And that’s that! We had breakfast in the hotel, put on our dry suits, loaded our gear into a trailer and then made our way to the port.
Our 30 minute boat ride turned into a three hour adventure! The ice was so tightly packed in one area that we could only make it so far and had to turn back and take a HUGE detour around an island to get to the place where the kayaks are stored.
On our journey we also detoured slightly to get a better look at some Greenland seals, though they are super nervous around boats as they are quite heavily hunted.
We also saw a stunning halo around the sun (caused by the light refracting off ice crystals in very thin cirrus clouds). Beautiful! The weather was absolutely great.
We finally reached the beach and unloaded all our personal kit and all of the other expedition kit and food. Then we loaded it all into the kayaks. It really is quite amazing what can be squeezed into the small space.
Ruben was really excellent at not making the whole experience feel rushed. He was upfront about it taking time to go through this process and so when we finished packing, we sat down on the stony beach for our first picnic lunch. It was excellent, a feast!
After lunch we hit the water and started paddling. We had quite a distance to cover.
The icebergs were unbelievable. Absolutely captivating. They make a lot of different noises and it’s a wonderful experience to glide past them. We saw a number of large icebergs have enormous breakups that sounded like a roar of thunder.
Some of the icebergs were a deeper blue than I can describe.
We paddled 13.5km and the last big push was a huge crossing which took more than an hour, with the far bank never appearing to get any closer. The scale here is VAST!
We paddled into a sheltered cove filled with calm icebergs and I spotted a tiny charcoal grey arctic fox scampering up the hill. Quite a welcome!
While Ruben and Christian prepared dinner, I scrambled up a steep hill nearby to get a wonderful view of the cove. From up there I also spotted a couple of caribou (reindeer) down in the valley near the campsite.
Julia and I shared a TINY tent! There was a reasonable amount of space in two porches but the sleeping area was snug!!! [Thankfully we found out we had been given the wrong tent and we swapped with Rosa the next day!]
The sun did set (after 11pm) but it didn’t get dark. The eye mask I had bought for the trip was absolutely perfect! I bought a Nidra Sleeping Mask from Amazon for £27 and couldn’t be happier. The headband was comfortable and secure and the mask itself was a great shape to keep light out and not put pressure on my eyes.
The Nomad Chapter 
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