There was nothing to hide the enthusiasm of our diver pilot Merel as we descended into the mysterious depths of the fjord in a cloud of bubbles.
“These are some of the richest waters on the planet, with lots of light and nutrients,” he exclaimed. “This is a living landscape and no one has ever dived here before!”
From the bright aqua expanse, I stared in fascination at the underwater world unfolding before us.
As our seven-man ship slowly floated toward the fjord’s alluvial bed, a lion’s mane jellyfish pulsed past us, all rippling bells and waving tentacles, while tiny Arctic cod eyed us warily and soft corals drifted on the ocean currents.
And then suddenly, in the middle of it all, a small piece of bone appeared, decorated with uniform small holes. This led Merel to rhapsodies. He eagerly considered its origin before declaring it a possible Viking relic; An unexpected finale to our underwater exploration of Hvalsey Fjord, one of the complex networks of waterways carved into the southern flank of Greenland.
We slowly surfaced (the waters were biblically parting when we emerged into daylight) then were transferred from the electric submarine to an inflatable Zodiac tender and taken back to our ship, the Seabourn Venture.
Everything was perfect; But then, everything has been perfect since my 20-year-old daughter, Holly, and I boarded the ship a week ago; from services and excursions to hastily put together Zodiacs that brought us closer to the action when a young male polar bear appeared on the shore.
We boarded the 264-passenger ship, one of the new generation of luxury expedition ships, in Reykjavik, Iceland’s capital, then sailed north towards the Arctic Circle to Scoresby Sound on Greenland’s largely unpopulated and unexplored east coast.
Stretching for thousands of miles, towering cliffs separated by icy glacier tongues and wide, winding waterways (much of it still unexplored) make this the largest fjord system in the world, dwarfing its better-known Norwegian counterparts.
That’s hardly surprising when you consider the 836,000 square miles (nine times the size of the United Kingdom) of Greenland, the world’s largest island, although about 80 percent of its landmass is covered by an ice sheet.
But with fewer than 57,000 inhabitants, this Danish region is also the least densely populated region in the world.
Northeast Greenland National Park, bordering Scoresby Sound, is the largest area in the world; It covers an area almost as large as France and Spain combined and has no permanent human settlements.
We enjoyed these few days exploring the fjords, which are covered in sea ice for most of the year, making them impassable; But milder summer temperatures provide temporary respite, allowing ships like ours to slowly slide into this frozen inner sanctuary.
By mid-August, ever-heavier ice floes meant that Seabourn Venture was the first ship of the year to reach the fjords; The dramatic beauty of this stark landscape was completely at odds with the stylish interiors of our floating home. Each day we were greeted with a panorama of jagged icebergs framed by the curved floor-to-ceiling windows of our penthouse suite; In the evenings, Holly and I would sneak into The Club lounge before dinner for delicious freshly made sushi, complemented by a glass or two of crisp Galician albarino, while admiring the sunny sunsets bathing the fjords in golden hues. glare.
As we headed south, past the Prince Christian Sound mountains that separate the mainland from the islands of the Cape Farewell Archipelago at the southern tip of Greenland, the focus of our journey shifted from the wildlife and fauna of the east coast – with passing herds. orcas and giant fin whales – to the culture of the more populous west coast communities.
We stopped at small settlements along the rugged coastline, steeped in the traditions and history of the Inuit tribes who had survived for centuries in this unforgiving environment; locals welcomed us with heart-warming choir performances in rustic wooden churches and greeted us with “kaffemik”. a social gathering with coffee and homemade cake at community centers.
The contrast between their lives and ours was as fascinating as it was inevitable, and we were stunned to learn that a local man in the small settlement of Aappilattoq (pop. 70) had visited the UK for a month to improve his English. He was staying at Exeter, where Holly had graduated just a few weeks earlier.
Who would have thought of this? It was another pleasant surprise added to the many pleasant surprises on this trip, but one of the most memorable came one afternoon as we sat in our suite, taking a breather after another morning of natural wonders.
As a massive iceberg calmly passed by, without warning, a large wall on its side suddenly collapsed, causing hundreds of tons of ice to crash into the sea and creating a mini tsunami that rolled towards our ship, gently rocking it back and forth. We ran to our window and watched in horror. It seems Greenland’s natural landscapes don’t take a break.
Fundamentals
Sara Macefield was a guest of Seabourn (0843 373 2000; seabourn.com), offering an 11-day East Greenland Fjords cruise on the Seabourn Venture; Priced from £6,299 per person in a patio suite or £11,999 per person in a panoramic penthouse suite, including meals, drinks, tips and most excursions. The round-trip voyage from Reykjavik departs on August 5, 2024 and includes Scoresby Sound as well as Umivik Bay and Skjoldungen Fjord in Greenland and Heimaey and Westman Islands in Iceland.