wished  the patrol a good winter...

A mosquito bay in the middle of the ice...

All our hope was focused on this day. Today we expected our first landing in the North East Greenland National Park after cruising along the ice edge for a longer time. And our dream came true. In the early morning we managed to land in “Myggbugta” (Mosquito bay), a very, very special historical place in the National Park.

As Greenland plays a significant role in the movement of global air masses in the Arctic and the North Atlantic, the Norwegian meteorologist have been interested in climate dates from Green since the beginning of the 20^th century. So it does not wonder that the “Geofysiske Institutt” in Tromso asked Johan A Olsen, who planned a trapper expedition to North East Greenland 1922, to send meteorological dates from Greenland during this time.  Olsen got the equipment for the data measurement and 3.500 Norwegian kroner for the whole experiment. 

Olsen found a good place for his trapper expedition in the low lands on the north side of the Mackenzie Bay. As the place was pestered with mosquitoes, he called the place Myggbugta, that means in nothing else than Mosquito Bay. At the 1^st of October 1922 Olsen sent his first dates to the “Geofysiske Institutt” in Tromso. These dates became the first wireless communication between Greenland and the rest of the world. In 1931 the place became famous again, as five trappers from the “Arctic Commercial Enterprise” claimed this area for the Norwegian king and hissed the Norwegian flag in Muggbugta at the 27^th of June. This fact caused a strong discussion between Norway and Denmark, which had the sovereignty over Greenland. The problem ended up at the Permanent Court of International Justice at The Hague. At the end North East Greenland stayed with Denmark and the Norwegian dream of getting at least the East coast of Greenland came to an end. 

For us it was not only a historical landing. For us it was the first step into the North East Greenland National Park. We enjoyed the tundra, we saw musk ox fighting against each other and of course we enjoyed the landscape.
The afternoon we spent in the dense sea ice. As it was so sunny and we had no wind it was wonderful to stand on the open decks to watch the ice and to hear how FRAM made her way through the ice. It was an unforgettable afternoon.