Oceanwide Expeditions

RVR14 North Greenland, Ultima Thule 2012

RVR14

Day 1 - We arrive in Upernavik from Reykjavik by chartered plane. (flight not included in the voyage cost). Upernavik (1500 inhabitants) is the main town in North Greenland, where the people still live from hunting seals.

Day 2 - We will go ashore on Kipak, and Kap Shackleton on Agparsuit which still have huge colonies of Brünnich’s Guillemots.

Day 3 - At the southern end of Melville Bugt we land at Kuvdlorssuaq the northernmost settlement of the Upernavik district.

Day 4 - We land at Lille Renland, where Reindeer have been found. Here we can walk on the Greenland ice-cap. In this area we may encounter our first sea ice and, if so, there is a chance of spotting Polar Bears hunting seals at the ice edge. Later we land at Red Head. The coast here is dominated by the vast Greenland ice cap which reaches the sea as a series of enormous glacier fronts, the largest outside Antarctica.

Day 5 - Today we sail to the western side of Melville Bugt, calling at Cape Melville and then continuing into Meteor Bugt where the shoreline mountains teem with Little Auks.

Day 6 - On Meteor Island we land at Savigsivik, the southernmost Thule settlement. It was on this island that the famous York meteorite provided the Inuit with a source of iron - until Peary removed it and sold it to an American museum.

Day 7 - At the west side of Saunders Island we will cruise below cliffs on which nest 150,000 Brünnich’s Guillemots, together with Kittiwakes and Fulmars, making it, perhaps, the largest seabird colony in Greenland.

Day 8 - We land at Cape Chalon, where we visit old houses of the Thule culture. Then we sail to Siorapaluk, the northernmost Greenlandic village where the people still depend on the hunting of Polar Bear, Narwhal, seals, seabirds and wildfowl. Later we sail into Inglefield Bredning where the icebergs are carved into fantastic shapes by the natural forces of wind and water.

Day 9 - Today we call at Thule (Quaanaaq) the main settlement of the area. In the 1950s the inhabitants of Old Thule (Dundas) were forced to move to Quaanaaq when NATO created an air base at their village. We continue to Hakluyt Island to view a large colony of Brünnich’s Guillemots. At this time of year the young are jumping from the ledges into the sea to start their southward migration.

Day 10 - In Booth Sound we make a trip inland to visit an area of High Arctic tundra. There are many lakes here, with a breeding population of ducks and geese.

Day 11 - Just east of Parker Snow Bugt we visit again some colonies with Brünnich’s Guillemots and cruise below the spectacular, ice-capped Crimson Cliffs to reach Cape York where, in 1818, the Inuit and White Men first met when Royal Navy ships under John Ross arrived. Today the small settlements on the eastern side of the Cape are deserted, though the mountains behind the shore are still home to thousands of Little Auks.

Day 12 - We sail east through the immense Melville Bugt, admiring again the awesome Greenland ice cap to the east. As we sail close to the edge of a nature reserve we have some chances to see Narwals along the ice edge.
 
Day 13 - We will sail as close to shore as we can and hope to land on Cape Seddon near the remains of a Thule culture village.

Day 14 - Depending on our schedule we land in the area of Kraulshavn.

Day 15 - At Kingigtorsuaq, where 14th Century Viking Ruins were found, we will try to find the place where the Vikings built a cairn with the inscriptions. From there we sail to Upernavik the main town in North Greenland.

Day 16 - From Upernavik we fly to Reykjavik by chartered plane. (flight not included in the voyage cost).