Some more aerial photographs

It has been a while since I have posted some photographs taken out of aircraft windows so here are a few from the last few years.  Some great kayaking destinations seen from above.  With views like these it is hard to understand why anybody would book an aisle seat!

 Passing over Calshot when heading south towards Jersey.  The site of the BCU Sea Touring Committee Symposiums in the early 1990's.

 Greenland West Coast.  The island on the right is Uummannaq and the larger Salliaruseq to the left.  The cliffs and the larger islands are over 1,000 metres high.  This post documents the day we paddled between the two islands.  This was taken whilst flying from Heathrow to Seattle.

 Final approach into Stockholm.  It looked like a kayaking paradise.  Little did we realize the frustration which was to follow after we landed

 Take off from Jersey on a beautiful summers day.  The aircraft is banking north over St Ouen's Bay.

 Sunrise over the Thames estuary.  The south coast of Essex is clearly visible, just minutes after leaving Heathrow.

 A few hours later the Essex coast had been replaced by the Turkish coast to the west of Istanbul.

Approaching Heathrow.  The rectangular shaped water directly in front of the engine is the location of Tower Hamlets Canoe Club, an area we have visited regularly over the years as members of the Jersey Canoe Club paddle with kayakers from London.

Greenland: Day 4

Our target for the day was to visit the small town of Qaarsut, to stock up on some basic food supplies as well as hopefully finding some cakes, particularly to satisfy the cravings of myself and Andy.  It is surprising when you are away on a trip how your thoughts turn to particular food items etc.

The wind had subsided overnight although there was still a favourable push towards the small village of Qaarsut.  With a population of just under 200 people its rather dubious claim to fame is that it was the site of the first coal mine in Greenland, which closed in 1924.  Today most people who visit the town rarely leave the airport as it is transit hub for other towns further north, particularly Uummannaq.  Helicopters shuttle backwards and forwards across the 14 nm channel.

Sadly the shop was out of cakes but large packets of crisps proved to be a welcome second choice, washed down by significant quantities of various types of fizzy drinks. 

As we continued our journey along the peninsula the wind increased significantly, probably reaching 35 knots.  In those conditions there is no option but to get off the water.  Fortunately we were able to identify a small valley, in which we could take shelter, whilst hoping for a break in the weather to enable us to carry on.  The break didn't materialize so after just under 11 nautical miles we were forced to call a halt for the day but it did allow us time to go exploring the surrounding landscape, something which hadn't really had time for so far on this trip. 

The beach at Qaarsut, the sky is starting to look rather ominous.

Some rather satisfied kayakers making short work of some very large bags of crisps.

Some of the inevitable kayaks which are found in villages throughout the region.

Sewage disposal Greenland style.  Many of the smaller villages do not have flushing toilets but they do have the inevitable yellow bags.

 Rapidly rising wind speeds drove us from the water, which hope would just be for a short time but turned into about 20 hours. 

The kayaks ended up being sand blasted by the strong easterly wind.  We were still trying to get rid of the sand two weeks later.

We had to move the kayaks up the beach into the shelter of the small spur behind which we had pitched our tents in an attempt to get some shelter from the wind which was gusting up to about 35 knots.

 To pass some time we went exploring the surrounding hillside, including scrambling up this particularly large boulder.

 A view from the hillside above where we had to camp.  The stone circle in the foreground is evidence that we weren't the first people traveling through this area.  This location was too exposed for us to use this particular day but during periods of calmer weather this would be a beautiful place to spend some time.

Greenland: Third Day

Another relatively settled day dawned which was reassuring as first kayaking of the day was going to take us across from Ikerasak to the Nuussuaq Peninsula.  This huge peninsula, jutting out into Baffin Bay divides Disko Bay from the fjord systems around Uummannaq.  Rising to over 2,000 metres and heavily glaciated, paddling around it was going to take seven days, traveling through some dramatic scenery.  

As we crossed to the peninsula we had our first sighting of whales on the trip, they were quite distant but from their size and behaviour we assumed that they were Fin Whales, little did we realize what was still to come in relation to encounters with these huge creatures.  

