Isafjörður

This morning we arrived in Isafjörður in the west fjords of Iceland. a thin layer of snow was covering the mountains, but soon the sun looked out from behind the clouds and we could enjoy the scenery of the town. some of our guests went on different trips, short hikes, boat trip or a bus-tour. i went walk about in the town, looked at a great museum. Some of our guests tried the Hákarl= rotten shark and the almost deadly brennivin aka Svarta dauðir = black death. Afterwards i tried to find the local swimming-pool, which ended up with me not going there. instead i went to the local bakery got a cup of tea and a delicious pink cake.

for lunch the expedition team met in  an old house and got a delicious fish soup and many different dishes of fried fish, served on the frying pans.

now we are cruising towards Reykjavik along the beautiful fjords.

last evening we saw Flipper and his friends...

Blomsterbugten-DNB-Myggbukta and Ella Ö

the internet has been down a bit and we have been quite busy.

During the night we sailed from Alpefjord to Blomsterbugten in Keizer Franz Josephs fjord, only to wake up to another beautifull morning in the national park. we landed close to the old hut and after posting the "prison" guards in the terrain the guests could come ashore. it was bitterly cold to stand in the shadow, but after the sun came along and some hot cacao i was back in business. after teaching my colleagues why the matches should be sticking out of the match box etc. we went onboard the ship again and cruised out the fjord in great weather and and with a magnificent scenery, towards Daneborg, headquater of Sirius.

the next morning Ejnar Mikkelsen a war ship from the Danish navy was at anchor and later that day Vædderen a larger naval vessel joined us. it is deffinately not every day there are three ships at anchor at Daneborg!

four people at the station were friendly enough to wake up from a small hangover due to "slædedaab" and guide our groups around on the station. our guests found it very interesting, especially due to my lecture about Sirius yesterday.

we invited Sirius onboard for lunch, we looks completely crazy and surealistic out, but glad we could give something back to the boys.

we cruised down along Clavering Ö to watch Dödemandsbugten and Eskimonæs on our way down to Myggbukta.

Next morning snow had moved further down the mountains and the weather was clam and the sun was a little far away. on our way to the landing site a polar bear showed its face, creating some problems and organizing. everything went well and we had our perimeters put out to protect our guests. Ejenar Mikkelsen was also in Myggbukta and visited the station.

Steffen and I went up to the bear to see what it was doing and to scare it away. at 100-150 m it look at us for some time and decided to go away. i had only brought my 40 mm lens and was soooo mad! arggg dumme bjarki!

then we sailed towards Ella Ö via Sofia Sund, while enjoying the jacuzzi and the scenery.

today weather was still great, as always in "my" Greenland, minus 1 and some wind but later on sun and still weather. a polar bear had trashed large parts of the station so Palle (63) and Kasper repaired most of it while we were standing guard.

after looking at icebergs close to Ruth Ö, some of which where 45 m high we sailed through beautifull Narhval Sund only to meet Ejnar Mikkelsen again close to Kongeborgen.

the day ended by Kasper, Kathrine and me in the jacuzzi ocerlooking Mestersvig and leaving the National park, heading for Isafjördur...

Mestersvig and Alpefjord

Yesterday in a little bit of snow and low clouds we landed on the beaches of Nyhavn in Mestersvig. during our four hour stay, the cloud cover lifted and revealed Greenland in all its beauty, with sun and a sugar cover of new fallen snow on the mountains. last year i was skiing in this area only 10 days from now!
we only stayed in Nyhavn due to the short landing time and the helath of the passengers. Thomas and Torben from FVM came down together with the dog Lola and had a small souvenir shop, visited the boat and had breakfast and did expedition control of the ship.
After we left Mestersvig we sailed into Alpefjord where we got absolutely magnificent weather, no clouds and lots of sun. cool weather and almost no wind.
close to Spærregletcher we did almost two hours of polar circle boat cruis in behind Spærregletcher in fantastic weather and conditions. jagged peaks of almost 3000 meters and sugar cover in snow and just amazing.
the day ended by me to sit in a jacuzzi on the top deck looking at the stars...

