Natural Greenland Cruise

10^th - 31^st July 2022

Itinerary: Dover - Kirkwall - Reykjavik - Ísafjörður - Prins Christian Sound - Nuuk - Narsarsuaq - Nanortalik - Qaqortoq - Belfast - Dover

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10 July. Milton Keynes. I was picked up early and had the minibus to myself. I arrived in Dover about five past one and after the mandatory covid test was onboard about half an hour later. I was taken to my cabin (nice touch) and my cases had arrived by ten past two.

12 July. Kirkwall, Orkney. As I'd visited Kirkwall before, with Lorraine, I decided to take an excursion to Scapa Flow. This was a short trip across the island (known as the mainland in the Orkneys) to Scapa Flow. During the both World Wars a lot of the British Fleet was moored in Scapa Flow and to stop the Germans attacking them, they sank a lot of small ships, now known as barrier ships, to block the seaways. A German submarine, number U47, managed to find a way in and was able to sink a ship. Churchill decided to block four of the entrances with enormous concrete blocks. This wasn't actually completed until 1945. After the war these 'Churchill Barriers' were paved over and turned into roads. This meant it was much easier to reach various islands by car. A lot of the work was done by Italian prisoners-of-war. On the small island of Lamb Holm, the Italians built a small chapel, which we saw. In front of this is a small statue of George killing the dragon. We then crossed over another barrier to South Ronaldsay and the village of St Mary's Hope. Finally we drove over to Burry, before returning via a hotel for scones and shortbread back to the ship.

15 July. Reykjavik, Iceland. Silver Whisper and AIDAluna were also docked today. My excursion was the 'Golden Circle' tour We drove to Þingvallavatn (Icelandic) National park, where we saw the Pingvallavatn (English) lake and then walked along by the edge of the North American tectonic plate, the Eurasian plate is about 3 km away and they're apparently moving apart by about 2cm a year. Next we went to Geysir after which all geysers are named, we passed by a statue of men doing Icelandic wrestling, although it looked like one was pulling up the underwear of the other! I saw the geyser spout a few times. After lunch we went to Gullfoss (Golden) Falls in the canyon of the Hvítá river. Returning to the ship, we stopped at a service station, where a few years ago there was an earthquake and there's a split in the floor. They've glassed over the gash and on one side is Europe and on the other is North America. It's quite a deep fissure. Finally, back in Reykjavik, we went to the Perlan, which consists of six huge water tanks, topped by a glass dome and a balcony, with views over the city.

16 July. Ísafjörður, Iceland. Viking Saturn and AIDAluna were also in port today. My excursion was to Vigur Island, with a civilised departure time of midday! I had to tender into the town and as the boat to take us to the island was delayed, we had a quick walk round the tiny town. On the island I saw a seal, eider ducks, black guillemots, puffins and Arctic terns amongst others. There was also a boat that was at least two hundred years old that was still seaworthy and the oldest preserved wooden windmill in Iceland. We had a short walk along the interior and I saw a baby bird (probably a tern) in the long grass. We had to take sticks with us, to protect us from the terns, they did dive bomb me. We held them against our heads rather than lash out at the birds. After coffee and cake (rhubarb!!!!) we got back on to the boat back where a posh, elderly lady taught me to play a card game call Shithead!

18 July. Prins Christian Sound, Greenland. A sea day with a difference. We passed by Cape Farewell, travelling along Prins Christian Sund. PSC is a channel in the south of Greenland. On either side are cliffs with the occasional glacier, it becomes quite narrow at one point. There are lots of icebergs travelling along it, but the ice pilots (who knew?), did a great job of getting us through. It took around 9 hours to complete. A memory worth keeping.

20 July. Nuuk, Greenland. Fridtjof Nansen was also in port today. Nuuk is the capital of Greenland. I took part in a 'Nuuk on Foot' excursion. This was really just a couple of hours walking round a tiny part of a tiny town! It has a population of around 14,000. It was around 10 degrees. I was surprised how modern some of the buildings were. We passed by the Katuaq Cultural Centre, Parliament and a church to Colonial Harbour. There were small icebergs in the harbour and a woman swimming in it!

22 July. Narsarsuaq, Greenland. An early start today, I'd been assigned a place on the first passenger tender for my excursion. This was a fast boat ride on Tunulliarfik Fjord, through the ice bergs and ice floes to Qooroq glacier. It was very cold, very windy and a brilliant experience. Lots of ice bergs varying in size from tiny to large, and a myriad of shapes. One of the few ship's tours worth the money. I was going to go in and see the town but ended up sitting by the pool and burning my face!

23 July. Nanortalik, Greenland. A very foggy arrival, which meant that all tours were delayed by around an hour. After a while the fog cleared and timings reverted back to normal. I took the tender in and explored the little town. As the tenders were arriving there were 6 or 7 little boys around 8 or 9 years old sitting on the dock. They looked like they were scoring the tender drivers skills! There are around 1,200 people living in the town. The buildings were quite highly coloured and there was a small wooden church built in 1916 and a tiny museum. I went into one of the two, (seriously!), supermarkets and the largest section was the frozen foods! It was a pleasant couple of hours. I was really surprised by the number of icebergs in the harbour and fjord.

24 July. Qaqortoq, Greenland. Overcast on arrival but brightening up a little later. Qaqortoq is small and there are brightly coloured houses tumbling down a hill to the shore. Once again there were lots of icebergs including one in the harbour. My trip today was 'Tastes of Greenland'. The beer, smoked salmon, snow crab legs and prawns were very tasty. The dried capelin, dried cod not so much. As for the dried ring seal, 'nuff said! And, when it came to the seal fat, nope, nowhere near my mouth thank you very much! I had a quick stroll around, saw the Mindebrønden, which is a fountain. The captain came on just before we set sail to say that there is so much ice about (climate change) that we couldn't go as fast as expected for a while, so we will arrive in Belfast later than expected. So we'll leave there later than planned.

28 July. Belfast, Northern Ireland. A later than planned arrival because of the above mentioned icebergs. My trip today was to the Giant's Causeway, a place I last visited in 1966! On the way we stopped for brief look at the ruined Dunluce Castle. Then I walked to the causeway and back. It was smaller than I expected but still very interesting. I spent about an hour clambering over the rocks. On the way back we saw The Carrick-a-Rede rope bridge and Rathlin Island. We also saw Scotland in the distance. Later in the evening I managed to cut myself on a broken glass in the South Cape Bar. It bled a lot and I ended up in the medical centre. I have another visit tomorrow morning. More to come!

29 July. At Sea. Irish Sea. Went to the medical centre after breakfast. A different nurse removed the sausage on my finger(!) and the doctor looked at it, gave me some plasters and told me how to treat it. Said I didn't either a stitch or visit again. When I got back to the cabin, I checked my account and I'd kindly been charged £94 for the privilege!