The best part of the trip was the 5 days of hiking hut to hut - in one view - glaciers, snow-covered peaks, fjords, wildflower meadows, tumbling waterfalls, bubbling streams and rivers - and, except for the water and the birds, both of which make delightful sounds, a wonderful quiet.
Great trip to Western Arctic: Canada and Greenland First two days due to strong winds we were exploring unexpectedly fjord near Kangerlussuaq airport in Greenland. This affected the planned itinerary and expedition team worked hard to resolve various issues. It was a very memorable experience with 18 nights on board of Ultramarine. We have visited places where no other expedition ships have been or only visited on rare occasions. We were lucky with clear skies on the first 6 nights and the Aurora Borealis was better and better on each night. Glaciers, icebergs were nice backdrops on many photos and experiences were enhanced with helicopter flights over magnificent landscapes of Baffin island (Sam Ford fjord especially) and Greenland. Wonderful autumn colours of tundra and rock formations were explored on many hikes in addition to the visits to archeological sites. Introduction to Inuit culture and history was during visits to Itileq, Ilulissat, Uummannaaq, Nipisat island and Pond Inlet. It was enhanced by performances of local artists and visits to Inuit colourful homes. Although the wildlife of Arctic is not so plentiful as in Antarctica, we managed to have wonderful observations of numerous polar bears (12 in one day!), seals and birds. We also followed somewhat the footsteps of Franklin's expedition and reached the Beechey island where the expedition has spent the winter in 1845/46 and where are some graves of the sailors. Expedition team members presented many interesting lectures on history, geology, birds and bears. It was also a nice culinary experience of Greenlandic cuisine: Tundra to Table.
Don’t just go to see the Northern Lights. Despite some clear skies the solar activity was low so we did not managed to see the Northern Lights on our tour in Feb 2024. Despite this there is lots packed into this short tour including seeing the sights of the so called Golden Circle (Gullfoss Waterfall; Geysir & Pingvellir) as well as the stunning glacier lagoon and black sand beaches. The highlight however was the walk on the glacier. The weather was perfect so we also managed to get into the ice cave.