Greenland Day 10: Flowers and Rain

A rather overcast morning dawned after a cold night and we were rather slow getting ready to leave, perhaps the miles which we had covered in the previous few days had started to take their toll.

The initial few miles were paddled against the backdrop of some quite large icebergs, which were busy breaking up at times. The cold emitting from the bergs was certainly lowering the air temperature and coupled with the dropping cloud base it was creating a less than friendly atmosphere for kayaking.

We didn't have a huge distance to cover and realistically the only unknown was how much ice would be in the channel as we crossed to Oqaitsut as on a previous crossing the channel had been choked with ice. 

Today though, the channel was largely clear, although the rain didn't make for a pleasant couple of hours.  It was interesting to see that there was an increase in the number of Fulmar's flying around, a species which had largely been missing for the last few days.

It was only a short day, just under 14 nautical miles, which was appreciated because of the conditions and so a pleasant afternoon was spent lying around in the Tipi reading, listening to music and drinking coffee.  All activities, which  we hadn't done enough of, so far this trip.

 Heading out from camp on a less than pleasant morning

 

 Sometimes there is no option but to go closer to the icebergs than you feel comfortable with.  At times like these it is possible to feel a significant increase in your forward paddling speed.

Nicky with a lower cloud base behind, fortunately the wind was still light at this time.

 Starting the crossing to Oqaitsut, not the best day we have had in Disko Bay.

 We were camped in the small bay.  There was a great stream for washing under and reasonably flat ground for camping.  The views across to Disko Bay (below) were continually changing but were particularly impressive in the evenings.

 As it was only a short day there was plenty of time for relaxing and exploring after we landed.  I decided to take a few images of the flowers which were adding a splash of colour to a rather gray landscape.  Most of the flowers were only a couple of centimetres in height, just enough to attract our attention.