Kategorie: News
Greenland in summer? Greenland in August!
Summer in Greenland is short, usually only two months, but the perfect time to experience the beauty of the icebergs and glaciers of the region in south-east Greenland. This year, summer even arrived a good two weeks later. In mid-July, there was still frost in the fjord and the seawater was partially frozen. Now, in mid-August, it is ‘high summer’ here and the daytime temperatures are in double figures.
Report by Gerald Nowak
Our group flies via Iceland to Greenland. The flight from Reykjavik takes just under two hours. Due to the time difference to Iceland, this means less than an hour on the clock. The airport in Kulusuk is tiny and only a few minutes' walk from the harbour, so we are quickly on board our transport boats. During the two-hour journey to the ice camp, we encounter the first icebergs. Despite the sunshine, it's a chilly crossing as one of the boats is open and I'm not really dressed warmly yet. Next time I'll be better prepared. We arrive at the Northern Explorers A/S ice camp while the sun is still shining, where Sven and Lizzy are waiting for us. They are the camp team and will be looking after us for the next week as service team, cooks, boat crew, diving team and all-round girls.
After moving into our private cabins, Sven gives us a detailed briefing. We plan dives on the ‘house reef’, which is wonderfully overgrown with kelp and harbours countless scorpion fish, as well as many other creatures, such as the beautiful sea angels, and of course trips to the icebergs in the fjord. The Helheim Glacier is currently calving particularly heavily. This glacier is one of the most active glaciers in Greenland and is also the fastest-flowing glacier in the east. We want to dive a few of the icebergs breaking off from Helheim Glacier in the coming week.
We spend the first day on the ‘house reef’ and not only discover the variety of fish in the kelp, but are also lucky enough to admire the small sea angels several times. The swimming ‘sea angels’ belong to the group of rudder snails (Gymnosomata), are up to 5 cm in size and are not actually angels at all. They are more like devils in sheep's clothing, because when the almost blind sea angels encounter other snails, they extend long tentacles and devour them. Their favourite food is the beautiful sea butterflies.
Iceberg diving
On the second day we go to the first iceberg. Iceberg diving is not without danger and requires good preparation. As only around 10% of an iceberg is usually visible from the water and the rest is underwater, you never know exactly what to expect. But what you can already see on the surface is the type of ice and an experienced guide like Sven will immediately recognise whether it is a ‘dangerous’ or ‘harmless’ iceberg. Dangerous means that icebergs can roll unexpectedly. This happens when they become unbalanced. Wind, waves or the iceberg running aground due to the current can throw them off balance. Melting caused by the sun is another factor to consider. Sven always carefully and calmly selects the right icebergs for us. They are usually smaller ones whose surfaces do not protrude too sharply from the water, do not have large overhangs and lie calmly in the water. Nevertheless, they are always very different.
We enjoy the icebergs that drift past our camp every day and dive into them as often as we can. We experience golf ball-like surfaces, eroded structures and polished glass surfaces. Ice can be so different and extremely exciting. Even without large animals under water, we have a marvellously good time. We explore the surrounding fjords in Zodiacs, drive between thousands of icebergs and visit the small Inuit village of Tinit (Tiniteqilaaq). It is a week without mobile phones, internet and traumatic news.... Only shortly before the end do we receive the news that we unfortunately have to leave a day early due to a storm. So we spend another exciting night in Kulusuk with a friend of Sven. The Inuit has small private accommodation that is more reminiscent of a bachelor pad than a guest house. With a lot of patience and improvisation, we each get a mattress and experience a night like the locals live in East Greenland. No running water, no shower, no water closet: but one more interesting experience that welds our group closer together and whets our appetite for further adventures. We will make up for the lost day at the ice camp at some point, as we still haven't seen everything that can be experienced here in East Greenland.
Thanks to Waterworld - Werner Thiele KG, Sven (#northernexplorers7777) and the #icecamp_greenland_pupik
Greenland summer bookable at Waterworld.
We had a great time and I had pleasantly warm and dry dives with my new Kallweit drysuit (see also test report). A DREAM!
#northernexplorers7777 #waterworlddiving #mares #maresjustaddwater #kallweit #orcatorch