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My 18 Eventful Days Cruising Greenland & Canadian Arctic!
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Jan 28, 2025
I flew in on charter flight to the Kangerlussuaq Greenland, to join an expedition cruise on Hapag Lloyd around Greenland. It turned out to be an experience like no other that I have had, with ice beating us, incredible sights, twists, and turns, and just an incredible experience. Here's what happened and why For bonus & exclusive content (including videos, articles, eBooks and more) become a channel member or patron: --------------------------------------------------- * Patreon Patron: https://www.patreon.com/tipsfortravellers * YouTube Channel Member: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC_qE-Obs2ocdmPXY0TIU-cw/join Check out my cruise-themed T-shirts and products: --------------------------------------------------- * T-Shirts: http://bit.ly/TFTStore * Mugs, notebooks, hoodies etc: https://www.teepublic.com/stores/tipsfortravellers?ref_id=22354 My social media: --------------------------------------------------- * Blog: https://www.tipsfortravellers.com * Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/garybembridge * Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/tipsfortravellers * Instagram: http://www.instgram.com/garybembridge * LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bembridge
View Video Transcript
0:00
18 days ago I flew in on a charter
0:02
flight to the airport down there
0:04
kangalusa quack join an expedition
0:06
cruise on her back Lloyd around
0:08
Greenland this turned out to be an
0:11
experience like no other that I have had
0:13
with ice beating us incredible sights
0:17
twists and turns and just an incredible
0:19
experience as you will find out right
0:23
now the first big twist came right after
0:26
the mustard drill as we set sail at 8pm
0:28
the captain announced the itinerary I
0:30
booked was being scrapped due to thick
0:33
ice and bad weather instead of Crossing
0:35
to the Canadian Arctic first as planned
0:38
we would now stay in Greenland selling a
0:41
North and North and North and he'd find
0:43
new places to visit along the way until
0:45
we could find somewhere to cross but as
0:47
you'll see even those new plans kept
0:51
hitting snags too
0:53
so how cold is it and how rough are the
0:55
Seas so I'll tell you on the first
0:56
morning I'm I'm underdressed clearly I
0:58
need more of a hat and stuff so it's
1:00
definitely getting noticed to be cold as
1:01
we head a bit further north I mean
1:03
yesterday it was quite warm about 16.
1:04
the seas are very very calm and I guess
1:08
because we're sort of sitting in fjords
1:10
and protected areas I'll keep you posted
1:11
on that after putting on layers hats and
1:13
the Cozy blue Parker supplied by the
1:15
line I headed back outside in time for
1:19
this the first science of what was to
1:22
come this amazing Iceberg the first of
1:25
many that we saw today but as I
1:27
discovered icebergs like these were
1:30
rather small scale versus what I got to
1:33
see later earlier the next morning the
1:35
ship slowed to cautiously make our way
1:38
through icebergs that were scattered all
1:41
around umanac our first off-ship
1:44
experience a landing that had some
1:46
rather unusual features that none of the
1:48
others we did on the trip had as I'll
1:51
explain behind me is in the bay just
1:54
like a gazillion icebergs and we're in
1:57
this tiny little village it's about 1
2:00
800 people and it's a really important
2:03
place for the inner Community east of
2:06
winter here now there's kind of more of
2:08
a settlement here and you've got a very
2:10
beautiful church here you've got a an
2:12
interesting Museum of the history of uh
2:15
the green lenders and people moving here
2:17
and there's a big fishing Community you
2:20
might hear clanking and banging and
2:22
stuff from from that and it's quite
2:24
amazing I mean the scenery is just
2:26
incredible out there this Landing had
2:29
four unique things that others to come
2:31
did not first we use the ship's tender
2:33
boats as amanak had a place to Dock and
2:37
all the others we had to use the zodiacs
2:39
more on that shortly as you'll see
2:41
secondly all 200 passengers could go on
2:43
land here at the same time because we
2:46
were visiting a settlement in
2:48
uninhabited places only 100 of us were
2:51
allowed on land at any one time and well
2:54
the third and fourth difference is I'll
2:56
explain by showing you as they happen on
2:59
that next Call of the day stop by the
3:02
way there was not on my book titinary at
3:04
storen storen was a wet Landing which
3:07
meant we got there in these zodiac boats
3:10
and we had to step off them into the
3:12
water so we were wearing boots supplied
3:14
by the line by the way and waterproof
