Sunday 28 June 2015

Enjoyable settlement and incredible scenic

The weather situation seems to turn into a miracle! We had incredible good weather again today. The sea is smooth like a mirror surrounded by scenic cliffs and mountains and above all a blue sky with some clouds.
At 8.30 am the Fram arrives to Illorsuit. Fortunately we could land because the sea ice disappeared a few days ago and only a few relics of it's still floating in the bay. The polar Circle Boats bring us ashore. It was a little bit quiet in the settlement as we have Sunday. Most of the people are still sleeping and some of our guests visits the tiny church. After 10.00 pm the village was more crowded.
We enjoyed an agreeable walk through the settlement, we could have a look into the church and proceed to the cemetery and into the hills in the vicinity of the village.
We enjoyed the first tundra flowers and the scenic view over the ice covered sea into the surrounding mountains with glacier valleys.
At lunchtime the Fram setted to sail to our next destination. But she stops short after because we saw a Bowhead Whale! The Bowhead Whales are one of the most seldom whales and very endangered like Right Whales. It is a great luck to be able to observe them on this trip. The presentations about Glaciology and the History of Greenland were postponed too.

Soon after we sailed our way to Upernavik. The sun was still brightly shining and the bay was full of icebergs. Therefore we decided to try an Ice Cruising, as we did not in the morning, because there weren't any big icebergs in the vicinity of Illorsuit. This Ice cruising is very exciting, the boats drove close to spectacular icebergs and the group finds a huge ice field of leftover sea ice from the last winter. On the way back to the Fram they discovered a group of seals.
Nevertheless we could not stayed there forever and finally we continued our way to Upernavik through the still breath taking landscape. Another marvellous day came to its end.
Bowhead Whale in Svartenhuk (Sigguup nuua) bay nearby Illorsuit

Kayaking in Illorsuit in this wonderful sea and landscape

View of Illorsuit from the Heliport