POLYNESIAN ADVENTURE – PART 1 

The first time I flew on an airplane was in 1967. My mother and I boarded an Eastern Provincial Airways flight at the Summerside Airport that would take us first to Moncton, where we changed to a bigger plane, and then on to our destination, Montréal, where we’d visit Expo ’67. Those were different times: paper tickets, no boarding passes, a good meal on the plane, and NO SECURITY CHECKS! I was 13 that summer, and had never been to a big city. We stayed with friends, the Thibault family, and I went to the World’s Fair site every day by bus and Métro, even making the trip to and from all by myself before the week was out. This experience marks the beginning of my wanderlust.

We boarded an almost-full Boeing 737-8 at Alexander B. Campbell airport for the early-morning flight. Before doing that, we had to wait in line a good half-hour to get through security. I was even told to remove my open sandals and plastic belt; I suppose to make sure I didn’t blow anybody up! We were treated to stale coffee and a cookie on the way to Toronto where we boarded an Airbus A220 for the flight to San Diego.

The reason I mention the names of the aircraft is to illustrate how times have changed. The plane from Charlottetown to Toronto has a capacity of 210 passengers and was full while the one from Toronto to San Diego held only 120 and had more than a few empty seats. It’s not that long ago that that we’d have flown from Charlottetown on a De Havilland Dash-8 with a passenger capacity of 45 or so! There may be a message there. I’m not sure what it is, and I’ll let readers arrive at their own conclusions.

It was our third visit to San Diego, one of our favourite American cities. It doesn’t have the charm of other favourites like Charleston, Savannah or St. Augustine, but it’s clean, has a very nice downtown and a lovely waterfront. After checking into our hotel in the Little Italy quarter, we took a walk down to the Navy Pier and past the massive USS Midway, a floating museum featuring the retired aircraft carrier and a collection of 60 or so vintage aircraft displayed on its flight deck. The Midway, 1,001 feet long, operated from 1945 until 1992 when she was decommissioned. She’s that big that it’s hard to capture her in a single photo frame.

We visited the nearby elevated plaza called A National Salute to Bob Hope and the Military. From a distance, it looks like a small crowd assembled around a man standing at a microphone. It’s a bronze likeness of Bob Hope, the legendary comedian and entertainer, in his prime. Before his death in 2003 at age 100, Hope had entertained US military audiences in far-flung theaters of conflict, from World War II to the Gulf War. The photo captures Hope’s unmistakable profile and his adoring audience.

On Day 2 of our visit to San Diego, we decided to revisit a couple of our favourite attractions, Coronado Island and Old Town. We got a few tips from the hotel receptionist and set out to get around by public transit. I’m not sure why but I just love travelling with the locals. The San Diego Trolleys are an above-ground version of a subway and they’re cheap and very easy to use. The Green Line took us to a transfer station where we boarded the bus to Coronado, stopping at the luxurious Hotel Del Coronado, circa 1888. At $700 to $1,200 per night for a standard room, we couldn’t justify staying there and, with a sushi lunch advertised at $100 CDN, a meal wasn’t an option either. But, as La Sagouine liked to say: “On pouvait quand-même regarder…” The beach is fantastic and, since it was the end of the peak tourist season, we were there on a rather quiet day.

Back in the city, we boarded the Blue Line trolley for a visit to Old Town, the location of the first Spanish settlement when San Diego was founded in 1769. The State Historic Park makes for an interesting stroll and features many Mexican-style restaurants, gift shops and historic buildings. The theme for this time of year was the Festival de los Muertes, the Festival of the Dead, as Hallowe’en is known in Spanish. All in all, it made for a very relaxing day. And we finished it by watching Forrest Gump. We’d forgotten how good a movie it was!

The next morning, we hoofed it down to Pier B to board the MS Zaandam, our home for the next 34 days. Since taking our first cruise on the MS Rotterdam VI in September 2013, we’ve been Holland America fans, and we feel at home on their ships as soon as we step aboard. We found ourselves surrounded by the usual Holland crowd: grey hair, walkers, wheelchairs, motorized chairs, oxygen tanks, canes, the odd facelift, and lots of wrinkles, including ours! The Zaandam may be a bit dated, but she’s got a lot of charm just the same. We watched from the top deck as the ship sailed out of the harbour past the USS Abraham Lincoln, recently returned from its infamous deployment near the Strait of Hormuz.

Five days at sea may sound like a long time, but you soon get into the routine. The food is excellent and you don’t have to wash the dishes, your room is serviced twice a day, there are interesting lectures to attend, entertainment in the evening, a fully-equipped fitness center, and pools and hot tubs to soak in.

