Cruise to Kalaallit Nunaat (aka Greenland)

Cruise Line: Oceania Cruises, USA (Motto - “Affordable Luxury”). A five vessel line of medium size Cruise vessels. Oceania is noted for the interesting destinations visited, the 5 star food provided (under the direction of the French chef Jacques Pepin), and highly trained crews. In my view, it should also be noted for the overpricing of services (Internet usage USD1 a minute, 30 ml. cans of beer USD8, outrageously high shore excursions – ranging from USD100 to USD500). As well, tips at the rate of USD15 per passenger (“guest”) per day were mandatory, debited to the shipboard accounts of guests.

Our cruise featured a marketing night, where the benefits of booking other Oceania cruises well in advance (for large discounts) were strongly promoted. The benefits from becoming a frequent Oceania cruiser were also emphasized, there being a progression from first timers to Silver. Gold etc. levels. The senior cruiser was rolled out (“Mabel” on her 51^st. cruise), to the accompaniment of gasps and cheers from the assembled guests.

The Cruise: 6577 nautical miles over 20 days, Southampton to Southampton. Titled “Viking Odyssey”, for obvious reasons.

The Vessel: Nautica, 30,277 tons, accommodating almost 700 guests, served by 400 crew (mostly East European, Indian, and Asian). Facilities were limited - beyond a gym., library, casino, heated pool, there was a shuffleboard court, and a golf putting range

Accommodation: Because we booked very late, and the Cruise was full, we could only get a cabin on the second lowest level midships, with an area of 165 sq.ft. The cabin had a reasonable sized window, and was well designed, such that all of our large amount of clothes could be hung out of sight, and our suitcases placed under the beds. The cabin also came with Bvlgari toiletries, and 1000 thread duvet covers. Despite all these things, there was no getting around the fact that living in a room of 165 sq. ft for 20 days was hard work.

The guests: 684 of them. Children are not encouraged, so there only one or two. 64% of guests were American, 15% British, 10% Australian, almost all elderly folk. The oldest guest was 98, an old gentleman who tottered cheerfully around the ship, with the aid of a walking stick.

The Food: Top quality. There were two specialty dining rooms, where food of the highest quality was served free. Because of our lowly status, we were limited to two free dinners at each of these. Higher status guests were entitled to four free dinners at each. We ate mostly in the “Grand Dining Room”, or occasionally at the Terrace cafe. Dress for dinner in the dining rooms was “Country Club Casual”, meaning that most males wore jackets, as did Kim and I.

Each afternoon at 4 p.m. afternoon tea of cucumber sandwiches and also with cakes was served in one of the lounges. The waiters wore white gloves for this occasion. A drawback was that the tea was by way of Twinnings tea bags, and the water provided was never boiling, only lukewarm. I enjoyed this ceremony, and I am thinking about introducing it for guests at the KL apartment. Either Kim or I could serve, dressed in shorts and T-shirt as usual, but wearing white gloves.

The seas: The oceans, mostly the Atlantic and a few smaller seas (North Sea, Greenland Sea etc) were remarkably calm throughout, despite their reputations for being rough. There was one “Sea Band” day, and one night when bits and pieces fell off the shelves in our cabin. We used “Sea Bands”, knitted bands for each wrist, with a plastic stud pressing on the Nei Kuan pressure point. These fixed any nausea almost immediately.

The weather: Much warmer than we thought. At our northernmost call (Tasiilaq, Greenland at 65 degrees north and only 106kms. south of the Arctic Circle), the temperature was 11C with bright sunshine. Hardy guests from the American mid-west wandered around the town in shorts and sand-shoes. There was no wind at any of our calls, despite most of these places being very windy, in general.

THE CRUISE

Leaving Southampton and after a day at sea doing lifeboat drills etc., we berthed at Leith, near Edinburgh, via a lock system. A day ashore strolling around (we had been here before).

 The second call was Kirkwall (pop.8000, and founded in 1035 in the Viking times) largest town and administrative centre of the Orkneys (pop.20000), which in fact start only about 10 kms. from the northern Scottish coast. These islands were the first of the calls on islands which are treeless, lack good soil, and are buffeted continuously by vicious winds. Thus there is little agriculture in the Orkneys, although there are cattle which produce good beef. There are also sheep. The buildings in Kirkwall were in general grey and dour two storey structures, with a cathedral dating to the Viking times. The town is remarkably clean, with no rubbish at all in sight. The locals joked that small animals and frail ladies on walking sticks are no longer seen on the streets, all having been blown away. We took a tour to see Scapa Flow, an extensive sheet of water (120 sq. miles), famous for the scuttling of 74 ships of the German fleet at the end of World War 1, and for the sinking of the battleship “Royal Oak” by the submariner

Gunther Prien, in 1939. Our tour also took us to two well known and well preserved Stonehenge like structures – the Standing Stones of Stenness, and the Ring of Brodgar.

