Nanortalik, Greenland (nano-TA-lik)

 Monday, September 9, 2024

The weather today could not be more perfect for a September day in Greenland. Cool breeze this AM followed by an amazing warm up mid-morning into the afternoon. I am sitting on my balcony (in the sun) writing this blog, gazing at an iceberg! And I just went in to put suntan lotion on my face - the sun is that hot!

Today our early excursion was “In search of icebergs”. I may have said in an earlier blog that we would be in an RIB; I was wrong. We were in a small boat with a bit of a front canopy, if you wanted to sit out of the wind. We had dressed warmly plus they gave us heavy outer jackets to wear. If we had been in a totally open boat, we would have had to put on complete jumpsuits. Our boat was perfect.

The boat driver/guide took us up into a protected cove where we circled many, many icebergs and got to see them up close and personal. Even we’re able to touch one - yes, we touched ICE!!

From far away they don’t look like much but when you get up close in a boat they are massive; and realizing how old the ice is that your seeing - thousands of years - it is very humbling. Our guide was born and raised in this town and he said he still is in awe of them every time he comes out with a group.

This area is also know for their Polar Bears - in fact the name of the town, Nanortalik translates locally into “place of polar bears”. We have not yet seen one but will keep our eyes peeled. We hope to see more whales out and about but we need to get ourselves out and about on the deck as often as possible to hopefully get a glimpse.

This afternoon we traverse the fjord - Prin Christian Sund (Prince Christian Sound) and will see glaciers and amazing rock formations. Another photo opportunity so I will split today’s blog into two different ones.

The town itself was quite nice - much more picturesque than Qaqortoq. We walked around and visited a small museum, walked into a church where the choir was rehearsing - so I caught one song on my video, and checked out the local supermarket where you can buy anything from boots to beer, bras to fabric, toothpaste to fruit - it’s a full service store. 

Again - we’ve been told just how fortunate we are to be experiencing the weather we are today. Also - there’s a strong possibility of seeing the Northern Lights tonight - midnight-ish - so we may be staying up later than normal. Fingers crossed.

More tomorrow,

Betsy