Arctic Journey: Atammik and Fjords

The morning of July 27th found the Explorer sailing past the small town of Atammik, which has about 200 inhabitants. The weather had distinctively improved from yesterday, and it was getting even better.

Things were looking good up on the bridge.

The clouds continued to lift as we sailed up a nearby fjord.

Soon we were going ashore to explore.

Our ship's puffin discovered an old caribou antler as we hiked towards the tall rock in the background.

This dwarf cornel, a plant in the dogwood family, was worth admiring. The white "petals" are actually leaves, and the true flowers are tiny, dark red, and all originate from a single point, an arrangement called an umbel.

We clambered up the rock and continued on. This photo is looking back at the next group of hikers to summit.

Our group, somewhat smaller than before, continued uphill towards a saddle in the ridge.

During a pause I took this self-portrait, or "selfie," protected by my cockeyed bug net.

Our group passed through a boggy area and then, as we gained altitude, the view began to open up.

There was a brilliant patch of Niviarsiaq, or broad-leaf fireweed, Greenland's national flower.

Or, in the other direction,

At the saddle we discovered a lake.

Looking back towards the Explorer, I could see that the first round of kayakers was paddling around the fjord.

Here's a view of our exploration. The zodiacs landed at 'a', the first, smaller rock we climbed is 'b', and we're now standing at 'c.'

Four of us decided to work our way up the ridge from the saddle, passing through the neighborhood of point 'd.' Soon I discovered this pellet of indigestible feathers, cartilage, and bone, left behind by some predator.

This healthy reindeer lichen, one of two species in the genus Cladonia, also begged to be photographed.

We came to a shelf and admired the view, we four.

From that spot we had to find our way down to the beach. This photo zooms down towards the beach.

Staff member Eric Guth was in the lead and found this caribou skull.

Half an hour after starting down -- we did have to admire the caribou skull, after all -- the beach was getting much closer and the footing was easier.

As you can see from the zodiac wake in the above photo, the trip back was not direct. There was a waterfall to discover, point 'e' in the earlier map.

These folks hove to for a group photo.

Once everyone was back on board the Explorer, it was time for the Polar Plunge. The kayaking platform was pulled next to the ship, and any passengers who wanted to jump into the waters of the fjord, as a point of Arctic honor, now had their chance.

Some found courage in plunging two-by-two.

Some were acrobatic,

some jumped fully clad,

and some preferred to push off rather than jump, in order to keep their hair dry.

After lunch there were a presentations in the lounge, but also a lot of open time. After all, tomorrow was the end of this trip, called Along the Viking Trail by Lindblad, and most guests needed to pack for their departure at Kangerlussuaq. Joan and I were staying on, two of forty-four doing "back to back" trips, and we spent much of the afternoon observing on or near the bridge. Early on a humpback whale swam close to the ship, fins visible through the water.

It coiled in preparation for diving,

and then gave us a good view of its flukes.

After an hour and a half we encountered three or four blue whales, the largest animal ever to have existed. Often they are difficult to photograph due to long dives and because they tend to remain low in the water. The captain would maneuver to give the guests the best view possible, as evidenced by our curved wake,

but often the prospect from the bow looked like this as we waited patiently for the whales to resurface.

Here is a photo not of a whale but of one of the Explorer's stabilizers.

Then it was time to change for the Captain's Farewell Cocktail Party followed by dinner. Tomorrow at Kangerlussuaq  the 44 of us staying on for the next trip would visit the Greenland ice cap.