Northeast Greenland National Park and Scoresby Sound

By Glen Bruels
This is part of a series called Nordic Sojourn 2022
Show More Posts

Today we made it to Greenland.  Even though it is well south of the polar ice pack we visited, it is 10-15 degrees colder here.  That’s because Svalbard has the Gulf Stream that skirts it, while Greenland gets the cold polar currents from the north.  Today, we spent the first of two days in Northeast Greenland National Park, the largest national park in the world (it’s about the size of France and Spain combined).  Against the backdrop of the 6000 foot basalt mountains, the fjord is filled with icebergs— big icebergs!  These are much bigger than anything we saw up north, because those are sea ice, which tend to be newer and smaller.  These are from land ice that break away from glaciers. 

After a peaceful, moonlit night, we woke up this morning in a beautiful fjord.  The water was calm and the temps were in the 40s, which is much better than what was predicted.  One of the cool things about our ship is its ability to station keep (i.e., the ship’s steerable propellors can keep us in a single position without the need to anchor).  Today was a busy day.  Our first stop this morning was to Hekla Havn (or Danmark Island).  This rocky tundra area was home to a number of ancient peoples who had crossed the land bridge from Asia.  They lived very simply on the land, using basic tools made from bone for hunting.  There are still indentations in the ground where their shelters (that were half-buried in the ground with whale bones and animal skins for their roofs) and rocks that mark the relative size of the structures that typically housed up to 10 people.  There were still a few caches where they would keep their food, with big rocks on the top to prevent polar bears from stealing it.  Ultimately, they developed kayaks.  Today, traces of these early residents’ DNA can be found in the Inuit people.

This sheltered cove has been used by migrating natives, explorers, and now tourists.
This is the tallest tree around. It’s probably 70-80 years old…
Lots of rock formations that attempt to show where original shelters were located.
Of course, these rocks were probably put here recently. The best indications were the indentations in the ground.
So many examples of conglomerate rocks. Really amazing patterns!
Our guide explaining the food caches made by the original natives
A willow going to seed before going dormant. Very fluffy!
A cairn built by some bored explorers. Nobody seems to know why…
I’m a sucker for survey markers. Not sure why; maybe I was a surveyor in a past life.

From there, we made our way up both Fønfjord and Rødefjord in search of the iceberg graveyard.  After more than a week of cloudy weather, blue sky and sun were the order of the day. Hundreds of icebergs, having calved from the glacial faces, are trapped in the shallows of the bay. But, as we saw in Scoresby Sound, some of these glaciers make their way out of the fjord and sound and into the Atlantic Ocean.  Sadly, with climate change, the number of glaciers making their way down south into Canadian waters is growing. In the midst of the icebergs, we stopped at Røde Ø (or Red Island).  It’s really a perfect place to admire the icebergs, whether from the ship, the Zodiacs, or from the kayaks (we did all three!).  This island’s name is appropriate — the slopes of the hills here are filled with 300 million-year old Permian red sandstone.  The red really provides a great contrast for the deep blue of the water and the white of the icebergs.   I got to go kayaking through the icebergs and it was truly amazing.  Working your way through these towering giants really provided a sense of awe. We then took a Zodiac through all the formations, busily anthropomorphizing as we went along.  That night we made our way further down the channel for the next day’s activities.

Our route to Red Island and beyond
Looking out our stateroom window. Not a bad view to wake up to.
The glaciers were growing in numbers and size as we worked our way up the fjord.
The numbers of icebergs increased as we got closer to Red Island.
Moonlight over icebergs
Red Island and the front of the iceberg graveyard.
Suited up and ready to go kayaking amongst the icebergs!
Eager paddlers getting instruction from their guide.
We were lucky that the water was so calm and the temperatures reasonable
A couple of Navy guys performing complex maneuvering.
The Romanian judge deducted style points for our form. We look more like a propeller
Goofballs!
Another boat ahead of us…
… just to give you a sense of scale.
A piece of old ice that could be more than 1000 years old. It was super heavy and dense.
Amazing formations in Red Island with seams of conglomerate rock interwoven into the red sandstone.

The next morning shone brightly again and the ship’s crew decided it might be a great opportunity to create a marketing video for Seabourn — in this case having 14 of the Zodiacs out in from of the ship in a few different formation while the ship steams ahead.  What could go wrong?  Actually, this was the perfect place to attempt this sort of thing.  We were in Øfjord, a narrower section of the fjords with sheer cliffs going up to 9000 feet and plunging over 1000 feet below.  Anyway, this was a real comedy of errors.  We had been following one of the walls of the fjord where the call came for all Zodiacs to form a single line ahead of the ship while the ship transited behind.  This would have been a perfect aerial shot, but the running joke of the cruise was to send up the drone — which they had splashed during the previous cruise.  Anyway, after about 30 minutes, we actually had a reasonable Formation 1 (a Navy formation for all ships being in a straight line).  Then they decided to do a wedge with Zodiacs on both sides of the ship coming to a point well in front of the ship.  That attempt was a bit more sporty, with Zodiacs cutting each other off, etc.  Everyone was having a great time.  I hope they got the footage they were looking for!  That afternoon, we made our way to Bear Island, that is actually a group of low lying rocky islands at the head of the Øfjord.  Here you could really see the effects of the glaciers that past through here, with a number of shorter, rounded islands from glacial action and higher, more jagged peaks where the glaciers missed.  There are also lots solitary boulders strewn about called erratics, that were carried along on the bottom of the moving glacial ice.  It was a nice ride on a sunny day and we actually got to see a family of four musk ox which was pretty amazing to see!  But the high point of the day was the surprise thrown for me by Deb along with the cruise director and head of hotel services.  It was a lot of fun and was a great way to cap our stay in Scoresby Sound!

As the glacier overhangs the water, it starts to erode from underneath and ultimate, it calves.
Riding by some of the cliffs which rise thousands of feet above the fjord.
For scale, consider the size of the ship to that of the mountain. The captain can bring the ship in that close to the mountain because it is a vertical wall that goes down for more than 1000 feet
A feeble attempt at forming a straight line in our Zodiacs.
And now, let’s up the game and form a wedge — while the ship is underway and bearing down on us.
Our intrepid crew after the filming.
A couple of musk ox in the hills. They were tough to spot, but really agile runners!
Surprise birthday greetings…
… and a wonderful party!
Yeah, it was a big one. Thanks to all our friends and the Seabourn crew for making it such a memorable day!
This entry was posted in Cruising, Greenland, Travel
Glen Bruels

I am a traveler and sometimes clay sculptor, following a long career working in consulting. My work allowed me to travel the world extensively and I was hooked. Today, I travel with my wife/best friend to explore new places, meet new people, and learn new things.

Related Posts