Monday – Narsarsuaq, Greenland

Today, we arrived in Narsarsuaq (pronounced, I am reliably informed, Nas-as-Ack), our final port in Greenland.

With it only being a half-day visit, and my having classes in the afternoon, I debated whether to bother going ashore at all. Realising that this would be our last chance to stand on Greenland soil, the debate was an easy one to resolve; after an early breakfast, I gathered my camera gear and headed ashore.

Narsarsuaq is the place where Norse Vikings settled many centuries ago, and gave it its name; one that hints that an Arctic forest once covered the large plain. Taking tales of such verdant nature in a deep fjord home to their Nordic brethren, the Vikings called this place Greenland.

The place where we’d parked wasn’t very inspiring; the walk to the village was easily a couple of miles along a rather uninteresting tarmac road, but the walk required running the mosquito gauntlet. Many folks braved it; most irritating of all were those smug enough to be shielded from the voracious critters by mosquito nets. Others fought them off as best they could with flayling arms and flapping hands (it’s difficult to remain totally dignified when you’re being descended upon by clouds of tiny black monsters).

Roughly halfway there, I started flagging. I met a few people who had been up really early and were on their way back, and when asked what the village was like, rather unenthusiastically announced that there was a gift shop, a small museum and a helipad, complete with helicopter. Nearby was a small hospital. This helped me make my mind up; I decided I’d seen enough. Apart from anything else, I had things to do, so I headed for a small inlet took a few photos and shot some video, then legged it back to the ship as quickly as I could.

I spent the rest of the morning painting another iceberg.

After lunch, as the ship sailed away, I ran my classes, which were slightly disrupted by the sight of icebergs floating past our window.

Everyone wanted to stop and take photos of them, including myself. the icebergs lasted all afternoon, only thinning out later on, as we finally left the fjord and sailed into open sea.

So, that was Greenland. Our next stop will be St Johns in Newfoundland, in two days time; the start of the Canadian section of our Anniversary Voyage.