On the crossing our eyes were automatically drawn towards the spectacular glacier, at Sermiarssuit, as it carved its way through the surrounding hills.  It provided an appropriate and inspiring place to stop for lunch, in what proved to be the last sunshine of the day.  

When we launched after lunch the cloud base was dropping and the wind increasing, creating less than pleasant conditions, although it significantly increase our speed over the ground.  With the following wind we covered 6 nautical miles in one hour.  

Eventually though conditions resulted in us leaving the water, but not before we had covered another 21 nautical miles for the day.  For once the inconvenience of hordes of insects were forgotten as we looked for shelter to cook the evening meal. 

 

The spectacular Sermiarssuit glacier carves it way through the coastal mountains 

 

 A beautiful berg appeared grounded relatively close to the shore.

What a place to land!

 It is hard to imagine a picnic spot with a more dramatic backdrop.

 Nicky is dwarfed by the moraines of the retreating glacier.

 A splash of colour in an otherwise grey landscape

Agnes following the shoreline as we headed north west.  The blue skies of the last few days have long since disappeared.

Evening meal, sheltering from the wind but with some welcome relief from the insects.

Greenland: First Day

On most long trips the first days packing always seems to present challenges but we quickly had several supermarket trolley loads of food stashed away and were heading out of the small harbour at Uummannaq, into the bright sunshine.

Stories of icebergs collapsing follow you around in Greenland and it is very easy to be lulled into a false sense of security but this film below was shot in Uummannaq in August and if it had occured whilst we were leaving, our trip would have been over before it started as the waves crashed across the area we were using to pack!

Iluliaq aserortoq from Franz Petersen on Vimeo.

Our route for the day took us across a 4 mile channel to the island of Storoen, before passing under some kilometre high cliffs  and heading towards the ice.  The weather remain settled throughout the day meaning that it was relatively straightforward to cover 20 nautical miles during the day. It was 6 very contended sea kayakers who sat on the rocks at the end of the day contemplating the awesome scenery we had paddled past during the day.

 The island of Storoen dominated our view for the first few miles.

It is always important to look behind.  This is the amazing view of Uummannaq Island as we paddled away from the harbour.

Miles of vertical cliffs dominated the north coast of Storoen

At this point the cliffs are over 1,000 metres high, they were of a scale which was difficult to comprehend

Our first encounter with a berg on any size was close to the small island of Satut.

Large bergs very quickly gave way to smaller, but more densely packed, pieces of ice.

Our first camp site was close to the small hut at Qingoq.  Sitting inside whilst we ate our evening meal gave some welcome respite from the attentions of the local insect population

 Our target for the following day was into the ice and around to the right, hopefully getting a view of the calving glaciers in Itivdllarssup Kangerdlua.

 24 hours of daylight means that the views can be simple stunning at midnight.

A Greenland Summer

As readers of this blog will be aware I consider the west coast of Greenland to be one of the finest sea kayaking destinations anywhere.  The stunning scenery, rich historical landscape, diverse wild life and wilderness combine to create a truly memorable environment.We were fortunate this year to be able to head further north than in the past, flying into Uummannaq and then paddling south,  nearly 300 nautical miles back to Ilulissat.

The northern waters of Disko Bay seen from the helicopter, it would be over two week before returned through this area in our kayaks and there would be significantly more ice.

Nicky collecting our hand luggage from the Bell 212 we flew to Uummannaq in.  What a great experience.

The kayaks had been left at the side of the road by Yann and the other French sea kayakers.  The backdrop was simple stunning and that was were we would be heading tomorrow.

The village of Uummannaq has a population of about 1,300 but it is dwarfed by the mountain which rises dramatically to a height of 1170 metres straight out of the sea.  Any ascent would be challenging day out!

Exploring the village in the evening we came across the local kayak club, with a variety of craft.

The following morning as we packed the kayaks the cloud base obscured what we assumed was pretty dramatic scenery.  Following a visit to the supermarket the skies had cleared revealing the surrounding mountains.

Andy and myself were the first afloat and eager to start the crossing the nearest islands.  As we sat in the harbour, absorbing the scale of the environment we had little idea just how dramatic our first days paddle would actually be.