The final leg

We left Scrabster a little over thirty minutes early and pulling off we turned to pass between John O'Groats and The Orkney islands. 

With visibility good to clear we could train our binoculars onto the islands and see the occasional house or lighthouse.

We have just over 500 nautical miles to go before we reach Tilbury so tomorrow is another sea day, the last one before we all disembark and go our separate ways.

It'll be sad to say goodbye to Shirley but we are on another cruise together next year which should be good.

Before then I'm off to Guernsey for a week in September and then back to the Canaries and Cape Verde in November/December. 

This has been amazing. The only down side has been the changing of the times but to be honest I feel back to normal already so I've adjusted faster than I expected.

Oh well, one adventure comes to an end but others open.......so many to choose from, so many places yet to see.

paddling in the ice melt in Qaqortoq. 

Next stop Scrabster, for John O'Groats, Highlands and Thurso

Having seen John O'Groats last time I was up this way and also having done the Highlands tour I took the best option and went exploring by myself.

This shuttle bus took us into Thurso so we could explore as we wished.

Something I really liked were the flower tubs which once would have housed annuals. Now they were growing their own; I really hope people were taking advantage of these, such a good use of street planters.

InTonbridge I can imagine what would happen - children can be so destructive and we have many who see it as a game to throw the plants at each other.

I went into the museum where they had examples of pictish stone carving as well as another room about the nuclear reactor. Both were very interesting.

I did succumb to a superb coffee and fruit scone, it certainly hit the spot. 

Its nippy now and I've just made it back to the ship. We pull off early so as to get to Tilbury early (first people are disembarking at 08:00) and as we have the North sea to negotiate tonight (weather predicts a bumpy one) I think the captain wants to get as far as possible as soon as possible.

Thurso was worth a visit but its not somewhere you could while away an afternoon, there really isnt much there. For me the highlight was the park by the river and watching the swifts sweep the ground for insects.

the Meadow well,  Thurso's original water supply. The mechanism is inside a round building.

Last but not least, something which gave me a smile. I suspect it lights up at night.

Day 3: just off the Outer Hebrides

The closer we get to the UK the colder the weather becomes. 

Winds have got up and the sea is rocking us to sleep again tonight. 

One aspect is pleasing though, the nights are dark. Whilst up in Iceland we enjoyed the continual daylight time and Greenland had extremely short nights which remained like dusk, not dark but not really light.

Today then was mainly indoors, just sitting around chatting, a pastime we seem to do with great skill.

We ventured off to listen to the final speaker who gave us a talk on the origins of the Inuit people. It was very interesting especially when he talked of two groups, one called the Thules and another who were giants and wore wooden masks. I am sure I've heard both being mentioned in one if the Viking legends.

My phone is insistent I am in Greenland and insists on setting the time to Nanortalik. When we reach Scrabater tomorrow I'll see if I can convince it to move on, after all we've covered over a thousand nautical miles since then.

Day 2 of returning home

It's going to be a long a somewhat boring journey back. 

The weather wasn't bad today and Shirley and I sat up on the lido deck for about 5 hours. 

We had lunch, chatted some more then,when the sun finally retreated behind the funnel we went back to our cabins.

Now back I'm drinking tea and resting. This drip feed of time changing is hard work. We have another hour tonight so we should be back on British summertime by tomorrow morning. 

I've received my disembarkation information and I'll be back home early this time; my call time is 09:10 so I'll be home by 11am at the latest. Glad really, will be early enough to pop over the shops and get some fresh vegetables. 

Ok, tea. Looks like a nice cup, think I'll finish it before it gets cold.

3 days at sea

Now begins the long journey home,  three days at sea with little to do except cope with the changing of the clock from GMT -2:00 to our British summertime. 

Last night we shifted the clocks one hour and tonight we shift them a further hour which puts us onto GMT. One more shift and we'll be right, just in time to stop off in Scrabster on Friday.