The third call was Lerwick (pop.8000 and dating from the 17^th. Century, although there has been human habitation in the area for 3000 years) largest town and administrative centre of the Shetlands pop.20000). Again a dour, grey town in the old part, but with extensive new residential areas as a consequence of the oil boom in the 1970s. It is a hilly town, topped by an old fort, and a grand Town Hall. There is little agriculture, although there are sheep and shetland ponies.

The northernmost island of the Shetlands is Uist, and the islet of Muckle Flugga, off its northern coast, marks the northernmost point of Great Britain.

The Faroe islands, 17 of them, are 300 kms north of the Shetlands. An autonomous country within the Kingdom of Denmark, the islands have a population of 70,000, and the capital is Torshavn (pop.17,000, and dating from the 9^th. century), our fourth call. Here the architecture started to change dramatically to the colourful Nordic style wooden houses with white windows and turf roofs. This architecture predominates in Greenland. The Faroe islands struggle to support the population with fishing, fish farming, tourism and a small IT industry. and are dependent on significant aid from Denmark. This aid has enabled modern infrastructure (roads and tunnels) to be put in place. The first road in the Faroes was built only in 1916. Faroese are an insular folk and disdain many “Western” brands. The only fast food chain represented is Burger King with one store, opened in 1995. There is one shopping mall in Torshavn, built in 1977. Although there are modern shops in it (and Wi-Fi), there are no KFCs, Starbucks etc. Here we first struck the Nordic problem of only being able to buy beer of 2% alcohol content or less at a supermarket. Strong beer can only be bought at special shops, often run by the Government, most at inconvenient locations. There are no restrictions on wine. The rationale is that, because the populations are prone to drink too much alcohol, cheap alcohol should be made difficult to buy. Beer is of course much cheaper than wine. In the Mall supermarket, I was surprised to see most beef labelled from New Zealand. This was the case in Greenland too, suggesting that the people from Enzed are very entrepreneurial.

The Faroese (of Norse/Scottish stock) are an insular and traditional folk. They have a particularly grisly tradition, called “Grinderdrap” - the whale hunt. An annual event, which took place just after we left, it calls for pods of whales (mostly pilot whales), and some dolphins to be driven to the beach by boats. Once the whales are beached, Faroese males (men and boys) descend on the beached whales and in a frenzy, hack them to pieces in a bloody mess. This is a tradition dating to the old times, when the population had to kill and eat whales to survive, as the land could not support them. Now anti-whaling protestors arrive at the time of the grinderdrap, but are promptly arrested before they can get near the beach, even though Denmark has signed the anti-whaling convention.

CRUISE HIGHLIGHT 1. On our way to our next call in Iceland, we passed the most north westerly island of the Faroes, called Mykines (pron. Mitch-ness), “the most unspoiled island on Earth”, it is said. 4 square miles in area, it rises from the sea in a series of spectacular cliffs, topped by a few intensely green small valleys between peaks of more than 1000 feet. Nestled in one of these valleys, we could see the only settlement on the island, also called Mykines (pop.22). A small cluster of brightly painted houses and a Church, we marvelled at the type of folk living in such an isolated, but remarkably beautiful, place. We learned later that a famous Faroese painter came from there, and this is not surprising, given the beauty of the place. There are no roads on the island, and movement is by way of walking on footpaths. The village is serviced by helicopter, and when conditions permit, by a ferry from its tiny beach down a ricketty staircase from the village. A Google search of this island is worth looking at, in my view. We were quite a distance from it, and weren't able to appreciate the island's beauty fully.

Our fifth call was Akureyri (pop.16,000) the second city of Iceland, on its northern coast. It sits at the head of a magnificent fjord, and has an extraordinarily warm climate. It is in fact so warm that there is a famous Botanical Gardens in the city. The city has an iconic church, and is a seat of learning and culture, with a University and a major teaching hospital.

Greenland was the next destination. The Arctic is not a continent like the Antarctic. However, as well as Greenland, there are a few other large islands near to it, each having a handful of inhabitants – Baffin Island (Canada), and Spitzbergen (Norway).

From Akureyri we had a day at sea, and for the first time, saw icebergs. We learned that the two smallest classifications of icebergs are “growlers” and “bergy bits”, the latter having a maximum height of 4 metres, and a maximum length of 14 metres (this is before “small”, “medium” etc. classifications start.) From then on, the movement of the ship was punctuated by thumps and bangs as it pushed these little icebergs out of the way. I listened for the alarm klaxon, and for shouts of “Abandon ship – Iceberg Dead Ahead”, but heard nothing like this.

