Sailing steadily south down the west coast of Greenland, we rounded Disko Island, and found a splendid gravel beach in the middle of spectacular volcanic landscape. It looks something like the outer ramparts of Mordor, dark sepia cliffs, mountains like soaring ziggurats, built from terraces of molten lava, bolts of sunshine spotlighting rich green and gold slopes of tundra.
In no time our fleet of Zodiacs was racing ashore with platoons of eager walkers. We are seasoned stormtroopers now, peeling off the bow into seething surf and storming the beach as we have done for weeks in the wilderness. Our targets were a choice of plunging waterfalls in the hinterland and we fanned out to reconnoiter a tapestry of tartan tundra.
Meanwhile the navy seals sped along the shore to scan basalt cliffs rearing 600’ above the shoreline. Pink patches of River Glory willow herb, occasional stands of Shore Rye Grass, sheets of Arctic willow on the lower slopes all caught our eye. But it was the white splashes of falcon perches high on the upper cliff which held our attention... Could these be peregrine? Or even the iconic raptor which has become our holy grail, the Gyrfalcon? Flocks of Glaucous Gulls lined the shore, with one pioneer Lesser Black-backed Gull among, an abundance explained that afternoon. For after an intriguing talk by Jason entitled “Who owns the Arctic?” and a memorable teatime hosted by the heroes of the ship’s laundry, we were galvanized by a cry from the bridge “Blows to starboard!” As the chief officer turned the bow towards shore the tell-tale exhalations of whales were echoed by exclamations of whale-watchers. Splash! A breaching humpback! Then we realized we had three animals, for two larger whales suddenly burst out vertically, giant mouths agape as they lunged into tons of small fish. The glaucous gulls swirled and plunged, gate-crashing the banquet. This was repeated several times just a few hundred yards from the ship, interspersed by more gymnastics from the much smaller calf to the delight of a hundred waiting cameras.
An energetic day was capped by an evening concert from our ships band, the Spice Boys, which had everyone from the Captain to the crew dancing like dervishes into the night. Wildlife comes in many forms in these latitudes….
