Thursday 25 June 2015

Nature and wildlife in Disco island

The sea is very calm and allows the Fram to sail into the sheltered Bay of Qeqertarsuaq.
The weather is nearly perfect. We can enjoy a sunny sky with some stripes of high icy clouds. These perfect conditions continue the whole day.
All our activities can be done under this nice weather conditions.

The Fram set anchor at 8.30 am and soon after the group for a hike to Blæsedalen starts followed by a smaller group of people interested in a City Walk in Qeqertarsuaq.
After that a group of 21 passengers sat down in two big Polar Circle Boat for an Ice and Whaling Cruise in the waters around Qeqertarsuaq.
Huge Icebergs most of them coming from the other side of the Disco Bay originating from the very active Ilulissat Glacier are stranded in the shallow waters around Disco Island. Our Polar Circle Boats can go quite close to them and all participants have the opportunity for a nice iceberg photo.
Luckily also some whales appear and feed upon small silvery fishes. Hundreds of photos are taken as the whales coming very close to the boats.


The afternoon group is lucky as well and encounters the same perfect conditions.
Also the afternoon hikers to Blæsdalen and the group for the hike to the Basaltic rocks at the steep cliffs of south east coast of Disco Island profit from the nice sunny weather and can enjoy the grand scenery of the volcanic rocks together with the beginning of the blooming of the beautiful tundra flowers.
At 17.30 everybody is back on board the Fram as we plan to set sail at 18.00 to our next destination Qasigiannguit. The weather and the situation are favourable to stay longer as Qasigiannguit is close by. We set sail at 19.00 and when we are outside the Bay of Qeqertarsuaq we saw again some whales and decide to make another Ice and Whale Cruising.
The captain sails very close to the steep cliffs east of Qeqertarsuaq and we can see the suite of basaltic rocks building up the cliffs. Some of the whales come close to the ship and we observe them from the outer decks.

The Ice and Whale Cruising comes to an end at 22.00 and we set sail for Qasigiannguit.