Greenland (another autonomous country within the Danish Kingdom) is one of the largest islands in the world at 2.1 million square kilometres, but the least densely populated, at 56,000 (Nuuk, the largest town, has 15,000 inhabitants). The terrain is stunningly rugged and mountainous, and unsuitable for human habitation. Fishing, hunting, and mining are the chief activities, There are no roads between towns on the island, transport being by sea or helicopter. Our sixth call was Tasiilaq (pop.2,000), on an island very close to the east coast. Inhabited by indigenous peoples for hundreds of years (with their descendants still living there), the town is now given over to supporting hunters, fisherman and miners. There is a thriving tourist trade in the summer – for kayaking, heli ski-ing and dog sledding. The town has a spectacular setting, overshadowed by high, snow covered mountain ranges. Again, there were brightly coloured houses everywhere.

Kim had contracted a heavy 'flu, and by the time we reached Tasiilaq, he was too sick to go ashore. It was inevitable that his 'flu would pass to me, as it did. I didn't think that the locals were particularly friendly, were not at all attractive (stunted folk with weatherbeaten faces), and indifferent to visitors.

Tasiilaq was our most northerly call (almost at the Arctic Circle), and we then turned south along the east coast, passing Cape Farewell, the southernmost point of Greenland, and then north along the west coast to Qaqortoq, our seventh call. Part of this journey was spectacular – a three hour traverse of the Prince Christian Sound, lying between the Cape Farewell archipelago and the mainland. After leaving Tasiilaq, and noting its huge cascade of rubbish falling into the sea at its outskirts, we saw no signs of human habitation. Range after range of rugged mountains were passed. In the Sound, where a Sound Pilot was used, the mountains closed in. Ice covered peaks of around 4000 feet rising from the Sound, and glaciers dominated the journey, and at one point the Sound narrowed to about a kilometre across. Amazingly, halfway down the Sound, the settlement of Aappilattoq appeared out of nowhere, crouching on a small flat piece of land at the foot of a high, snow covered range. It comprised a small cluster of about 10 houses plus a church, and we wondered what type of folk could live here. Presumably indigenous folk hunting and fishing. A large satellite dish and a clearing for helicopters suggested the way they contact the outside world. However, winter conditions here must be terrible. Three inhabitants, who looked like indigenes, came to the edge of the water and waved as we went past. Near Aappilatoq, we passed a small yacht flying the Canadian flag, and greeted it with blasts of the foghorn. We saw few, if any, vessels of any size during the entire cruise, except near our calls.

Still accompanied by our growler and bergy bit friends, we reached our seventh call, Qaqortoq (pop 3500, founded in 1774). Again, a colourful and spectacularly located town with the usual old church, administering a large region, and also with research stations of various types. Air Greenland has offices here. There was a good supermarket also, again featuring beef labelled New Zealand. The locals (of Danish extraction) were quite friendly, and spoke good English – they don't see too many cruise ships. A detracting feature of the town was the cascade of rubbish at its outskirts.

Leaving Qaqortoq and after a day at sea on the Atlantic, we reached our eighth call, Reykjavik (pop. 80,000 and dating from the 9^th. Century), the capital of Iceland (pop.320,000). This is a bright and modern (but not prosperous looking) city, with no sign of the catastrophes of the GF C. At that time, the country virtually went bankrupt. We stayed at Reykjavik for a day, and whilst there took a tour around the island. Again mostly treeless, and with few signs of agricultural activities except herds of Icelandic horses, the scenery was in places, spectacular. Waterfalls and geysers abound, and there was even a part of the island where parliaments had first met in the 9^th. Century.

Leaving Reykjavik and after another day at sea, we reached our ninth call, Portree, on the Isle of Skye. Kim and I had been here before, and this time the town was overrun by tourists, mostly from the Continent, wearing shorts and thongs. We went by local 'bus to Dunvegan Castle, a noble pile about 20 kms. from Portree, and also had a Ploughman's lunch at a local hotel.

Our tenth call was Belfast. Kim and I had been here before, and this time we took a HO-HO 'bus around the city.

CRUISE HIGHLIGHT 2: The Falls Road and the Shankhill Road. A generally depressed area of the city, many of the buildings and shop fronts have been left boarded up and pockmarked from bullets, as a poignant reminder of the Troubles. A memorable experience, traversing this part of Belfast.

Our eleventh and final call was Dublin. By this time, I had caught Kim's 'flu, and it had worsened. I was too sick to go ashore. Kim and I had been to Dublin before, but he went ashore, roaming around the Temple Bar, and along the Liffey.

I went to the ship's doctor, a German, instead. He wanted to do a blood test in case I had legionnaires' disease. I agreed. The medical facilities on the ship are high quality, and the analysis of the blood test was virtually immediate. It showed I had neither flu nor legionnaires' disease. The doctor prescribed antibiotics, from a supply I had brought with me. These solved the problem, but I had a grave shock when the bill came to USD577 (including consultation USD145). Before he did the blood test, the doctor said that I could get the cost back from the insurance. I should have become suspicious then, and refused the test.

Leaving Dublin, we returned to Southampton, where the disembarkation was efficient and quick. On the afternoon of our arrival, Nautica filled with new guests and headed off for its next cruise – destination Murmansk, in Russia.