East & South Greenland Explorer – Aurora Borealis

Your journey begins in the morning - the scent of adventure is on the air! By request, you can transfer via chartered bus (T) from the bus stop at Harpa Concert Hall and Conference Centre at Austurbakki, Reykjavik (the meeting point), to the ship in Akureyri (the embarkation point). You arrive in the afternoon after a six-hour drive through the beautiful landscapes of Northern Iceland.

PLEASE NOTE: This transfer (T) must be booked and paid for in advance. In the early evening, the ship departs from the port of Akureyri, sailing north toward the Denmark Strait.

Sailing to east Greenland

While sailing north, you will likely see various bird life, including fulmars, kittiwakes, gannets, and common guillemots. You then cross the Arctic Circle, possibly spotting whales. By evening, the first icebergs flash into sight with your approach to the east Greenland Blosseville coast, a wild, remote, and dramatic area. With a fresh breeze in the air, your Arctic adventure has truly begun.

A myriad of mighty fjords and valleys

Sailing southward along the East Greenland coast, we enter several fjords competing in beauty: d'Aunay, Nansen, Kangerlussuaq, and possibly either Ikersuaq or Kangertitsivaqmiit. Most of these fjords feature glacier front at the head, and any one of them can offer us a chance to spot polar bears and narwhals. The head of Mikis Fjord provides good possibilities for a long hike. The landscapes you will see in this area are typical of this part of Greenland and are especially beautiful.

Smalltown Greenland

Tasiilaq, once known as Angmagssalik (about 2,000 inhabitants), is our next port of call. This charming town is the center of East Greenland, boasting a museum where you can learn about the colorful local history of this incredibly remote area.

In the steps of Nansen

We next sail south to land at Umivik, an accessible bay where the explorer Fridtjof Nansen ascended the Greenland ice sheet during his pioneering 1888 Greenland expedition. Nansen and his party crossed the Greenland ice sheet, reaching Godthaab on the west coast, where they remained for several months before being picked up. In Umivik, you may even be able to trace his footsteps with a short walk in the area.

The valley of Mariedal

Today, we circumnavigate Skjoldungen through one of the most spectacular fjords of southeast Greenland. We then land at Qornoq to see the remains of houses from the Thule culture. We will then visit Mariedal, a beautiful valley once frequented by Greenlanders, to collect berries in autumn.

Exploring Greenland's settled past

Moving on to Timmiarmiut, we can see an abandoned Greenlandic settlement and, weather-dependent, possibly sail into the fjord. Polar bears have sometimes been spotted here. As an alternative, we may visit Igutsait, another fjord just to the south.

Prins Christian Sund mountains

One of the highlights of the voyage is our westward passing of the Prins Christian Sund, surrounded by mountains of over 1,000 meters (3,300 feet). We may land at Svaerdfiskens Havn or, in the evening, at Ikigait, once known as Herjolfsnes, a former Norse settlement.

Hot springs and Moravian mission

We will then try to get to Uunartoq, where we can bathe in a large, hot natural spring surrounded by icebergs. Across the bay, at Vagar, we find the remains of a Norse homestead. Later, we reach Lichtenau, a lovely, though nearly deserted, Greenlandic village where the Herrnhuters established and maintained a religious mission in the 18th century. Some of their large German-style buildings still remain.

Erik the Red's base

In Eriksfjord, we land at Ittileq, in a bay from which we can walk 4 km (2.5 miles) into Igaliku (Gardar). In this small Greenlandic village, we can see the remains of a 13th-century Norse church and other ruins. Then, in the afternoon, we plan to visit Bratthalid, the base of Erik the Red, the famous Norse explorer who was the first European to found a settlement in Greenland. This sub-Arctic area has birch trees, agriculture, and cattle - not common across much of Greenland. Later that evening, we will arrive at Narssarsuaq for the final night of our voyage.