Oceanwide Expeditions

RVR15 North Greenland - Umanak 2012

RVR15

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

Day 3 - We land at Lille Renland, where Reindeer have been found. Here we can walk on the Greenland icecap. 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. Alternatively we land on Cape Seddon near the remains of a Thule culture village.

Day 4 - Today we sail to the western side of Melville Bugt, calling at Cape Melville and then continuing into Meteor Bugt.

Day 5 - On Meteor Island we land at Savissivik, the southernmost Thule settlement. It was on this island that the famous York meteorite provided the Inuit with a source of iron. Peary removed a part and sold it to an American museum. We will try to  land on the shore close to the meteor site and walk about 2 km inland to find it.

Day 6 - Between Saunders Island and the mainland we sail by the American Thule base from where the inhabitants were moved to Qaanaaq in the 1950s. We may land at Morusaq, a recently deserted Greenlandic settlement, an illustration of the de-population in the peripheral areas of Greenland.

Day 7 - Today we call at Thule (Qaanaaq) the main settlement of the area. In the 1950s the inhabitants of Old Thule (Dundas) were forced to move to Qaanaaq when NATO created an air base at their village.

Day 8 - In Booth Sound we make a trip inland to visit an area of High Arctic tundra. There are many lakes here, where snow geese collect for their winter migration.

Day 9 - Just east of Parker Snow Bugt we 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.

Day 10 - At sea heading for the Ummannaq area. While in the Melville Bugt we again admire the awesome Greenland icecap to the east.

Day 11 - We reach Svartenhuk Halvø, where we land at Svartenhavn. We will walk on an extensive tundra, dotted with lakes, where we will encounter ducks, geese and Muskoxen.

Day 12 - Today we circumnavigate Upernivik ø and sail through narrow fjords surrounded by mountains of over 2000 m and glaciers and icebergs at all sides and land at the valley where Wegener ascended to the Greenlandice-cap 80 years ago. It is close to Marmorilik, a  Zinc and Lead Mine high in the mountains, the Black Angel.

Day 13 - In Uummannaq (about 1000 inhabitants) seal hunting is still an important source of income for the local people and they also have many dogs which haul their sledges in winter. We will also visit the nearby Qilakitsoq site, on the north coast of the Nugssuaq Peninsula, where some years ago a family of mummified Thule culture people from the 15th Century was found.

Day 14 - At the west side of Nuussuaq Peninsula we land at Bjørnefelden, a ruin attributed to the Vikings

Day 15 - In the morning we sail among the icebergs along the large Jakobshavn Glacier. If its port is not blocked by ice we sail also to Ilulissat (5000 inhabitants), an important West Greenland town, with museums, institutes, bookstores, etc. 

Day 16 - We arrive in Aasiaat, a settlement which was created in the 17th century to support the whaling in the mouth of the Disko Bay.  Its port is ice free  from late spring to early winter.  At mid-day we fly from Aasiaat to Reykjavik by chartered plane (flight not included in the voyage cost).