Reached Scoresbysund

at hrs 1500 we reached Scoresbysund, only 4 hrs delayed. the sea got a bit calmer during last night and people was waking up from the half-dead...

we had a nice day in scoresbysund in sunny weather. I met Martin and Karina from nuna travel, petted some little puppies and went to kaffemik at Martins house.

i held two lectures about Mestersvig before entering Scoresbysund and i just held another after dinner for the Scandinavian speaking about Mestersvig. the sea is getting a bit bumpy again, but luckily not 10 meter waves and it is only 245 km to Mestersvig. in Mestersvig we will only be in Nyhavn and walk a little bit around.

After getting the sea-sickness away the chance of getting fatter is present. the food is really good and there is enough of temptations with a huge calorie content;0)

Far from that I am very happy to be back in my back-yard, so to speak. today i visited my first town outside the National park, that only took me almost 8 years!

I hope we get nice weather and good conditions so we can show our guests what a beautiful place we are going to.

sea-sick in the Denmark strait...

All night it has been bad weather and we havent really come into the Denamrk Strait. wind has been between 20 and 25m/sek with 10 m high waves. i am a bit sea-sick, though close to throwing up i mangaed to keep it in me.

the ship is very nice, except the lecture rooms are in the bow of the boat. i was supposed to hold 3 today but it ended up with a small-talk in the lounge instead. after 35 min i had to run on deck and get some air!

we are delayed due to the weather so will maybe reach Scoresbysund tomorrow evening instead of hrs 1100. i cant wait to get stable ground under neath my legs again.

the sea and wind is calming down a bit, just not fast enough.
last time i checked my gps we were only 60 km NW of Hornbjarg, the westfjords of Iceland.

Back to NE-Greenland again, again...

Tomorrow I will go to NE-Greenland again, again... this time with "Fram" from Hurtigruten.

there will be around 220 passengers on board, mostly from Germany and we will be 8 guides and lectures. Palle Norit, a former Sirius member from my fathers time in the 60´s is also on board. The plan is to sail from Reykjavik to Scoresbysund-Mestersvig-Alpefjord-Blomsterbugten-Daneborg-Myggbukta-Ella Ö-Isafjörður and Reykjavik.

This will be a trip right into my own backyard so to speak;0). finally i will be able to go to a Greenlandic town, Scoresbysund. this is a bit strange since i have spent almost 8 years inside the National park...

I will try to update my blog during the trip, if not something will come after the trip.

I will be back in Reykjavik on the 23rd and the 24th Anna and I will fly to Denmark to attend to a big party to celebrate that SIRIUS is 60 years old...  then back to Reykjavik on the 26th, and see what my supervisors have to say about my thesis!

The ship has a web-camera and a blog that will be updated every day, so you can see what we are all up to...

http://mvfram.blogspot.com/

HANDED in my master THESIS

tonight I handed in my master thesis, again. hopefully it will be good enough this time. now it is 106 pages and almost 27 000 words, which is a lot. I have been way too busy, i think;0)

my supervisors will go over it while i leave the country and go to Greenland...

Back from Greenland

this photograph is from the Malmbjerget area in NE-Greenland. Malmbjerget is top right mountain.

we had a great trip and spent 2 days in Akureyri, North Iceland due to delays of the ship we were using. So we studied the local town for one day and the swimming-pool and the next day we rented two cars and drove to Myvatn, Dettifoss, Godafoss, Asbyrgi, Husavik and back again. we had a swim in Grjotagja at Myvatn, which is a very warm (for some people not used to warm water) cave with influx of water from a crack in the earth!

Then we flew in two planes to Constable Pynt in Greenland and all cramped together in one twin otter plane and flew up to Mestersvig, overflying Malmbjerget on the way, which was covered in clouds.

the ship we used as base had anchored up in Mesters Vig and not in Nyhavn, so we had to wait for some hours before it had gotten to the right place, so that we could hoist the helicopter on deck and attach the rotor-blades. in the evening we flew up to Malmbjerget to have a look at all the sites and walk around in the camp...

i will write more later

i must do some more work on my thesis which is due on september 12th...

there are a few more pictures on my pictures