The captain told us this evening that the Sound we came down a few days ago is now blocked with ice so we were very lucky to get through when we did. We were the first and possibly only ship to get through so far this year.

Reykjavik has another eruption at the moment. We went there when the earth tremors were increasing in number so it was expected. Again we were lucky to get in and out before that erupted. It is seems it's a fissure which has opened and its sending up a curtain of lava. Its quite close to the airport so would have been visible from the ship. Depending upon its actual distance from the main road out of Reykjavik could have stopped some of the trips getting to their original destinations. In some ways I'd like to gave been there to see it but no-one is allowed up close as its giving off large amounts of sulfur gas.

I'll be getting off the ship for a wander in Scrabster if for no other reason than to walk on dry land for a couple of hours. 

I'd like to stop off at a bank, pick up some plasters and a small bag of nuts if I can. 

No idea why but I have a real craving for salted peanuts!

Nanortalik

Nanortalik is a larger place than most, spread along a spit which sticks into the sea. Surrounded by dangerous semi-submerged rocks and floating lumps of ice, the approach was nothing if not precise.

I'm now seated in the laundry waiting for a machine. Think there must have been a queue before it opened this morning.
Once the washing was done and ironing completed I headed off to the lido deck. The sun had already burnt back; the day looked as though it was going to be another warm day.
Shirley and I were due to go out at 11am so we sat up top for a while then prepared to go ashore.
Tendering over we disembarked amongst the local children all keen to see these old people. They were friendly and polite.

My initial impression was one of a gentle community who pulled together because life was harsh. They cared for each other and knew everyone, making it a very close knit community. There were few facilities we westerners would expect but there was a diesel pump ..... just the one. No petrol again, just diesel.

We have landed during their summer and the area was carpeted with field buttercup, sedges and alpine achellia I think. There were some double headed yellow aconites too which I'd noted growing in the previous place. Again, I think they were aconites, will have to check that when I get home. Whatever they were, they were lovely. In some spots I saw Icelandic poppies too. As to bird life, this was similar to before; some sky larks, rooks and the normal seashore gull array.

The buildings were scattered over this spit and it was clear many of the old tin buildings were being replaced with more modern concrete(?) ones. With no need for gardens, homes were close together with virtually no delineation between one home and the next. 

It was a calm place, a place to come for hiking, canoeing or general exploring. If you had sail you could venture up to Disco Bay and witness the big calving events. I'm glad to say all motorised transport is now banned from the bay and it has been designated research only.

gin ckea waters even around the small motor boats.

 Its clear to us that soon ships will be banned from coming to communities like this unless they are clean burn. It'll wreck the local economies which rely on tourists but the environmental issues could well win out.

On the way to Nanortalik

We left Narsarsuaq earlier than the programme indicated and took a careful exit of the fjord through the ice fields. Some were large above the water and much wider below so the ship was continually shifting from port to starboard to avoid them.

My hat comes off to the bridge, as far as I'm aware we avoided everything.
The night along the coast was quiet with almost glass waters. We hit sea fog at about 4am and the sound of the horn woke many up (you could tell by the number of toilet mechanisms working).
Clocks start moving back towards UK time tonight which will set us all in a confused mess again. Three days at GMT+3:00 has just settled in.

Narsarsuaq (2)

I was keen to see what plant and animal life I could see, but first I had to go to deck 6 to collect a tender ticket.
So many tours were going out today, all on small ships so people were congregating in different parts of the ship to go off to the 2WW museum or the Signal Hill hike or the small boat trips to the ice fields in a neighbouring fjord.
I couldn't get a ticket for that one so I settled for a wander and a paddle.

view from the pier, looking back at the ship.

I watched a prop plane take off from the residual 2WW airstrip and listened to a helicopter buzzing around. I'm not sure if that was for pleasure or taxi from one area to another, but out here there are no roads so getting from one place to the other is restricted according to the time of year; sledge in winter, kayak, motorboat in summer.
Below are a series of plants I saw as I travelled along the roadway to the only habitation for the 50 people still living in the area.