Polynesia is one of three major cultural areas of the Pacific Ocean islands, along with Melanesia and Micronesia. The Polynesian triangle extends from Hawaii in the north to Easter Island in the southeast and New Zealand in the southwest. The first humans reached Hawaii through deliberate long-distance ocean voyages by Polynesian navigators using stars, ocean swells, and natural signs. They sailed roughly 2,400 nautical miles across open ocean from Samoa or the Marquesas Islands, arriving around 1,200 AD. I still can’t get my mind around the fact that they travelled that far without any instruments, just handed-down knowledge and observation of natural phenomena. How many of them were lost at sea we’ll never know.

The Hawaiian Islands are an archipelago of eight major volcanic islands, several atolls, and numerous smaller islets in the North Pacific Ocean, extending some 1,500 miles (2,400 kilometers) from the island of Hawaii in the south to northernmost Kure Atoll. The last State to join the Union in 1959, Hawaii is home to 1.4 million people, most of them of Polynesian or Asian descent, and it's the only State with two official languages, Hawaiian and English. Its economy relies heavily on tourism and military defense.

The islands were formed by volcanic activity initiated at an undersea magma source called the Hawaii hotspot, essentially a hole in the earth’s crust. The process continues to build islands because the tectonic plate beneath much of the Pacific Ocean moves northwest continually while the hotspot remains stationary. It works like a conveyor belt; the oldest islands, including Kaua’i, are to the northwest and the newest to the southeast.

Before we knew it, our ship was docked in Nawiliwili on the Hawaiian island of Kaua’i. We’d been to Kaua’i before on a cruise in 2019. That time, we’d rented a car and driven west and east to cover most of the island’s roads. This time, we walked to the Enterprise car rental agency, picked up our vehicle and headed up the east coast of the island. While there were a few places on our list, we just drove until we reached the end of the road at a State Park. Along the way, we stopped at this beautiful and almost deserted pocket beach where a creek flowed into the ocean, forming a small pond ideal for children to swim in.

On the way back, we stopped to check out this beautiful United Church in the town of Hanalei, famous for the beach of the same name. Then, we stopped at the Kilauea National Wildlife Refuge overlooking the lighthouse and, finally, at Wailua Falls. All in all, a full and interesting day.

Next, we set sail for Honolulu on the island of Oahu, where we’ll spend two days.

 

 

SHIPPAGAN GRAN FONDO

(voir la version française ci-dessous)

We’d all been three times around the sun since our last Gran Fondo in Baie-Sainte-Marie in 2023. For a variety of reasons, the Over The Hill Gang (OTHG) missed out on 2024 and 2025 out-of-province rides. It was time to get back on the circuit and the Gran Fondo Véloroute Péninsule Acadienne was our choice for this year.

We drove five hours from Charlottetown in two vehicles stuffed with bikes and gear and arrived at the Motel Brise Marine in Shippagan. Those who have followed our Gran Fondo adventures will know that we have very low accommodation standards. While the Brise Marine is listed as a two-star facility, it turned out to be well above our usual benchmark, with nice clean rooms and a good location.

Once settled in, we made our way to the event registration at the Centre des congrès de la Péninsule acadienne¸ an impressive facility that would serve as home base for the Fondo. The place was hopping, with 350 participants and dozens of volunteers. We picked up our jerseys, had a snack and headed to Pizza Delight for some carb loading.

OTHG has had a number of members over the years with the core consisting of five of us: Ira Birt, Russ Melanson, Richard Birt, John MacQuarrie and myself. This year, we picked up a sixth member, Marc Périard, retired RCMP dog handler, and he’s quickly become a valued member of the team, mostly because he owns a really nice truck! Actually, Marc, who just turned 60 and is our youngest member, was looking to join a group of experienced riders, and he’s adjusted well to our pace, often challenging us to pick it up a bit.

Coach Ira sets the training schedule for our annual out-of-province event and, this year, the target was 120 kilometers. Marc and I had decided to try the long version of the Fondo at 145 kilometers while the other four tacked on 30 km or so to the 90-km Medio course. The event website showed that there wouldn’t be many hills, a situation that suited me just fine.

Marc and I were up early for the 7:00 sendoff, riding from the motel to the start line at the Shippagan Aquarium. I love the feeling of excitement at the start of a long-distance group ride. Riders and volunteers are full of anticipation. The event photographer caught Marc and I at the start line, and soon we were off, following the pace bike at a steady 15 km/hr on the seaside promenade, with me hoping like hell my 28 mm tires wouldn’t slip on the slick boardwalk. After a nervous 2 km, we hit the road and were soon on the paved Véloroute.

