Wednesday 6 September 2006

Fall in Greenland

















Greenland is the largest island in the world. It contains a lot of ice but on the coasts are rather green... Polar Star is sailing along the coasts of East and South Greenland in the Fall, after the Svalbard season. Crossing from Svalbard over to East Greenland is always very interesting, you never know exactly where or when you are going to hit the ice that are migrating out of the Arctic Ocean south through the Fram and Denmark Strait. The seaice you are most likely to meet is no-non-sense ice, meaning multi year, packed and hard ice. If you manage to get to the coast you can find that even in late August some of the fjords north of 76° is still covered with first year fast ice. This ice is an effective moderator for visitors, and some of the places I have visited, I would be the only visitor that year or even that decade.

Coming to the coast of Northeast Greenland is a dream. It is like coming to a place empty of people (there is only 27 persons living within the national park) and only nature have worn and torn the landscape over millions of years. The natural beauty is beyond words. The mere feeling of being alone and in the wilderness is overwhelming. The national park is 972 000 km² or 375 291,3 sq miles - that is eqivalent to Spain and France combined. ¾ of this area is covered by ice, but it still leaves about 250 000 km² without ice, in comparison the island of Great Britain is 209 000 km².

Anyway, enough statistics. Enjoy the pictures and make sure you experience Greenland once in your lifetime.









Monday 4 September 2006

Fall in Tromsø















This picture is of Kvaløya as I see it from my window at home. The mountain most prominent is Blåmannen, 1044 m.asl. The sun and the skies are amazing at this time of the year, it changes all the time. One of these days I saw Aurora Borealis east on the sky while the sun was setting in west - that was quite intriguing.