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.
We were a party of four adults and one child who ended up on an unplanned Landmannalaugar superjeep tour with Midgard. We had originally booked with another company who didn't turn up as arranged. When we contacted them they called in Midgard to help and they were with us in about half an hour and provided a superb day. Our guide was Atti who was professional, informative and good company. It was slightly restrictive having a five year old on such a long outing but nothing phased Atti and we managed to see the varied and beautiful terrain and have a good soak in the river. On other days we also popped into their new building Base Camp which is great and provided a warm welcome, a good lunch and some helpful tips.
This was a superb, action-packed holiday. And now that I have seen some of Iceland, I want to go back and see more of the island. Each day was full to the brim with different sights and experiences. We didn't see the lights (well, only a faint line in the sky) but that didn't spoil the holiday for me given the sheer beauty of the sights which we took in over the course of the holiday.