It wasn’t long before the fast guys zipped past us, some coming dangerously close to me on the inside of tight curves. We stayed with a fast group for 15 km or so before deciding we’d slow down a bit. Marc and I rode alone for most of the way through Caraquet and toward the turnaround at Maisonette, picking up a couple of riders who had fallen back from the élite groups. The first 40 km were on the Véloroute, an impressive paved circuit that covers 610 km on New Brunswick’s Péninsule Acadienne.

Rather than stop at Maisonette, we did the 180-turn and made our way north toward the Baie-des-Chaleurs. We fought a stiff headwind for 12 km or so until we reached Grande-Anse and headed inland toward Saint-Léolin. It was smooth sailing along a sheltered stretch of decent road until we came across a guy from Stratford, PEI, who’d stopped due to leg cramps. After making sure he was OK, we noticed a group of five barreling toward us, and decided to hitch onto their train to see if we could match their pace.

At the 92 km mark, still hanging on to the fast group, we stopped at a refueling station at Trudel, took in a little food and topped up on Gatorade. Marc said: “We only have about 50 left!” Easy for him to say; he’s 13 years younger. Actually, I felt pretty good as we headed toward Bertrand, climbed a few hills and took a right at the roundabout that put us back on Route 11, a beautiful stretch of two-meter-wide shoulder. The group of seven worked very well together, although the other five were, I’m guessing, about 35 years younger than me. They were good riders and pushed me to my limit.

We turned east at Village-Blanchard and were soon back on the Véloroute, barreling along and passing riders who were doing the Medio and Piccolo routes. One of the guys had us doing 40 km/hr, and I ran over my tongue a couple of times trying to keep up. I took a turn on the front just before we crossed Route 113, and the boys turned up the heat yet again! "Let's go, les boys!" We had about 10 km to go at that point, and it was every man for himself. One guy jumped off the front; the rest of us struggled to keep up, then just let him go. The rider in front of me died, so I dug in and pulled what was left of the bunch as hard as my old carcass would allow.

Five of us rode the last stretch across the marsh and along the shoreline at about 38 kph, arrived back in town and made our way to the finish line. My Garmin read 144.69 km and 4:25 moving time for an average speed of 32.7 km/hr, a lot faster than I expected.

There’s no better feeling than finishing an event and being satisfied with your ride, and I’ll never get tired of it. There were high fives all around, and Marc and I couldn’t wipe the smiles off our faces. We took in a bit of food and drink, and I got myself a massage from a local masseuse who had me nearly in tears as she quickly worked out all the sore spots. We waited for the other four OTHG members and had a rider take a group photo before heading back to the Brise Marine for well-deserved and well-needed showers.

After a visit to the NBLC store and supper at Pizza Delight, we headed back to the motel and gathered in a room to tell a few tall tales, reminisce about past Fondos, and watch CBC’s replay of The Tragically Hip’s last concert before Gord Downie passed away from brain cancer. Ironically, we’d been in Drummondville for a Gran Fondo in 2016, and had watched it on TV there. I remember shedding a few tears as Downie sang their last number, “Blow at High Dough”, and said goodbye to his adoring audience. This is what I wrote then:

“I could feel his pain and his joy and, like everyone at that concert, including the band I’m sure, didn’t want it to end.  After three encores, he finally made his way off the stage, a tragic end to an iconic career.”

The Gran Fondo Véloroute Péninsule Acadienne is a first-class event. I’ve done 19 Fondos so far, in Ontario, Québec, Maine, Nova Scotia, Italy, Prince Edward Island, and New Brunswick, so I have something to compare it to. And for anyone looking for an active vacation experience with beautiful scenery, excellent trails, and friendly locals, the Véloroute is a gem. Thanks to the organizers of the Fondo and to all the volunteers who welcomed us into their communities. It is an experience I’ll treasure.

GRAN FONDO DE SHIPPAGAN 

Cela faisait trois ans que nous n'avions pas participé à un Gran Fondo depuis notre dernier à la Baie-Sainte-Marie en 2023. Pour diverses raisons, le groupe « Over The Hill Gang » (OTHG) n'a pas pu participer à une randonnée hors province en 2024 et 2025. Il était temps de reprendre l’habitude et le Gran Fondo Véloroute Péninsule Acadienne s'est imposé cette année.

Nous avons roulé cinq heures depuis Charlottetown dans deux véhicules chargés de vélos et d'équipement pour arriver au Motel Brise Marine à Shippagan. Ceux qui suivent nos aventures Gran Fondo savent que nos exigences en matière d'hébergement sont plutôt modestes. Bien que classé deux étoiles, le Brise Marine s'est avéré bien au-dessus de nos critères habituels, avec des chambres propres et agréables et un emplacement idéal.

