Illulissat

A world UNESCO Heritage Site in the sunshine! What could be better?

It was a day for hiking, for helicopter trips to the ice cap, for boat excursions, whales, shopping, lunch. It was a day for everything and anything. It was so beautiful with all of the icebergs and the crystal clear air that it put a smile on everyone's face. It didn't matter what you chose to do today because, no matter what, it was going to be good. How could it not be?

Many people were lucky enough to see humpback whales on their boat excursion to Icefjord.

The helicopters were kept busy with 90 of our guests taking hei-tours to the glacier Sermec Kujalec.

Our hike to Sermiut was really good. A river of ice stretched as far as you could see. Sermec Kujalleq glaciar moves 42 metres a day! By 6:30 we were all back aboard the Fram. There were still lots of activities planned on the ship. A charity auction and the crew show.

The auction raised 38,000 Norwegian Kroner for the children in Greenland! Wow! A very big THANK YOU to our extremely generous bidders at the auction.

Eqip Sermia

Our day was filled with more interesting lectures and presentations while we cruised by hundreds of icebergs on our way to Eqip Sermia. We arrived just before 17:00 but before we could begin our landing the ship's crew were once again put through their paces on another safety drill. This time the objective was to rescue someone from the frigid waters of Eqip Sermia utilizing our Polar Cirkle boats. It was very interesting to watch the AB's in their exposure suits jump into the water and then be very efficiently rescued by their team mates.

On shore we spread out to various scenic points where the Fram's Expedition staff were waiting. Some chose a challenging hike up the mountain. Others opted for a bit of solitude along a narrow spit of land that faces the glacier. It was a gorgeous evening. It really didn't matter where you went - the scenery was really beautiful. The hiking and the cool air were all it took to wet our appetites for the delicious barbeque back on the ship. After the barbeue, at 21:30, it was time for our chefs to demonstrate their artistic talents with food and ice sculpting.

Upernavik

Upernavik has it's own unique appeal. Like almost all of the cities, towns, villages and settlements in Greenland it is built on the edge of the sea. You can see most of Upernavik from the water as it rises steeply up from the ocean. Perhaps part of its distinctiveness comes from the wonderful museum with the beautiful paintings and other artwork and artifacts on display, or maybe it was the interesting cemetery with the old grave site and a little higher up, the new grave site.
It is sort of an in-between size. We had visited villages with less than 50 people and towns with more than 5,000. the population of Upernavik is ~ 1500.
Most of us paid our respects at Navarana's grave (the wife of Danish explorer Peter Freuchen). She passed away in 1921. The new graves were formed with concrete and were decorated with hundreds of plastic flowers. Some of the graves were very old indeed with the graves being composed of a pile of stones as was common throughout the Arctic. You could peer between the cracks in the stones and see bones from Upernavik residents of days long gone by. One of the graves obviously held two people. We wondered what life was like during their time.
At the dock it was business as usual with a group of local children watching the Polar Cirkle boat activity.
We wrapped up our day in Upernavik by inviting the town choir to the ship where they entertained us with their terrific harmonies and traditional songs.

Qaanaaq / Thule

At 09:45 some of the expedition team took a Polar Cirkle boat to shore only to find that the tide was extremely low. So low in fact that we had to wait another hour for the tide to come in before we would have enough water to get our boats to the small dock. The bay in front of Thule was completely dry. All the fishing boats were sitting in the tidal flats high and dry. The floating dock was not floating. It too was stranded far from any water.
At 11:00 there was plenty of water and the first people on shore were the hardy hikers. Off they went with a packed lunch. Their walk led them through town and then up to the mountain above Thule where they had incredible views of the town, the ship and the many icebergs surrounding the Fram.
All day long we were surrounded by many happy friendly children all looking to help us with our boat operations.
While we were visiting Thule many local fishing/hunting boats returned. Many of them were successful. We watched several boats unload seal meat and a couple of boats had plenty of Narwhal meat to unload. The buckets in the last photograph are full of Harp Seal meat.

Our crew had been looking forward to visiting Thule again. Thule had been looking forward to our crew returning after a year's absence. Why? Because Team Fram's basketball team beat Thule's basketball team the last time they met. This was an opportunity for a good-natured rematch. The result? Thule won by four points in a very sporting game.
By 16:00 the last Polar Cirkle boat left shore. All too soon the Thule choir had sung its reportoire in the Observation lounge. We waved goodbye to Thule, each of us content with a very full day.