3:17
trouser covers which I had to bring with
3:19
me there's an expedition team of 12
3:23
people and while six are experts who
3:26
gave talks on board and then are on hand
3:29
when we're out and about to inform us
3:31
about things like the weather geology
3:33
Wildlife you know at culture the six
3:36
others in that team their roles came
3:39
into play when we landed here in storyn
3:42
and so one of the things that are very
3:44
important when you're out
3:46
is one of these guys behind me there's a
3:49
group of polar bear guards watch out for
3:53
thought about this because it's kind of
3:54
dangerous so polar bear's kind of
3:56
approach then we all have to head back
3:58
to the ship really quickly because polar
4:00
bears are
4:01
very aggressive and
4:03
honoring to attack human so
4:06
those guys are kind of quite important
4:08
in the whole thing so we're out on The
4:11
Second Adventure which is a hike to a
4:15
Iceberg graveyard so this is the iceberg
4:19
Cemetery it's a bay where iceberg is
4:23
going to get caught and it's rather
4:25
spectacular we haven't yet had as many
4:28
little mosquitoes and bugs as we'll
4:31
warned but I have noticed that quite a
4:32
few of the experienced people now of the
4:34
Expedition team who are out at various
4:36
points here they've got their little
4:37
Nets on it it bison Nets and we'll see
4:39
whether later on in the trip they don't
4:41
need to do those so I'm gonna go and
4:42
explore a little bit more of this
4:44
amazing amazing scenery so I'm back on
4:48
the ship having done that walk and I
4:50
realized that there was a reason that
4:52
the regulars had their protection stuff
4:55
on for bugs and I wish they'd warned us
4:58
because I've now bitten like crazy on my
5:00
head and my neck so I'm all bundled up
5:02
because I've just been outside the
5:03
temperatures falling dramatically so
5:05
it's like three degrees after it was
5:07
like 13 or so yesterday and this is a
5:10
sea day we're heading 400 nautical miles
5:13
further north which is why the
5:15
temperature's falling so much and we
5:16
we've got three lectures today one
5:19
around the weather the second was around
5:22
the whole Ecology of the Arctic Circle
5:25
and the third is going to be about the
5:27
Intuit people and then we have the
5:29
briefing for the next few days so a
5:32
little bit chilly gonna go and head
5:33
outside again it's it's kind of also a
5:35
little bit Misty and foggy across the
5:36
trip we had at least 16 lectures by the
5:39
Expedition team and most days there were
5:41
Recaps and briefings about next day stop
5:44
though often whatever we were briefed on
5:47
was going to happen didn't come to pass
5:49
the next day around seven o'clock in the
5:52
morning on day five I woke to find that
5:55
we were gingerly sailing through fog to
5:58
try to get to Cape York some 400 miles
6:01
north from that last call so you may
6:05
hear little crunches every now and again
6:07
which is ice kind of was crunching up
6:09
against the hull of the ship so we're
6:12
currently selling towards Cape York and
6:15
we're sitting through kind of see ice
6:17
which has broken up now last night on
6:19
The Briefing the captain spoke about the
6:22
ice because it's a lot of ice around
6:24
still so whether we can get that far
6:26
north is still to be decided you might
6:29
see things like this sort of Iceberg
6:31
looming over there you can see loads of
6:34
sea ice over there
6:35
so uh some sort of Jeopardy but we'll
6:39
sort it on that I'm sure well I was over
6:40
optimistic it was too foggy to sell
6:42
safely there so we turned around and
6:45
headed to our next stop that stop was
6:47
Parker snow Bay which was not on the
6:50
original itinerary that I booked so I
6:52
was concerned about how good or
6:54
interesting it would be
6:56
but also hoping that this fog would lift
6:58
as we're not allowed on land if it has
7:01
not lifted because it's impossible to
7:03
spot polar bears and the risk is too
7:05
high well as you can see it's really
7:07
sunny blue skies so that's a big change
7:10
from this morning when you said it's fog
7:12
even sailing in here there was loads of
7:15
fog so it's really changeable if so you
7:16
may be able to hear kind of gush of
7:19
water and that's a stream that's slowing
7:21
down to into the Fjord from these
7:24
glaciers behind me in about 1850s these
7:28
glacies that are behind me would have
7:30
been right down to about here 80 of
7:32
Greenland is covered by a massive thick
7:35
ice field and at some points it's three
7:38
and a half kilometers thick and if it
7:40
melted the whole ocean would rise by
7:43
seven meters right around the world so
7:46
you off these eyes of this big ice
7:49
Shield you have glaciers which then push
7:51
down uh through the the valleys and the
7:54