Une fois installés, nous nous sommes rendus à l'inscription au Centre des congrès de la Péninsule acadienne, un bâtiment impressionnant qui allait servir de camp de base pour le Fondo. L'endroit était animé, avec 350 participants et des dizaines de bénévoles. Nous avons récupéré nos maillots, pris une collation et filé chez Pizza Delight pour faire le plein de carbos.

L'OTHG a compté plusieurs membres au fil des ans, mais le noyau du groupe est composé de cinq personnes : Ira Birt, Russ Melanson, Richard Birt, John MacQuarrie et moi-même. Cette année, nous avons accueilli un sixième membre, Marc Périard, maître-chien retraité de la GRC, qui est rapidement devenu un membre précieux de l'équipe, notamment grâce à son magnifique camion ! En fait, Marc, qui vient d'avoir 60 ans et est notre benjamin, cherchait à intégrer un groupe de cyclistes expérimentés. Il s'est parfaitement adapté à notre rythme, nous encourageant souvent à accélérer.

L'entraîneur Ira établit le programme d'entraînement pour notre événement annuel hors province et, cette année, l'objectif était de 120 kilomètres. Marc et moi avions décidé de tenter la version longue du Fondo, soit 145 kilomètres, tandis que les quatre autres ont ajouté une trentaine de kilomètres au parcours Médio de 90 kilomètres. Le site web de l'événement indiquait peu de montées, ce qui me convenait parfaitement.

Marc et moi nous sommes levés tôt pour le départ à 7 h, et avons pédalé du motel jusqu'à la ligne de départ à l'Aquarium Shippagan. J'adore l'excitation qui règne au départ d'une longue randonnée cycliste en groupe. Cyclistes et bénévoles sont impatients. Le photographe de l'événement nous a immortalisés sur la ligne de départ, et nous voilà partis, suivant le vélo meneur à une allure régulière de 15 km/h sur la promenade du bord de mer. J'espérais de tout cœur que mes pneus de 28 mm ne glisseraient pas sur le trottoir glissant. Après deux kilomètres d'appréhension, nous avons rejoint la route et nous sommes rapidement retrouvés sur la Véloroute goudronnée.

Très vite, les coureurs les plus rapides nous ont dépassés, certains frôlant dangereusement mon vélo dans les virages serrés. Nous sommes restés avec un groupe rapide pendant une quinzaine de kilomètres avant de décider de ralentir un peu. Marc et moi avons roulé seuls pendant la majeure partie du trajet à travers Caraquet et jusqu'au point de demi-tour à Maisonette, rattrapant quelques cyclistes distancés par les groupes d'élite. Les 40 premiers kilomètres se déroulaient sur la Véloroute, un impressionnant circuit asphalté de 610 km qui traverse la Péninsule acadienne au Nouveau-Brunswick.

Plutôt que de nous arrêter à Maisonette, nous avons fait demi-tour et pris la direction du nord vers la Baie-des-Chaleurs. Nous avons lutté contre un fort vent de face pendant une douzaine de kilomètres avant d'atteindre Grande-Anse et de nous diriger vers l'intérieur des terres en direction de Saint-Léolin. La route était agréable et bien abritée jusqu'à ce que nous croisions un gars de Stratford, à l'Île-du-Prince-Édouard, qui s'était arrêté à cause de crampes. Après nous être assurés qu'il allait bien, nous avons aperçu un groupe de cinq cyclistes qui arrivaient à toute vitesse et avons décidé de nous joindre à eux pour voir si nous pouvions suivre leur rythme.

Au kilomètre 92, toujours accrochés au groupe de tête, nous nous sommes arrêtés à un ravitaillement à Trudel, avons grignoté un morceau et fait le plein de Gatorade. Marc a lancé : « Il nous en reste seulement une cinquantaine ! » Facile à dire pour lui, il a treize ans de moins que moi. En fait, je me sentais plutôt bien en route vers Bertrand. Après quelques côtes, nous avons pris à droite au rond-point qui nous a ramenés sur la Route 11, une magnifique bande d'accotement de deux mètres de large. Le groupe de sept cyclistes fonctionnait à merveille, même si les cinq autres avaient, je dirais, 35 ans de moins que moi. C'étaient de bons cyclistes, et ils m'ont poussé vers ma limite.

À Village-Blanchard, nous avons tourné vers l'est et avons rapidement retrouvé la Véloroute, filant à toute allure et dépassant les cyclistes qui empruntaient les itinéraires Médio et Piccolo. L'un des nôtres nous a fait rouler à 40 km/h, et j'ai failli craquer à plusieurs reprises en essayant de le suivre. J'ai pris la tête juste avant de croiser la route 113, et les gars ont de nouveau accéléré ! « Let's go, les boys ! » Il nous restait environ 10 km, et c'était chacun pour soi. Un coureur a lâché prise ; on a eu du mal à le suivre et on l'a laissé filer. Le cycliste devant moi ayant cédé, j'ai puisé dans mes réserves et j'ai tiré sur ce qui restait du groupe de toutes mes forces.

