June 14, 2019
Land of the Midnight Sun: Any of the world's northern regions above (or close to) the Arctic Circle. (Wikipedia)
"Midnight Sun" refers to the phenomenon on the earth's poles when the sun is visible all night long. Some part of the sun is visible for 24 hours a day in the Arctic Circle from about June 12 until July 1. We were fortunate to be in Greenland at a location over 200 miles north of the Arctic Circle from June 16 until June 20. We left Greenland just one day shy of the summer solstice (June 21), the day with the longest period of daylight in the Northern Hemisphere, but in Greenland, there are 2 1/2 weeks of "longest days," so we didn't miss anything.
The flag of Greenland reminds me of the midnight sun. The top white stripe represents the glaciers and ice cap covering most of the country. The bottom red stripe is the ocean that surrounds the island. The top half of the circle is the sunset (never quite setting into the ocean), and the bottom half of the circle represents the icebergs partially submerged in the ocean.
Taking advantage of the midnight sun, we were picked up for an iceberg viewing trip at 9:45 PM and didn't get back to the hotel until 1:00 or 1:30 AM.
Several years ago we cruised Alaska and went on several glacier sightseeing trips there. The Alaskan glaciers are definitely spectacular, but our Greenland midnight sun cruise was a very different kind of spectacular.
First of all, these two other boats are the only ones we saw the entire night, and most of the time we couldn't see or hear either one of them.
Second, we weren't looking at glaciers creeping towards to ocean and calving into the fjord. We were looking at enormous glaciers that had already broken off the glaciers and were in the ocean:
And finally, the lighting made this a completely different experience than our Alaska cruise. Almost all of the time we were out, we were "in the gloaming," that mysterious period between day and night when things take on a slightly different hue. On this trip the whole world--the icebergs, the sea, the air, and the water--had an eerie blue glow.
There were so many icebergs with no clear path to navigate through them. It was like wandering through a treacherous maze. Our captain had to be careful about where he steered our boat.
Remember the Titanic!
More of an iceberg is under water than above water, so motoring between, around, and among them is especially nerve-wracking. Thank goodness the water is crystal clear:
It was nice to know there was someone out there to rescue us in case we had a catastrophic meeting with an iceberg. However, we only saw these guys a few times during the night, and given the temperature of the water, I don't think we would have lasted long enough to be rescued if for some reason we had capsized:
But enough of that. We managed to come out alive.
Some of the icebergs look like a strange blue cliff:
These two look like typical rock formations--except for the ghostly blue colors:
There is an other-worldly, almost supernatural ambience when you are in the presence of these frozen behemoths:
It's hard to describe the intensity of the color. Photos are one thing, but seeing it with your own eyes is another. The same goes for the stillness. Every now and then we would see a bird flying overhead, but always, always, it was so quiet. The only noises were the motor of our boat and our own chatter. When those stopped--well, the silence was eerie, even haunting.
You can do the same thing with glaciers that you do with the clouds. This looks like . . . a Chinese dragon?
The wing of a bird?
A sleeping unicorn?
A missile launcher?
A satellite dish?
Hot air balloons before lift-off?
A swimming dog?
The icebergs would make a great setting for a sci-fi movie, but who would dare venture out onto this icescape?
Sometimes the beauty was heart-stopping. Look at the beautiful reflections in the water:
Here are The Partners. This looks like it could be the opening scene of a spy thriller or murder mystery, right? It's a bunch of very shady characters. Who is going to be the victim, and who will do the deed?
Our guide on this voyage was a Danish woman who has a master's degree in biological science from a Danish university. She taught us all about how glaciers form and the different types of icebergs.
The ones that have a blue line around the bottom are anchored to the ground and don't float with the tides. (The line marks the tidal line.) I wonder how deep the water is here? These large icebergs must have a huge underwater mass:
No hard blue line on this one. It is floating:
Those that look more rounded on top, like this one, rolled over after breaking off, so what you see here is actually the bottom of the iceberg. (Check out that magnificent reflection.)
The icebergs are massive, imposing, and not particularly friendly.
This one looks ready to inhale that little motorboat:
It was around midnight, and we could still see a sliver of the sun peaking above the horizon as we headed back to terra firma:
We traded the Midnight Sun for the Rising Sun, returning to our hotel an hour or so after midnight:
Land of the Midnight Sun: Any of the world's northern regions above (or close to) the Arctic Circle. (Wikipedia)
"Midnight Sun" refers to the phenomenon on the earth's poles when the sun is visible all night long. Some part of the sun is visible for 24 hours a day in the Arctic Circle from about June 12 until July 1. We were fortunate to be in Greenland at a location over 200 miles north of the Arctic Circle from June 16 until June 20. We left Greenland just one day shy of the summer solstice (June 21), the day with the longest period of daylight in the Northern Hemisphere, but in Greenland, there are 2 1/2 weeks of "longest days," so we didn't miss anything.
The flag of Greenland reminds me of the midnight sun. The top white stripe represents the glaciers and ice cap covering most of the country. The bottom red stripe is the ocean that surrounds the island. The top half of the circle is the sunset (never quite setting into the ocean), and the bottom half of the circle represents the icebergs partially submerged in the ocean.
Taking advantage of the midnight sun, we were picked up for an iceberg viewing trip at 9:45 PM and didn't get back to the hotel until 1:00 or 1:30 AM.
Several years ago we cruised Alaska and went on several glacier sightseeing trips there. The Alaskan glaciers are definitely spectacular, but our Greenland midnight sun cruise was a very different kind of spectacular.
First of all, these two other boats are the only ones we saw the entire night, and most of the time we couldn't see or hear either one of them.
The few times we saw one of the boats, we appreciated the fact that they were not huge, noisy cruise ships jam-packed with tourists.
Second, we weren't looking at glaciers creeping towards to ocean and calving into the fjord. We were looking at enormous glaciers that had already broken off the glaciers and were in the ocean:
There were so many icebergs with no clear path to navigate through them. It was like wandering through a treacherous maze. Our captain had to be careful about where he steered our boat.
Icebergs, large and small were everywhere:
More of an iceberg is under water than above water, so motoring between, around, and among them is especially nerve-wracking. Thank goodness the water is crystal clear:
It was nice to know there was someone out there to rescue us in case we had a catastrophic meeting with an iceberg. However, we only saw these guys a few times during the night, and given the temperature of the water, I don't think we would have lasted long enough to be rescued if for some reason we had capsized:
But enough of that. We managed to come out alive.
Some of the icebergs look like a strange blue cliff:
These two look like typical rock formations--except for the ghostly blue colors:
Hot air balloons before lift-off?
A swimming dog?
Sometimes the beauty was heart-stopping. Look at the beautiful reflections in the water:
On the other hand, it was ccccc-old out there. We were wearing all our layers:
Here are The Partners. This looks like it could be the opening scene of a spy thriller or murder mystery, right? It's a bunch of very shady characters. Who is going to be the victim, and who will do the deed?
The craggy ones like these broke off from the main glacier and stayed upright after the split:
The ones that have a blue line around the bottom are anchored to the ground and don't float with the tides. (The line marks the tidal line.) I wonder how deep the water is here? These large icebergs must have a huge underwater mass:
No hard blue line on this one. It is floating:
The icebergs are massive, imposing, and not particularly friendly.
The sun began to pull away from the horizon as we neared land:
We traded the Midnight Sun for the Rising Sun, returning to our hotel an hour or so after midnight:
We look pretty perky for having been up all night, don't we?
That was a wonderful night out among the ice behemoths.
ReplyDeleteOne of your best posts, ever. Thanks for all the photographs--they were beautiful and haunting.
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