Nanortalik, Greenland (Part 2)

Nanortalik, Greenland (Part 1)

Friday, August 3

Nanortalik is the southern most town with a mere 1550 people and another 1200 living in 5 nearby villages.  The town's name means "Bear Country".

The oldest building dates from the 19th century, including several of stone and heavy timber and at least one sod house.

The pretty harbour resembles a New England fishing village.  There is also a hot spring nearby, with water about the same temperature as the human body.

Nanortalik boasts the only natural woodland in Greenland which adds to the beauty of the town.

Grey skies greeted us to Nanortalik but the seas were calm which made it ideal for tendering ashore.... the Captain had made the right decision in swapping the days of our two Greenland ports.

The weather was quite mild and ideal for walking around the town. Armed with a map from the local tourist office we were walked to all the key sites.  The museum was very interesting and consisted of a series of old buildings that had been restored and housed various interesting exhibits and artefacts.

Once again the houses were painted various bright colours but most were in need of repair.   There seemed to be a flurry of work going on wherever we walked from laying new pipes, Astro turfing a new soccer field, road works and building repairs.  I don't think there would be much to do if you lived there..... life is simple....

Around mid to late afternoon the fog started to roll in and as we had covered most of the highlights including the supermarkets we decided to head back to the comfort and warmth of the ship.

Greenland is a very beautiful country with lots of natural beauty.... 

We now have two sea days before Corner Brook, our first Canadian Port.

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Qaqortoq, Greenland (Part 2)

Qaqortoq, Greenland (Part 1)

Thursday, August 2

Greenland is the largest island in the world.  About 85% of Greenland is permanently covered with an ice-cap which is 2 miles thick in places.

Qaqortoq in Inuit means "the white place" which it certainly is for most of the year.  The town's coat of arms has a blue centre which represents the stream that runs through it to the sea.  Today there are about 3,500 people living in the municipality which includes the town and outlying settlements.

Greenland
Size: 873,000sqm (almost the size of Alaska)

Population: 56,326 (est. 2008)

Language: Greenlandic, Danish and English 

Capital: Nuuk

Currency: Danish Kroner

Our scheduled stop today was to the port of Nanortalik, Greenland.
We were woken relatively early by the Captain with an "important" announcement.... the weather had deteriorated overnight with high winds and a reasonable size swell so tendering was not going to be possible.  According to the Captain's wife he had a "light bulb moment" early in the morning where he decided based on the conditions that he could swap the order of our Greenland ports.  We were scheduled to call at Nanortalik on the first day and Qaqortoq the day after.  As Qaqortoq is protected by a Bay and the weather forecast was for a perfect day the Captain decided to go there on the first day and Nanortalik on the following day as the weather was predicted to clear up there overnight.  Effectively swapping the itinerary for the two ports.  What a good call by the Captain as we had perfect weather for both of our days in Greenland.  The one downside is that we had a private tour booked to the glacier in Qaqortoq and the company did not have enough boats available at very short notice so we missed out.... oh well.... we are nearly $600 better off! Hopefully we will get a refund.....

We picked up a map at the tourist office which gave us a walking trail to see all the highlights in the town.  Walking around was very easy and very pleasant if not a tad hot as we were all decked out in our woollies for the cold temperatures that had been predicted.

Qaqortoq is a beautiful quaint town with a water stream flowing through the town, flanked by many beautiful wild flowers and all the houses are painted bright colours.... real postcard scenery.

Late in the afternoon it started to cool off and the fog started to rolled in so we headed back to the ship.  The wind was picking up which was caused a bumpy ride back in the tender and a very cold Sailaway.

Tomorrow is the smaller town of Nanortalik.... hope the weather conditions are favourable and we can tender in.

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Reykjavík, Iceland

Monday, July 30

From its stunning boiling thermal springs and lava fields to its notable ice fields, Reykjavík offers visitors some of the most spectacular scenery in the world.  As Iceland's capital, Reykjavík is also the most northernmost capital in the world.

Reykjavík is home to an array of stunningly powerful geysers.  The city's hot springs function as a remarkable heating system.  Interestingly Iceland is known for its lush green bare mountains where as Greenland is known for its ice and glaciers.

Region: Reykjavík is in the southwestern portion of Iceland on the southern shore of the Faxafloi Bay.  The Ellioaa River is Reykjavík's largest river and Mt Esja is the largest mountain.

Population: 325,671 (est. 2014)

Climate: A cool and mostly temperate climate characterised by a warm North Atlantic current.

Language:  Icelandic

Currency:  Icelandic Kronur (ISK)

We arrived into Reykjavík in cloud which looked like it could have been snow and it was cold in fact freezing!!  It was not raining but looked like it could at some stage throughout the day so we had our wet weather gear ready for our tour.

As we have been to Iceland before and have been on the Golden Circle tour (which is a must for first time visitors) we opted for a tour to the south coast.

Our tour was arranged through Iceland Horizon and our guide for the day was Wally.

From Reykjavík we headed to the south coast, passing over the mountain ranges of Hellisheidi and through the lava fields.

Our first photo stop was at Urrioafoss Falls.  The river was running fast with lots of rapids and a few fishermen sitting on the rocks very close to the water rushing by.

Our next stop was at the thunderous Skogafoss waterfall at Skogar.  We had about an hour of free time here to walk to the base of the waterfall or climb to the top.... we opted for a walk to the base as it had been raining and was starting to rain again so not so pleasant.  A very beautiful waterfall but lots of spray up close!

We carried on to the coast and the black beach, Iceland's most southerly point, where we had time for lunch.  Food is very expensive in Iceland with soup costing approximately $23 a bowl, a plate of hot chips around $10 and a small glass of beer around $12.  We opted for hot chips, a beer and a hot chocolate which cost over $30 and our ham and cheese rolls we made ourselves.  After lunch we had time to walk on the black sand surf beach to view the puffin colonies in the drizzling rain.

After our lunch break we headed further along the coast to visit the Solheimajokull Glacier which is part of the Myrdalsjokull ice cap.  The glacier face is about a 30 minute walk from the car park.  We managed to walk to the glacier and get our photos before the rain started again for our walk back to the car!  The glacier is 14km long and since regular measurements from 1930 shows the glacier has retreated a total of 977m.

Our last stop was to the Seljalandsfoss waterfall where most of the year it is possible to walk behind the falls.  Yes we did get to walk behind the falls and yes we did get wet!

From here we made our way back to Reykjavík which was about a 90 minute drive.  All in all we travelled about 375kms.  We had a mix of weather from rain, to wind to sunshine but always cold and sometimes wet!

It was a long but very enjoyable day.  Reykjavík is one of my favourite ports and a must see so put it on your bucket list!!

Two sea days to recharge before Greenland... a first for us.

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