Narsarsuaq (1)

Waking this morning all I could see was sun streaming through the curtains.
Small ice lumps (not large enough to be called bergs but bigger than a bus) floated past the cabin.

I watched one as the sun melted one edge of it and as it fell into the water, the ice remaining slowly rotated revealing it's underside. This side was like fluffy candy where the water had melted it in pockets unlike its original top which had been smoothed by the sun.
There's little here except an old WW2 American airforce base runway (the building long since collapsed and materials used elsewhere) a few buildings and another of these hotels.
It has the only coach on the island which ferries passengers from the quay to the hotel. We are using it to ferry those who cannot walk far up to Signal Hill.

before independent travellers could disembark we needed tender passes. They were trips going off every ten minutes so they had priority, we filled the ducks where spaces allowed

I am going to go by duck to the shore then wander. I've noted a beach of sorts so I anticipate having a paddle.

Qaqortoq

The fog horn was going all night; sea fog had descended and visibility was very poor indeed.

Our little ducks almost obscured by the sea fog.

It was still going when we arrived and moored in the harbour. If you listened you could hear boats going out but they were invisible in the mirk.
It wasn't until about 9am that the fog burnt back and bright sunshine replaced it. What had started out as a dank and dismal day rapidly gained heat and by 11am I was overheating.

 pick a letter, any letter and make a Scrabble nightmare

It may only have been 12°C but it felt much more.
I had chosen to do the Food Tasting trip so we headed off to try local delicacies at a hotel in town.

 Now don't get ideas of reception desk, stairs to rooms and plush dining room, this is Greenland where houses are converted into guest houses and the ground floor is a place to eat, sit and chat. The furniture is very YMCA style with long wooden benches, multiple chairs and a wooden hatch leading from a small kitchen area. As I said, its basic but the life up here is.

food tasting plate. Really was a delightful mix, I could happily live off all but the whale blubber 

We were presented with a plate of small morsels of various things. Musk ox stands out in my book, it was like the best steak possible. Dried cod was another which although chewy was very tasty. The only thing I really didnt like was whale blubber but give me anything else and ooh, it went down a treat.
Once they started serving the various ales I left. Not interested in beers.

I spent two very happy hours wandering around the town, finding the lake, school, university/college, the supermarket (name is a peach) and various other places all shown below.

running through the middle of Qaqortoq was an outlet for a very large lake set behind. The water wasn't as cold as one would imagine and I had a thoroughly enjoyable paddle with the small fish swimming around me.

The rest of the day?
Sunbathing on the lido deck, swimming the spa pool and nattering with Shirley. What more could a girl possibly want?

A day cruising the Sound

Ripples on the water first thing. The sun cast an amazing light through the fog

Waking to the sound of the fog horn, I was wondering whether we'd see much at all. 

I switched on the TV to find out what the weather held in store and find out what the time was.

After shifting from GMT+1.00 to GMT -2.00, all of us have very messed up body clocks. Not surprising then, I woke at 5am, wide awake and ready to go. I had some tea then turned over and went back to dozing for a bit longer.

So, early breakfast over, back to the room, collect camera bag and then off to the Promenade Deck to set up ready for a long day up the Sound.

Our first sight of a glacier came not long into the journey. One of the largest, we stopped for a while and went as close as we could. Nothing calfed, but small pieces were drifting off along the sound so it was shedding small pieces. 

I have some pictures of a beautiful berg but that's on the big camera so I'll post these after I've worked with them on the computer.

The rock formation was incredible. At some point this was all encased in ice and snow. Now we are looking at the unveiling of an ancient landscape with U-shaped valleys called into the floor.

Mosses grow wherever the ground is stable, near the horizontal and fed with streams from the melting ice above.

