Disko Fjord, Greenland

Three men in a boat off to Disko Island.

The fall colours of the Arctic...

and the small plants...

various varieties of lichen...

and mushrooms.

The beautiful new snow on the mountains and a bear guard.

A dwarf birch tree.

I watched everyone leave...

and sat on the hill and reflecting on a great trip and wonderful friends. 

Picture was taken by a fellow passenger who sent it to me.

Thursday, September 14^th. Disko Fjord, Greenland

We had a bit of a sleep in this morning, as the landing for the day isn’t until the afternoon. After breakfast we had a briefing about tomorrow’s landing at Ilulissat because we will be there early on Friday and it will be a full day. They told us about the glacier and the museum. David Pelly did a talk about a book he wrote about the Sacred Hunt, which is the story of the intimate connection between seals and polar bears, and then seals and people. Both bears and people rely on the seal for sustenance. Inuit believe that seals give themselves up so man can live and that seals and men can and do reincarnate as each other. Then we had a panel discussion around the issue of Canada’s sovereignty over the Arctic. There were five speakers, Season Osborne (historian), Marc St-Onge (geologist), John Houston (Inuit specialist), Laurie Pelly (land claims specialist) and Janet King (Arctic policy specialist for the Canadian government). They all give a short speech about the topic through their expertise. Then the opened it up for questions. One of the questions related directly to the topic of the state of Inuit towns in the Canadian Arctic vs in Greenland. A number of people have commented on how the Greenland towns look much more prosperous and attractive and the assumption was that Denmark has done a lot more for the Inuit. John Houston, who has spent over thirty years in the Canadian Arctic jumped to the defense of Canada for a couple of reasons. One, the west side of Greenland is mostly ice free and is the home of a huge fishery and Denmark is more interested in that anything else. Plus, Denmark is a much older country that Canada and was into exploring. Whereas Canada as a very young country that was the result of British exploration was more focused on uniting the country east to west by the railways. Plus, up until recently the Arctic has been an impenetrable land of ice, snow and cold. The sovereignty issue is becoming more of an issue now because it is becoming more ice free and mineral resources are being discovered. We talked about how Canada can protect its claims with minimal resources. It was pointed out that being a member of NATO would be a benefit to us if China or Russia were to challenge us. A very thought-provoking discussion. After lunch there was a lag while we waited for the ship to arrive in Disko Fjord. When it did John, Bruce and I disembarked by zodiac. We opted for the stop and smell the roses walk today. John has a cold, Bruce has a sore leg and I just wanted to enjoy the moment and the place. We took a leisurely walk together around a lake, over soft, mushy, mossy ground. There was a lot of small plant life which was changing colour as the season is rapidly changing. There was a lot of goose poop around too, but they had all left for the season. It made me think what it must have been like here a month or so ago with all the nests and goslings and the arctic foxes and other wildlife in the area. We took some selfies of each other and thoroughly enjoyed our last day of wild landing. We were on the land for about three hours. On the way back I lagged behind and they went down to the zodiacs. I stopped and sat atop a hill and watched them load up and leave. I stayed for another half hour just reflecting. I can’t believe the trip is coming to an end, but I fully realize how incredibly lucky I am. I am in a wonderfully remote area of the world that few people get to visit, and I have two amazing friends to share it with. What a great feeling. When I got back to the ship we had dinner with Kelsey, a young woman member of the expedition team, who is an archaeologist from Thunder Bay. She was good company and we had lots of laughs. Tonight, was disco night, so I went up to the 7^th deck and sat in the hot tub for an hour. It felt great to be in really warm water while sitting outside in the dark in the Arctic. Tonight, the clocks are going ahead another hour so I headed off to bed by 10. John was already in bed, Bruce was upstairs socializing.