Day 5: Ilulissat Means Iceberg

I had a hard time sleeping until I fell hard asleep. In the morning, John and I had the same idea. We should check with Guest Services and see if we could still sign up for an activity. Even though we had the privilege of signing up early, all our bookings were canceled because some signed up for too much, while others signed up for nothing at all. A quick chat and our schedule was updated.

But first, an announcement that we were moving slowly because of a challenging waterway! Out the window and all around us were giant icebergs! We were arriving in Disco Bay, famous for having created the giant iceberg in 1908 that three years later would sink the Titanic in 1912. Today, we were crawling through a minefield of floating ice, big and small. The Octantis is an expedition ship with ice-breaking capabilities, so nothing to worry about, but as soon as we could, we were out on deck, watching it all go by. And another announcement. We would arrive late, all excursions delayed by two hours. More time to watch in awe…

This berg shows signs of being quite stable. It has a smooth rounded bit on the left which means it has shifted upright, but no other signs that it has tumbled over.

Once in port, the zodiacs started powering toward shore, 8 people at a time. We were in the 4th group, dressed for an Arctic Winter. Our schedule was to have a Coffeemik at a local coffee shop and meet a few locals. In fact, it was a lovely gathering of women from the village and a translator. The first woman we saw was dressed in traditional dress. Later, a group sang church hymns and one traditional song. Absolutely lovely.

Here she is-looking very much like yesterday’s grandmother, actually. Her blouse is heavily beaded, and her trousers and boots are seal fur and seal skin.

Here are a few ladies from town singing for us, church hymns, then a traditional song.

We got directions and headed on our way. John’s goal was the glacier fields, about 3 miles up the road. On the way, there were several souvenir shops, a grocery store, a department store (both small), and finally a Glacier Museum. We peeked into the museum, but they wanted us to remove our shoes and pay admission, so we left and headed for the roof of the building. Amazing construction! Up one side and down the other, we were on the boardwalk that took us over the soggy bog and right out to the glacier field! The size of the place was awe-inspiring. Magnificent, majestic, marvellous…

The main street with some construction and some merchant shops. We barely stopped.

Sled dog kennels in the foreground with a brightly colored village behind.

The walk up the road to the Iceberg Center.

This is the Iceberg Centre, a gorgeous museum, but we only had a few minutes to peek inside.

Walking across the roof of the Iceberg Center, very cool design (no pun intended!)

A first glimpse of the Ice Fjord—Wow!

It was a long walk here, but so completely overwhelming with giant floes of glacial ice very slowly moving toward the inlet where they’ll become icebergs many, many years from now.

A good look at the sled dog kennels on the way back. Some dog houses are painted brightly like the people’s houses.

On the way back, we checked the time. No time. We stopped briefly at a reindeer bone crafter, then hurried back to the ship, by way of a brash ice field—pretty cool-free tour! On board, we found that our next excursion was in 30 minutes, barely time to change clothes and report back. We were going to go Kayaking!

First into the zodiac, then speed out toward the shore, then two by tow into the kayaks, then paddle up the coast, around smallish icebergs, then back again. It was lovely and peaceful. Such perfect weather and great lighting. Just like in Antarctica, however, I couldn’t take photos except with my nose! So John took all the photos. We’re a good team!

Dinner with the group we met yesterday, two geologists and John. Good group! Good night.