Category Archives: 2015:Far North

Søndre Strømfjord … leaving Greenland

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We boarded Hanseatic from the tender boats, were welcomed on board and offered lunch. Most people spent the afternoon exploring the ship, unpacking and simply moving in.

A mandatory emergency drill and safety briefing followed, after which – in the late afternoon – the journey finally started and we left Kangerlussuaq and made our way through the Søndre Strømfjord (aka. Kangerlussuaq Fjord) towards the open sea into the Baffin Bay. The next stop was in Canada, so this was already our farewell from Greenland – with the promise of being back soon.

Kangerlussuaq – Impressions

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It was a quick flight to Kangerlussuaq, taking a bit more than four hours. Now – with the time difference between Greenland and Hamburg also being four hours, our arrival time was only something like 20 minutes apart from our departure time (just in different time zones). This meant, there was a full day ahead of us … with the ship – obviously – not ready for us yet.

So we were taken on a bus tour around the Kangerlussuaq countryside, up a nearby mountain with occasional stops, some fantastic views and loads of fresh air (too fresh for those, who did not consider taking some additional layers of clothing into their carry-on luggage).

The bus tour finally made it back to Kangerlussuaq (which basically only consists of the airport and the supporting businesses – with a mere ~ 600 inhabitants) and continued on to the small port, where tender boats were waiting for us to get us to the MV Hanseatic.

Flying to Greenland

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This morning Maren dropped me at Hamburg airport, where I made my way through check-in and security (plus a tea on the way) to the Air Greenland charter flight to Kangerlussuaq. Easily the best trans-Atlantic in Economy ever with comfortable seats, ample space, good service, excellent food and the best entertainment on the other side of the windows.

Heading North

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It’s a long story, of how I ended up doing this trip to the far North – and this story actually started on the Southern side of the planet … somewhere on the Atlantic Ocean on the way to South Georgia and Antarctica during my second Antarctica trip.

One of the lectures during that trip did look into glaciology and – while focused on Antarctica – also included photos from Greenland. One of those photos was specifically awe-inspiring and the lecturer linked it back to the ice fjord near Ilulissat in Greenland. She also mentioned, that – given global warming – anyone with a desire to go there, should do so quickly, within the next five years (i.e. by early 2018).
Back on that trip for many of us things were clear and we signed up for a cruise in the summer of 2014 that would visit the area. As it turned out that specific tour had been well overbooked and I ended up on a wait list.
A year did pass and I was still wait-listed. At that time the program for 2015 had just been published, so I decided to go ahead and already secure a booking for 2015 – in case things would not work out well for 2014.
Needless to say … 2014 did not work out. The folks, I had booked with in Antarctica, did go without myself – – but at least I had a confirmed booking for 2015 and would get to see Greenland – and (as I had to realize) so much more.

Per the original itinerary the trip was supposed to start in either Berlin or Düsseldorf with a charter flight to Greenland. This however got changed and the flight was now to leave from Hamburg. A perfect opportunity for me to come back to Hamburg (I had been here last in 1999 for a job interview) and a proper starting point for a journey further North.

It was also a great opportunity to catch up with Maren, who – living in Hamburg – was one of those, who I had met on that trip to Antarctica and who had been able to be part of the 2014 Arctic trip. She was my host for a few days prior to me continuing to Greenland.

We managed to cover Hamburg’s main attractions, from a (mandatory) harbor cruise, which also included the Speicherstadt (literally city of warehouses), the Miniatur Wunderland, the Reeperbahn and the St.Pauli quarter; we also did a cruise on the inner and outer Alster Lake.