It’s a fjord fiesta!
IT WAS hard to know what was the more breathtaking: the exhilarating speed of our boats as they dodged wind-carved icebergs hundreds of feet high; the vast, bluey-white glacier ahead; or the fact that the bottom of the fjord was 1km of icy water below us.
We were deep in the heart of the world’s largest fjord system, Scoresby Sund, which stretches 350km into the east coast of Greenland.
Our 15-day voyage started in Reykjavik and the fishing village of Isafjodur in Iceland before crossing the Arctic Circle. The
MS Fram then sailed along the Greenland coast before arriving at Ittoqqortoormiit, the only settlement in the area, which is cut off by the frozen ocean for nine months of every year. The
Fram has an illustrious history. Fram means ‘forward’ in Norwegian and the original ship was the home of Amundsen and Nansen when they explored the Arctic and Antarctic more than 100 years ago. The Fram’s modern owner, Norwegian shipping line Hurtigruten, says: ‘We don’t do cruising, we do exploring.’
And so it was in the pretty village of Ittoqqortoormiit that we picked up Niels, a 21-year-old hunter who guided us through the fjord system. We soon became explorers ourselves, with trips ashore wherever we could land. As we hiked across the snowy terrain the crew would keep watch for polar bears, rifles at the ready.
Between stops the time was spent on deck, watching for whales and marvelling at the spectacular views. Excellent lectures about anything from Arctic explorers to global warming and the Vikings kept us busy and at night we watched the Northern Lights dancing overhead.
n Hurtigruten (hurtigruten.co.uk) offers a 12-day ‘Greenland and Iceland – The Ultimate Fjord and National Park Expedition’ cruise departing July 26, 2019. Prices from €5,090pp, including return flights from Oslo, full board and transfers. There are 14 flights a week from Dublin to Oslo from €59 return.