À cinq, nous avons parcouru la dernière portion à travers le marais et le long du rivage à environ 38 km/h, puis nous sommes arrivés en ville et avons rejoint la ligne d'arrivée. Mon Garmin affichait 144,69 km et 4 h 25 s de temps de déplacement, soit une vitesse moyenne de 32,7 km/h, bien plus rapide que prévu.

Il n'y a rien de mieux que de terminer une épreuve et d'être satisfait de sa performance, et je ne m'en tannerai jamais. On s'est tous tapé dans la main, et Marc et moi, on affichait un sourire radieux. On a grignoté un peu, et je me suis offert un massage d'une masseuse du coin qui a manqué me faire pleurer en dénouant toutes mes douleurs. On a attendu les quatre autres membres de l'OTHG et un cycliste a pris une photo de groupe avant que nous retournions au Brise Marine pour une douche très nécessaire et bien méritée.

Après un passage au magasin d’Alcool NB et un souper chez Pizza Delight, on est rentrés au motel et on s'est retrouvés dans une chambre pour raconter des anecdotes, se remémorer les Gran Fondos passés et regarder la rediffusion sur CBC du dernier concert du groupe The Tragically Hip avant le décès de Gord Downie des suites d'un cancer du cerveau. Ironie du sort, on avait participé à un Gran Fondo à Drummondville en 2016 et on l'avait regardé à la télé. Je me souviens avoir versé quelques larmes lorsque Downie a chanté leur dernier morceau, « Blow at High Dough », et a fait ses adieux à son public conquis. Voici ce que j'ai écrit à l'époque :

« Je pouvais ressentir sa douleur et sa joie et, comme tous les spectateurs de ce concert, y compris les membres du groupe, j'en suis sûr, je ne voulais pas que cela se termine. Après trois rappels, il a finalement quitté la scène, une fin tragique pour une carrière emblématique. »

Le Gran Fondo Véloroute Péninsule Acadienne est un événement exceptionnel. J'ai participé à 21 Fondos jusqu'à présent, en Ontario, au Québec, au Maine, en Nouvelle-Écosse, en Italie, à l'Île-du-Prince-Édouard, et au Nouveau-Brunswick, j'ai donc des points de comparaison. Et pour quiconque recherche des vacances actives dans des paysages magnifiques, avec d'excellents sentiers et des habitants chaleureux, la Véloroute est un véritable joyau. Merci aux organisateurs du Fondo et à tous les bénévoles qui nous ont accueillis dans leurs communautés. C'est une expérience que je chérirai.

 

GREENLAND – PART 2 

After two full days ashore in Qaqortoq and Qassiarsuk, the Captain sailed the Fridtjof Nansen into a fjord called Qaqertarsuup, the first time an HX ship had gone there. We boarded the zodiacs on a perfect morning, bright, sunny and dead calm, and were treated to a very special experience, getting up close and personal with icebergs and a glacier. We spent an hour sailing back and forth among the bergs and bergy bits and made it to within a few hundred meters of the face of the glacier.

In the afternoon, the Nansen sailed into another uncharted fjord where the expedition crew had found a place for us to land. We walked from the shore up to the foot of a glacier and then … it was my chance to take a polar dip and I was not about to waste it! According to my "Polar Plunge Certificate", the water temperature was 1.2 C but the air temperature was a balmy 12 C so I got myself good and wet. One runs out of superlatives to describe a day like today. The photos tell the story better than words can.

Day 5 of our Greenland adventure took us to the abandoned mining village of Ivittuut, one of the few places in the world known to have naturally occurring cryolite, once an important agent in the production of aluminum. The Ivittuut mining operations were a major factor in the American occupation of Greenland during World War II. The American Navy founded a base nearby to protect the highly strategic cryolite quarry. The mine operated from 1859 to 1987 and was abandoned when a process was developed to synthesize cryolite at a much-reduced cost.

We went ashore early in the afternoon and took a five-kilometer hike through the town and up into the hills. There was no trail to follow, so we scrambled over low-growing willow and along a dry, rock-strewn streambed. It was tough going, and I was glad to hit the gravel streets in Ivittuut when we got back. 

We did see three species of animals I’d never seen before: muskox, reindeer and the magnificent white-tailed eagle, Europe’s largest bird of prey. The musk ox was grazing on grass growing in the town but was chased away by the guides. We saw it again later making its way along a hillside. The reindeer, what looked like a mother and calf, were grazing in the valley between the town and the hillside. 