fields and the fjords create the fjords
7:56
uh and because of gravity they just keep
7:58
moving so like rivers of ice so hiking
8:02
up has been kind of interesting because
8:03
you're walking on like permafrost which
8:05
means that it's almost like walking on a
8:07
spongy carpet so it's actually quite
8:09
hard going but anyway I've got to go and
8:11
climb much further up there and I'm
8:14
gonna get left behind if I don't keep
8:15
moving well I didn't get left behind and
8:18
after the hike it was time to head back
8:20
to the ship as the next set of guests
8:22
headed onto land to have their turn
8:25
hiking Parker snow Bay early the next
8:28
morning I bundled up warm and headed out
8:30
onto the bar of the ship to see us
8:32
arrive at the ice border last night the
8:36
captain told us he was going to keep
8:37
heading north to get here to what is
8:40
more or less the start of solid sea ice
8:43
to the North Pole and we're going to
8:45
spend a day trying to push through it
8:46
hoping to spot polar bears because they
8:49
hunt on this ice but he warned that the
8:53
ice charts suggested the ice may prove
8:56
too thick for us to get very far we're
8:59
pushfully far north I think we're about
9:01
77 degrees north and we're now hit the
9:05
with the eyes we've actually just pushed
9:07
a little bit into the the ice for her
9:09
and you see these little pools of clear
9:11
water which means that it's sort of
9:13
starting to to melt a bit but it's uh
9:16
it's quite something and so the ship is
9:19
uh ice class which means you can push
9:20
into some of the ice it's on ice breaker
9:23
so it can't break through into deep deep
9:25
ice as such so it's quite atmospheric
9:28
kind of a little bit foggy and whatnot
9:31
so we're spending a day now looking at
9:34
the ice hopefully finding things like
9:36
polar bears and stuff like that but that
9:38
was not to be and the captain and the
9:40
Expedition leader had to find an
9:42
alternative in addition will be told we
9:45
no longer
9:45
in the ice because the ice the pack ice
9:48
coming out from the north was too thick
9:49
it was about two meters thick and
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although we tried to push through
9:53
couldn't really get through so we've
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gone to a place which is really really
9:57
weird and interesting all together so
9:59
this is the Dundas Mountain over there
10:02
which some people have climbed this is
10:04
an old sort of hunting area also it's a
10:06
really important area around here for
10:08
the Inuit people however in the 1950s a
10:12
massive Air Base was built during the
10:14
Cold War by the Americans This base was
10:16
called the tool air base and apparently
10:20
it had up to 20 000 Marines at one time
10:22
and it's designed really because it's
10:24
sort of a midpoint between the US and
10:26
Russia at the time it was a way of kind
10:28
of identifying if there was going to be
10:30
any ballistic missiles coming and it's
10:32
now really more focused on tracking kind
10:34
of activity in space and again warning
10:36
for ballistic missiles and so on but it
10:40
also was a reminder of just how badly
10:42
the local people the Inuit people were
10:45
treated so for example they were getting
10:46
four days apparently they've been here
10:48
for I guess forever they've given four
10:51
days to vacate the area and the whole
10:53
through this whole trip you've been
10:55
learning about how badly the people
10:56
treated now while this call was another
10:59
unscheduled and last minute itinerary
11:01
change it did unexpectedly make the next
11:04
stop even more poignant just after 8 30
11:09
this morning it was my turn to head
11:11
across on the zodiacs into this town
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this is both interesting and kind of a
11:18
little bit sad
11:19
in two ways so we're in Karnak now which
11:23
has a population of about 650 people
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this was only established in early 1950s
11:28
when the Intuit people were had to move
11:34
from when they were building the toule
11:36
air base so this now is sort of a
11:38
hunting fishing kind of village and
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um
11:42
it is actually the northernmost City in
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Greenland but I will talk a little bit
11:47
about the northernmost settlement a
11:49
little bit later on but anyway it's
11:51
going to explore
11:52
in the Community Hall there was a quite
11:56
an interesting mix of things going on so
11:59
there was Alex Perry who is a relative
12:02
of a famous explorer a young guy is
12:06
blue-eyed you the only included with
12:07
blue eyes and he spoke all about hunting
12:10
and he's really quite inspiring