I saw a few seals but they were very shy and kept disappearing under the water as soon as I picked up the camera. 

They must have known.

The climate here is, as expected, cold but the air is dry and makes it feel that much warmer than it is. Wisely, I kept the camera inside my coat, saving the battery and keeping the mechanism loose. 

I am looking forward to retrieving the shots when I get back. I do hope I have some good images in there. 

one of the largest glaciers left on the sound.

Most of the ice was calving due to melt water rather than weight pushing behind it. As a result much of what came off was small by comparison with a few years ago.

150 nautical miles to Greenland

Yep, you see it correctly. The sea is almost glass calm, the sun is strong and I am wearing a strapless sundress whilst sitting on the lido deck. I have been in the hydro pool every day and enjoyed a sauna too, but this beats even heading down to Cape Verde.

We reach a long passage called Prince Christian Sound tomorrow where its hoped we will see a few icebergs and perhaps some glaciers coming down to the water's edge. I'm not expecting too much in terms of cold, snow or the like but the rock formation will be spectacular; an ancient landscape being revealed as the ice and snow recedes.

More, green grass, cows and midges these days sadly.

I'm now sitting on my balcony with tea and something to eat. As usual the 'gannet' is hungry and looking forward to the evening meal.

So the day has been odd and 'socks' clocks are everywhere because we keep putting the clocks back. I'm waking at 3am and falling asleep by 9pm. As Shirley said, we have to do this all again only in reverse on the way back.

The lectures have been interesting and have given us a pretty good idea of what to expect for the next couple of days. 

But now the sea fog is coming down and visibility is shrinking. Gone are the blue skies but it's still fairly warm. 

So much better than Reykjavik where the wind was almost horizontal and freezing cold.

A day of nothing really

The winds high and the temperature low, Reykjavik still didn't appeal.

I'd not booked a trip as I've done them already and going out when standing was more a test of strength than a pleasure, I left getting off to others and took advantage of the laundrette and swim/sauna. 

A massive ship ( more akin to a floating city) was also in harbour and the prospect of fighting that lot was 'one mint too far'.

So much nicer to enjoy peace and quiet, some cabin time to relax and just, well, chill.

It's 3.15pm and Shirley is due back shortly. I'm on deck 5 with a good book. 

Decadence, total indulgent decadence.

Puffin Island

Shirley and I boarded the old fishing boat with a small group of others from the ship.

It looked well past its sell-by date but was sea worthy and strode out through the waves.

It was a fairly warm day but good wind proof coats and hats were needed.

The island where the puffins nested was in the mouth of  the bay so it only took about 30 minutes to get there.

Most of the puffins were in the water swimming about. I think many had fledged their young and had them on the water rather than too close to the gulls who were continually on patrol for any youngsters small enough to eat.

I took my Nikon and took most shots on that. It has a bigger lens and I can get better close ups with it. Although I can see some nice shots, on play back, they will require uploading to the computer for some manipulation. 

Sadly, an old boy slipped and fell cutting his hands and face. He was ok but I bet that'd cause a great deal of paperwork for the guide.

I was very impressed by Saga's response though; one of the nurses from the sick bay was on the quayside waiting for us to arrive back to the jetty and he was taken straight back to the ship under medical supervision.

That wouldn't have happened with other lines that's for certain.

By the time we got back on board the weather had changed and a very cold wind brought dense cloud. It suddenly turned very nippy so we happily went back into the library and hid there for a few hours.

By the time we'd had dinner, both Shirley and I were shattered. 

I was asleep by 10pm.

Unfortunately I was wide awake at 3.35 am!! Sleep patterns so messed up. We've another clock change tonight,  we go back yet another hour. I'm going to be completely out to lunch at this rate.

Next stop Grundafjörder: first thing

Again, wall to wall bright blue skies, calm seas and easy sailing.

We cruised into Grundafjörder at around 7.30am and anchored in the bay. 