Our guides always carry rifles, to be used only as a last resort in the event of a dangerous encounter with a polar bear. The one atop the rock is acting as a sentinel and each of the hike leaders carried a rifle as well.

I saw something in Ivittuut I didn’t expect to see above 60 degrees N latitude: decent-sized trees. The ones shown in the photo are a species of European larch and were growing to about 15 feet in height; nearby was a spruce about 20 feet high. We were told that they were probably brought here by miners and managed to thrive in a few sheltered spots. With the climate warming as it is, Greenlanders living in the southwest may one day see trees established in a few places.

Day 6 involved an exploration of Ikka Fjord by zodiac. It’s best known for the presence of hundreds of pillars of the mineral ikaite, which was named after the fjord, and is found in formations not known to exist elsewhere. The ikaite tufa pillars of the fjord rise from the bottom and are located in a "garden" where highly alkaline freshwater seeps into the bottom of the fjord and interacts with the cold seawater to form what are essentially stalagmites. While sailing on the zodiacs and the Nansen, we saw dozens of musk oxen feeding on nearby hillsides, some of them solitary males, others in small groups of females with calves. I copied the photo below from the internet, but it's a very good representation of musk oxen like the ones we saw along fjords wherever we sailed.

Life onboard has a certain rhythm to it. There are lectures to attend, workshops in the science center for those interested, a small gym, a spa, a pool, a couple of big hot tubs, and three restaurants. Each one of our expedition guides has a particular area of expertise: birds, whales, geology, history, photography, Greenlandic culture, etc. One is a storyteller/historian with an extensive knowledge of the Vikings and a Masters Degree in Theatre. The guides deliver the lectures, decide where we’ll go and what we’ll do on a particular day, and they’re the ones who pilot the zodiacs, lead the walks and carry the rifles.

A feature of expedition cruising with HX that we love is not knowing where we’ll be or what we’ll do on a particular day until the evening before or the morning of. For most of the days, our program showed simply “exploration day”. Decisions are made by the ship’s Captain and the Chief Expedition Guide based on weather and ice conditions. On the afternoon I went for a dip at “Nansen Beach”, two guides spent the morning looking for a landing spot while the others toured us through icebergs and up to the face of a glacier. Our landing that day had never been used by guests from a cruise ship and we may have been the first humans to set foot and swim there.

On Day 7, we sailed into the fjord called Kvanefjord and began with a shore landing and hike up to several burial sites from the Thule Inuit period, likely some 500 years old. They stood on a point of land giving a panoramic view in both directions as well as the glacier at the head of the fjord. I remarked to Elva that I wouldn’t mind having my ashes buried there when the time comes, but my wish fell on deaf ears. The photo below shows three graves in the foreground running diagonally from left to right. After that, we took a spin around the fjord to get a better look at the glacier. We finished the day with a Greenlandic-themed five-course dinner, our best since we boarded the Nansen.

After three days of not seeing a Greenlander, our visit to Paamiut was a welcome change. The small town is visited by some 30,000 tourists annually, almost all of them arriving by cruise ship, and the locals turned out to make us feel welcome. We walked most of the streets on a cold morning, took in a karaoke performance by a young man in the community hall, and visited the local museum and church. Prices for staples in the two grocery stores were eye-watering!

I tried to imagine what it must be like to live in Paamiut, caught between the old ways and the modern world, and wondered how small communities like this will face the future. It’s in places like these that you realize just how important the Danish-supported social system is and how difficult it would be to maintain a standard of living which offers free education and health care if Greenland were to become an independent country.

Sailing out of Paamiut harbour, I saw this grounded trawler, a sad reminder of the heyday of the cod fishery during the period from the 1950s to the collapse of the stocks due to overfishing in the early 1990s. The town’s population rise to as high as 4,000 during the boom years but is now struggling to maintain a stable 1,200.

On our last full day aboard the Nansen, we visited the abandoned settlement known as either Kangerluarsoruseq in Greenlandic, Færingehavn in Faroese, or by its commercial name, Nordafor. Having preferred to spend the day in the capitaI city, Nuuk, I can’t say we were that excited about a trek through a second ghost town, but we did our best to enjoy outdoor time on a nice day touring this photogenic industrial archaeology site. It is yet another example of Arctic industrial boom-and-bust and post-colonial European economic development. We were told that as many as 1,000 people worked in the settlement at its peak but that it never lived up to the promise of employment for Greenlanders. This experience helps explain why the locals don’t and probably never will trust outsiders’ advice on how to develop their economy.