12:12
um he's a young guy he has Parkinson's
12:14
but refuses to leave his community to go
12:16
to Denmark to kind of get some treatment
12:18
and medication We need he loves the
12:20
community so much so that was quite
12:22
something also there's lots of kind of
12:25
curios and bits and pieces there
12:26
actually made out of kind of little
12:28
glass beads lots of kind of work going
12:30
and then they did sort of some drum
12:32
dancing it was so much to see in this
12:34
small town a museum telling the story of
12:36
hunting a quaint church that is
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immaculately kept and interacting with
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the rather excitable Greenland sled dog
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these are pups and they're all around
12:47
the town however soon it was time to
12:49
head back to the ship and to head to our
12:52
next stop but that took way longer than
12:55
was scheduled because the sea ice in the
12:57
bay to get there was still really thick
12:59
and the ship had to force our way
13:01
through we did though finally get to
13:03
shirapala this is the northernmost
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permanent settlement in Greenland just
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65 people live here mostly part of an
13:12
extended family who are hunters and
13:14
they're Fishers and the signs of all
13:16
that carcassus polar bear skins and
13:18
Bones dotted all around it has a small
13:21
and slightly quirky Church totally
13:24
isolated during the winter when it's
13:26
only reachable by helicopter quite a few
13:29
people have asked me about what's the
13:31
key difference between sort of the
13:33
Arctic Greenland and Antarctica I think
13:35
this is a really good example of one key
13:37
difference which is settlements so this
13:40
is the northernmost settlement in the
13:43
whole of Greenland and it has about 65
13:47
people it's a Hunting Community but what
13:49
you don't have in Antarctica is
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settlements and people you'll find some
13:52
old abandoned waiting stations and some
13:55
research centers you don't have
13:56
indigenous people that have lived and
13:58
living there actively kind of you know
14:01
living alive
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you know fending for them cells that's
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one key difference one important
14:07
difference of course is polar bears you
14:10
get in the Arctic penguins you get down
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in Antarctica so if you ever see a
14:14
Christmas card we've got penguins and
14:16
polar bears on that isn't just nonsense
14:20
it could be nonsense after a walk on the
14:22
gorgeous beach with mountains and a
14:25
glaze in the distance I headed back to
14:27
the ship once everyone was back on board
14:29
the captain told us that ice was melted
14:32
enough for us to cross Baffin Bay to
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explore the Canadian Arctic so many of
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the Greenland cruises like the one that
14:40
I'm actually on come across the Canadian
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Arctic and visit really remote places as
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you do in Greenland and although I'm
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going to focus on Greenland it's worth
14:49
just mentioning the Canadian article is
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pretty special as well and this is
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actually where we've seen so far anyway
14:53
the most Polo beds I think we've seen
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about seven of them now you know of
14:58
course they're quite far away they can
14:59
be as much as the kilometer waste you
15:00
need a really good strong lens this
15:02
morning we saw selling in here we saw a
15:04
mother a baby so that was kind of
15:06
special you see another side of the
15:07
Inuit community
15:09
and understand some of the differences
15:11
the scenery is even more kind of rugged
15:15
so you have these massive big uh Cliffs
15:17
and things so it's definitely worth if
15:19
you've got the time looking at the
15:21
Canadian Arctic extension after a rather
15:24
Rocky Crossing back to Greenland across
15:26
Baffin Bay we visited illusat one of the
15:28
best known and most visited towns in
15:30
Greenland I had no idea there was a
15:33
UNESCO world heritage site here and just
15:35
how remarkable a sight it was as you
15:38
will see after short zodiac Riders the
15:40
town passed the first and only other
