It’s been a good day. To start off with, I wasn't as tired as I have been for the last few days. Mind you, I’m tired now that it is almost 10:00. I did feel fairly human when I got up this morning. We had a great zodiac cruise to the face of the glacier. We were in Randy’s zodiac. I was right beside him on the starboard side and was looking around not saying anything. I met his eye and he smiled at me and said, “It just makes you smile doesn’t it?” I agreed with him. We saw an iceberg, not sure if it was really big enough to be an iceberg or not, but it was the most gorgeous sapphire blue I’ve ever seen, very intense. On the way to the face of the glacier, Randy took us up to a number of waterfalls. I was surprised that some of the vegetation around the waterfalls and little streams was still green.
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| Randy Edmonds |
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| Waterfall close up |
We saw a bunch of bird’s nests along the wall beside the water. We asked Gary later what they were and he said he thought they would probably be kittiwakes. We also saw some glaucous gulls. Randy took us as close as he could to the face and then through the ice and back to the ship. It was overcast which made the sky, sea, glacier, and the rock rather monochromatic. I didn’t mind that. I took some photos on my phone and wasn’t going to bother with the camera until I remembered the card flying back and forth between Vancouver and Aukland. That made me get the camera out and I got some decent photos with it including one of the gulls on the ice which allowed Gary to identify them later.
After lunch there was a choice of activities, crafts, classical guitar, or a talk by Gary on how to use binoculars. He told us to identify the eyepiece that wasn’t adjustable, and the one that was. The one that is has a dial and + and - on it. We were to focus on something in the distance that wouldn’t move i.e. not something on land because the ship was moving. Then look through whichever eye had the non-adjustable eyepiece and adjust the binoculars with the regular adjustment wheel in the middle. After that was nice and sharp look through the adjustable side and adjust that until it was nice and sharp. From there you only have to adjust using the middle knob. People in our group saw a minke whale. I thought I saw it but it turned out to be just a wave breaking over a submerged rock. We saw gulls as well. Gary explained that glaucous gulls look different depending on how old they are. Their beaks and their feathers change colour.
While we were on the cruise with Randy he pointed out some snow buntings. I wish I could have gotten a picture of them but I didn’t.
After the binocular session, there was a talk by some of the Inuit onboard about truth and reconciliation and then the briefing about Nuuk tomorrow. We each got a customs form to fill out. Apparently the folks in the main office are getting quite busy trying to arrange customs clearance a day later than we were supposed to arrive in Canada. I checked the amounts and if you’re out of Canada for 48 hours you can bring back $800 worth of stuff. I don’t think I’ll be spending that much on qiviut .
Tomorrow is Nuuk. There are bus tours which BTV and Janet are going to take. I’m just going to walk into town on my own and poke around with my camera and phone. In theory, the sim card should work in Nuuk but I’m not holding my breath on that one. There is free internet at the library but everybody and his dog will want to be on it. BTV and Janet are going to get lunch some place in town and my plan is to go into Nuuk in the morning and look around, come back onboard for lunch and then go back into town or, if I’ve done everything I want to, I’ll come back to the ship.
It certainly feels busy and I think I need some down time. Walking around at my own pace and doing whatever I want should fix some of that. I’m quite content to let MJ wake me up in the morning since I’m not catching either the 8:15 bus tour or the 8:45 bus tour. By special arrangement, the museum opens at 9:00 so I’ll attempt to get into town about 9:30 and hit the museum and then the quiviut shop. I may or may not find a place for a cup of tea.
Clothing: for the ice tour today I wore my light fleece pants with my rain pants over top. My rain pants seem to be leaking because I had a wet spot on my butt that took a while to dry. I’m pretty sure it’s just the middle seam but it might be time for a new pair of rain pants. I wore my hiking boots with just my regular socks underneath. My toes were a wee bit chilly but nothing too serious. I had my heavy gloves with me but only wore the ones with the fingertips that work on the touch screen. My hands were chilly but not frozen so that was fine. On the top I had my Ice Breaker short sleeved T, then my grey marino turtleneck, then my Grimsey sweater and finally my AC jacket. I took an ear band rather than a toque and the only time my head felt the cold air was when we were zipping back to the ship on the step. Again, proof positive of what a wonderful purchase that sweater was. I will be so sorry when it eventually wears out.
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| I love my Grimsey sweater |
I think I’ve about covered the events of the day and now it’s time to ‘lay this log’ as the guy on the Bushman and Blue YouTube channel always says when it’s time for him to go to sleep in his tent.
Till tomorrow.
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