We took a too-short city bus tour of Nuuk and got a glimpse of downtown. It's a city on the move, with construction everywhere and a brand-new international airport.

On the way back to Reykjavik, we flew over the massive Greenland Ice Cap and I took this photo from the plane. The ice sheet itself is in the top right of the photo, and a glacier runs from top right to bottom left, emptying into the ocean

Tomorrow, we hope to make it back home, ready for all that an Island summer has to offer. A few closing comments on my experience:

1. HX Explorations offers a top-notch adventure cruise experience. We knew this from our earlier journey with them in 2022, from Tromso, Norway, to Lisbon. The Nansen is much bigger than the ship we sailed on that first time, the Spitzbergen, and therefore has much more to offer onboard.
2. The guides were, as expected, knowledgeable, experienced and very helpful. We watched the crew expertly handle a gentleman confined to a wheelchair, and they made sure he was able to participate in every activity, including wet zodiac landings. It’s obvious that they’ve been highly trained and that the company hires only the best.
3. I got to see Viking sites, bucket list for me, and to meet Greenlanders where they live, and I got a small taste of what it must be like to live on the edge. I’ve always been fascinated by people who choose to live and manage to thrive in harsh environments, and Greenland was no exception.
4. As for the weather, it could not have been better. During the 10 days we spent on land, the temperature ranged from 4 to 14 C. There were only 2 cloudy days, and we never felt a drop of rain. Except for a few waves as we rounded Cape Farewell, seas were calm.
5. No one mentioned the elephants in the room, which I found kind of disappointing. I did ask our local Greenlandic guide, a woman in her early 30s, whether she thought she’d see an independent Greenland in her lifetime, and she answered hesitantly: “Maybe…” Her explanation was long and well reasoned. As for the other elephant, President Donald J. Trump, it was as if he doesn’t exist. People here have more important things to think about, I suppose. And that’s as it should be.

 

GREENLAND – PART 1 

It took us 21 hours to get from Charlottetown to downtown Reykjavik. We’d been to Iceland’s capital once before in 2022 on a cruise with Princess. On that occasion, the ship was docked in the city for a full day, and we’d rented a car to drive the Golden Circle, taking in three of the island’s signature attractions. This time, we had three hours to kill before boarding the MS Fridtjof Nansen, and we spent it strolling around old Reykjavik on what one local told us was a very fine day for early June. We sipped on coffee and tea on a courtyard overlooking a nice square and winced a bit when the bill arrived: $20.47 Canadian!

The population of Iceland is about 400,000 with Reykjavik being home to about 140,000. We walked up to Reykjavik’s most famous landmark, the towering Lutheran church called the Hallgrimskirkja. The statue out front of Leif Erickson was donated by the United States of America to mark the thousandth anniversary of the first meeting of Iceland’s Parliament in the year 930, making it one of the world’s longest running parliaments. Historians believe the first settlement in Iceland was in Reykjavik in 874 by a Norwegian chieftain named Ingolfr Arnason.

In Grade 5, I moved from la petite école to la grande école in my native village of Wellington and there discovered two subjects new to me, history and geography. I was fascinated by both. We learned that Christopher Columbus “discovered” the Americas in 1492. But we also heard of the Norse sagas, those that spoke of Erik the Red and his son Leif Ericson, also called “Leif the Lucky”. I couldn't help imagining that the Norse sagas were true and, in the early 1960s, when archaeologists discovered the remains of a Norse settlement in L’Anse-Aux-Meadows, they did become very real and changed our view of how Europeans first came to know what is now Canada.

The Fridtjof Nansen is an expedition-class cruise ship with a passenger capacity of 650, and she spends most of her time in the Arctic and Antarctic regions. Only 283 guests were onboard. Not long after our cruise ends, she’s scheduled to cross the Northwest Passage from east to west, head down the east coast of the Pacific and spend our fall and winter months running back and forth between South America and Antarctica. The Nansen is one of the nicer vessels we’ve been on and our room, the cheapest on the ship, is quite a step up from what we’re used to.

Our first full day aboard a new ship involves an orientation to our new surroundings, adjusting to the time change and lack of sleep, getting used to the pitch and roll of the ship, and taking in as much information as we can about experiences the cruise has to offer. The first two were sea days spent sailing across the Denmark Strait on generally calm seas before we rounded the southern tip of Greenland, Cape Farewell.

While the southwest part of the island is suitable for limited farming, 81% of Greenland is covered by an ice sheet the thickness of which averages more than 1.5 kilometers. To put that into perspective, if the Greenland ice sheet were to melt, sea levels around the world would rise by about 7.5 meters or 24 feet, something to ponder in our age of global warming.