15:42
cruise ship that I'd seen on the whole
15:44
trip so far we entered the picturesque
15:47
Harbor jam-packed with small fishing
15:49
boats I jumped off went on the cruise
15:52
lines bus transfer to the Easter Fjord
15:55
Visitor Center and then headed down off
15:58
a signed posted path so looming out the
16:01
Mischief behind me is the most
16:03
remarkable site looks like it's a
16:05
glacier but in reality it's floating
16:08
icebergs huge huge huge big chunks of
16:12
ice that have broken off the green and
16:15
ice field they get pushed down here but
16:17
because it's really shallow here
16:20
they basically get grounded and stuck
16:22
and this is one of the most
16:24
popular places to come and visit because
16:27
of this incredible ice field as it's
16:30
called I mean it really is quite quite
16:33
quite something so it's about a one and
16:36
a half kilometer sort of walk on these
16:38
wooden
16:39
Pathways to get there so let's go and
16:42
take a look and explore this amazing ice
16:44
spot it's just my imaginates they said
16:47
to us would be incredible but it is just
16:49
mind-boggling massive glaciers break off
16:52
the green and ice field at the end of
16:54
isofjord over 70 kilometers from here
16:57
the Fjord is around 700 meters deep
17:00
until it gets here where it Narrows to
17:02
about 200 meters deep the giant icebergs
17:06
are so big they get stuck creating a 70
17:09
kilometer Iceberg traffic jam all the
17:12
way down the field after that incredible
17:14
sight and a quick look around the town a
17:16
hurry back to the ship as we were due to
17:18
set sail for the afternoon activity
17:21
which was a zodiac ride around the
17:23
icebergs in Bay after basically the
17:27
icebergs finally melt enough and make
17:29
their way past that blockage another
17:32
stunning sight illusat
17:35
disco Bay and our next stop were all on
17:37
the original itinerary I booked by the
17:39
way and as those first two were so
17:41
amazing I was really looking forward to
17:44
the next one however it was memorable
17:48
but for the wrong reason this port had
17:51
one thing that no other place we've
17:53
called at in Greenland or in fact the
17:55
Canadian Arctic had but that wasn't
17:57
really a plus we're in probably I
18:01
apologize to the people Olivia one of
18:03
the least interesting places we've been
18:05
to which is sisimot again like Illusions
18:08
it has about 10 of the total population
18:10
of greenlands about 5 500 people and I
18:15
think one of the key reasons we're
18:16
stopping here is sort of on the way back
18:17
to kangalusa which is where we Embark in
18:20
this box but also importantly it's
18:22
probably the only place that the ship
18:24
can actually dock so here is where it's
18:26
taken on fuel it's got rid of kind of
18:30
waste and taken on all of the supplies
18:32
so I suspect the real reason we're here
18:34
is because it's where they can basically
18:35
restock there is though actually quite
18:38
an interesting Museum which is just here
18:39
it's a series of buildings all kind of
18:41
historical buildings and in there it's
18:42
quite interesting because it tells the
18:44
story of how this evolved from like a
18:47
whaling hunt Village into kind of a more
18:49
fishing Village and it's one of the
18:51
important centers of fishing and fishing
18:54
processing and that kind of stuff I've
18:56
been asked a lot about the weather
18:58
temperatures that kind of stuff so as
19:00
you can see it's a little bit rainy here
19:03
so the warmest it's been was 15 degrees
19:05
Celsius which is actually when we
19:07
embarked in kandalusa which was a very
19:09
unusual temperature and the lowest it
19:12
got on the trip the captain told us this
19:13
minus two degrees Celsius but most days
19:16
it kind of range between two or three
19:18
degrees Celsius up to about eight or
19:20
nine degrees Celsius probably about 10
19:21
degrees Celsius here in sisimo anyway so
19:23
the ship could only be docked for a
19:25
certain amount of time and now it's gone
19:26
out and it's sort of moored in the bay
19:28
so I'm going to actually go and head
19:29
back to the ship once back on board I
19:32
had time to reflect about my trip having
19:34
my booked itinerary scrapped could have
19:37
made for a terrible trip but as you've
19:40
seen far from that as Greenland was
19:43
fascinating no matter where we
19:45
eventually went and had to go however it
19:48
does show that expedition cruising has
19:50
many surprises and things that you only
19:53
really find out about once you're on
19:55
board because the lines tend to downplay
19:58
them so join me in this video where I
20:00
explain all of them starting with the
20:02
one that definitely causes the most
20:04
dismay see you over there
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