Welcome to Travel 2014
2014 sees us doing something a little out of the ordinary –
for us. We are taking a cruise…not your
super-size-2-swimming-pools-movies-and –dancing-cruise. Rather an expedition cruise to Polar Regions,
followed by our very first visit to North America.
We begin in
Copenhagen, Denmark, spending a few days reacquainting ourselves with this
beautiful city and also with Elaine’s distant cousin, Flemming and his wife Kirsten
who treat us to a great day of wandering around the city and environs like
locals.
The Copenhagen Airport Hilton is where we meet our 86
shipmates and Quark
Expeditions staff before we fly
to Kangerlussuaq
in Greenland where trucks
wait on the tarmac to drive us about 23 miles along the glaciated valley to see
the famous polar ice-cap. As we watch, a rumbling sound heralds yet another fracture
in this fast-receding face. A remnant of
the ice-age, it is still about 3 km thick at the centre, but the experts
believe that if it was to melt, it could raise the level of the world’s oceans
by about 2 metres. Our first wildlife
sighting is a musk ox…remember for later!!
Our ship, “Sea Adventurer,” waits
off shore and a zodiac transfer is required – the first of many. We receive a
hearty welcome from the ship’s crew and ‘hotel’ staff, and most of us find that
our cabins are a little more sumptuous than expected. No sitting-down-while-having-a-shower-and-cleaning-your-teeth
bathroom here! And a king-size bed!
The Quark Expeditions team is very capably led by Canadian Alex
McNeil…it includes an expedition co-ordinator, a naturalist, an ornithologist, a
geologist/glaciologist, an historian, a botanist, a marine biologist, a kayak
leader, a logistics manager, a photography advisor, as well as several other
guide/zodiac drivers.…Canadian, Australian, Scottish, French, English, American
and Inuit.
Passenger nationalities are just as diverse…Australia, USA,
Canada, Scotland, France, Israel, Netherlands, and a large group from China.
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