Greenland, an autonomous territory with its own Parliament, is part of the Kingdom of Denmark and is home to 56,000 people. A bit of trivia: Greenland shares a 1.2-kilometer border with Canada on Hans Island, a small speck of land located in the far north. The principal source of wealth, accounting for 20% of GDP, is financial aid from Denmark. (By comparison, federal transfers to our province account for 11% of GDP.) The most important local industry is the fishery, with shrimp being the primary species caught and exported. While the island has extensive reserves of minerals, oil and gas, virtually none of these resources have been exploited. The main reasons for this are extreme weather conditions, the high cost of extraction and a very strong environmentalist movement.

Greenland has been inhabited at intervals over at least the last 4,500 years by Inuit peoples, the Thule, whose forebears migrated there from what now Canada. Today, Greenlandic Inuit make up 90% of the population.

Erik the Red, exiled from Iceland with his father, Thorvald, crossed the Denmark Strait with a group of followers in open boats powered by sails and banks of oars, carrying livestock and all the supplies they would need to start a new life. They settled the uninhabited southwestern part of Greenland in about 986, and their descendants lived in Greenland for over 400 years until they disappeared in the late 1400s.

Many years ago, I picked up a book called The Greenlanders, a historical fiction epic written by Jane Smiley. It describes the daily affairs of Nordic settlers living in South Greenland in the 13^th and 14^th centuries, including marriages, births, deaths, famines, epidemics, trials, church affairs, land feuds, seal hunts, military invasions, and encounters with Greenland’s aboriginal inhabitants. In an accurate description of the book, one reviewer called it a "bleak, stirring picture of the slow slouch towards the death of a civilization". It was the first I’d heard of a European settlement in Greenland, and I was fascinated.

After almost three full days at sea, we saw our first land and our first icebergs. The Nansen sailed up a scenic fjord called Tasermiut and came to a stop just off the tiny community of Tasiusaq, population about 40. As it was fairly late in the day by the time we got there, it was decided that we wouldn’t go ashore, but our zodiacs took us on a run up towards a glacier to give us a better view of the spectacular surroundings. Although we will not reach the Arctic Circle on this trip, the days are long: sunset is at 11:30 pm and sunrise is at 4:30.

We first set foot on Greenlandic soil at the town of Qaqortoq, population 3,000, the only place I know of that has three “q”s in its name. The setting is gorgeous, with multi-coloured houses climbing up the hillside from the shoreline. A nearby lake drains into a small stream that flows through the old colonial harbour district of town, past the Lutheran Church built in 1832. 

Elva and I went into town twice on the ship’s tender, the first to get our bearings and the second to attend a concert in the old church. A drummer from Nuuk had come down for the occasion and a father-daughter duo sang several songs with the MC who was dressed in her finest sealskin jacket. The young woman in the photo is dressed in the traditional Greenlandic costume, much of it made from sealskin. They sang Leonard Cohen’s “Hallelujah” as their closing piece in Greenlandic; such a beautiful rendition, it gave me shivers. Following the concert, I walked up to the highest point I could find to take in the view, then finished off a near-perfect day with a delicious evening meal featuring reindeer.

The first photo below shows a line of older houses. Notice the trees in front of the second one. They must be introduced ornamentals since Greenland has no native trees to speak of except some scrubby willows and birch. The second photo shows a typically quaint house in the local style and the third shows a showy carpet of Alpine azalea I found growing on thin soil at the highest point in the town. How do I know it's Alpine azalea: ChatGPT of course!

Our next stop was the tiny hamlet of Qassiarsuk, population 90. There’s a special reason why we landed there. It became the home of Erik the Red and his clan when they first settled South Greenland in the year 986. They called the place Brattahlid. Today’s settlement consists of a collection of sheep farms, 25 houses or so, a hostel, a church, a primary school, and a store complete with gas pumps and an ATM! According to ChatGPT, the farms here are the most northerly in the world.

The Qassiarsuk area, called Kujataa, is a sub-arctic farming landscape that is the first known example of agriculture in the Arctic. The Viking history, together with the unique combination of farming, hunting and fishing that occurred in the region from the 10^th through 15^th centuries and from the 18^th century to today, explain why it was listed a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2017.

Elva and I walked from one end of the settlement to the other, taking in the sights, including the ruins of a Viking-era church shown in the first photo. We visited the Lutheran church and the sheep farm as well as the reconstructed Viking long house, then climbed to Leif Erikson’s statue which overlooks the valley and fjord below. We even saw a humpback whale cruising past between the ship and the village. In the afternoon, I joined an organized hike to take in a bit more of the spectacular landscape. It was a sunny day, 10 degrees or so, and we were most grateful for our good fortune.