Its tender today so that'll stop those with mobility issues.

I went up for a quick breakfast at 8pm and people were already off on trips, some of them all day. Departures were too early for me. Mind you, with the sun never sinking completely and a false dawn at about 4.15am, it makes for odd sleeping.

I'm delighted to say the migraine lifted yesterday - I think I've found the correct pillow - so I am waking bright, breezy and raring to go.

My trip to puffin island isn't until noon so I'm enjoying a camomile tea in the library before I head outside for a walk on the deck. 

Happy days....

Maybe I'll have time to nose around the hamlet when we come back? That'd be nice.

OK so I missed a day

Yesterday was our third sea day and the final hike over to the Arctic circle and up into the northern fjords.

Shirley and I spent the day nattering as usual and watching a couple of really good talks, one in photographing in Iceland and the other about Reykjavik. I did my statuary 53 mins (the length of the album on my headphones) walking in the wind and then a swim after lunch.

Later we went to the cruises booking office and got a really good deal on a warmer cruise for next year; her celebration of her 90th!

Should be good.

Ísafjörder

We arrived early and docked by 7.30am. I sat on the balcony in a sundress and soaked up the sun. It's a beautiful crisp spring day here with some snow on the tips of the mountains but lush greenery below.

The ship has distributed the waters and arctic terns are noisily, swooping round collecting for their young. 

Mm, painful if caught out and dive bombed by these highly protective birds. With backswept wings, they plummet into the water, plucking fish from the turbulence. Ships must be a delight to these busy birds.

I've not booked a trip as I've been here numerous times, so I'm off for a walk later.

Shirley is on a trip, leaving at 10.30am and will be away until probably about 1pm, so we've agreed to meet around 2pm. That'll give me plenty of time to explore the hamlet refresh my memory of this place.

How could I forget it, such a pretty place, full of character and history.

My favourite part is still the Old Town.

First things first was a paddle in the fjord so I wandered over to the museum area and stood in the waters there.

Now you tell me, how could I not stand in that? Yes, it was cold but no more than North Sea in winter.

I'll put up more of the shots around the docks when I get home but to say I spent a very happy few hours paddling around the docks and old town is an understatement. 

I did visit the museum there and had a fascinating time in there.

Mm, no doubt I'll be back again but it was nice to see the place and the gradual changes into a tourist destination even if it's more for the rugged adventurers 

Day 2: at sea

Another sea day and another change of clocks. Iceland is 2 hours different from UK so we have had a one hour shift in times over the past two days.

We're moving into permanent daylight too which is odd to say the least.

Each time I've been this way in the past it has been late in the year just before the heavy snowfall so I am used to leaf fall, crisp dark mornings and short is daylight days; much like the UK in December only colder, but this time it's more mosquitoes, lush grass and crisp mornings. Yes, even at this time of year the wind is bone chilling and pulls in the cold from higher into the arctic and of course, Alaska. 

The day itself past remarkably quickly, but that was due to really good company. 

Shirley, who I met on the previous cruise is such a fascinating woman and we really do hit it off. Sea days are therefore one long natter, punctuated by time to ourselves, me off to the Spa for a swim and lecture hall speakers.

Today (day 3) we have two more talks one at 10.30 am and the next at 2pm. Those plus my regular swim and walk and the days swiftly pass.

30th June: at sea

Our three day passage up to Iceland begins and we have just over a thousand nautical miles to travel.

Our first destination is right up in the northern part of the archipelago, Isafjördur.

It's a small place but a really pretty one with a long history. We had an excellent talk about it this morning and it was enough to remind me just how much I liked the place.

We'll get there Monday but before then it's just the sound of the waves and the arctic turns swooping low over the waters.

Sadly and I suppose not unexpectedly a migraine descended so by 2pm I was back in bed.

I'm writing this on the Saturday, the first time I've been conscious since really. Yes, its still there but manageable. I really should have put that blasted collar in!