Overnight we sailed to Greenland, and we awoke to brilliant sunshine, mountains, and truly immense icebergs. The captain promised it would be as spectacular as Antarctica, and he was right. The bizarre and unearthly shapes of the huge icebergs captivated us, I can’t even remember how many photos I took as these icebergs looks different from different angles due to how they weather and shift in the water.
We headed up Simiilaq fjord, again surrounded by mountains and glaciers and very little greenery. One breathtaking columnar iceberg looked like an immense penis (which was noticed by everyone), and the captain made sure everyone had a chance to photograph it. We landed in the Zodiacs on a deserted rocky beach, where we could walk fairly freely. We had to stay inside a perimeter defined by the staff, who carry firearms as there is a very small but real risk of polar bears. We walked from one end to the other, observing some interesting animal poops (which we later learned were from geese) and where a large pool of water perfectly reflected a large peak. After we returned to the ship, we kept our gear on, as we went out soon on a zodiac cruise. Since we were the last in line and only 10 people can go in a zodiac, we were all by ourselves with Boris the wonderful naturalist we met in Antarctica. This was a real thrill. We went to a rocky cliff where Iceland Gulls were nesting, and the Glaucus Gulls were flying around, ready to steal eggs; they are predators, somewhat larger than the Iceland Gulls. We went by a large iceberg which had a loud popping noice going on, as the air bubbles came to the surface. We also saw a rather unique iceberg which had rolled over, so part of it was the blue that is usually beneath the water and part was the typical white. Another iceberg had two huge holes in it, water had poured through the first hole and then created a second hole. It was such fun to have a truly knowledgeable person guiding us, and he told us about some of his (and Eva’s) other expeditions they’ve done in Arctic and Antarctic area, Alaska, and also Baja, and he said they might also do some wildlife trips in Africa; they are based in Colorado.
In the evening, we attended the Cook’s Nook Zero Waste dinner, a 7 course special dinner that everyone is invited to once on the trip. It was designed to showcase parts of food that are sometimes thrown away, as a model of zero-waste cooking. We started with tiny canapées featuring such unusual ingredients as potato glass (frozen then dried water that potatoes have been cooked in), leftover bits of mushroom made into confit, and kale and potato croquette. Then we had the trim ends of Albacore tuna, with artichoke three ways, crispy, confit, and mousse with Leon ponzu foam. Then a tomato asparagus broth with tomato caviar, which the soups-chef explained they make by combining chopped tomato with agar-agar and cold oil, then pressed and shaped into tiny pearls that look like caviar and burst when you put them in your mouth. Something the chef was very proud of was the cauliflower 8 ways: caviar, grilled steak, tempura, pickled, puréed, foam, remoulade and a “scallop” made from the base of the leaves, all of which were quite good. A berry sorbet was the palate refresher. Then we had a black cod filet with a quinoa chip, carrots with hazelnut dukkha, then my favorite, duck breast with a Demi glaze on beetroot carpaccio, confit duck ravioli (delicious) with a burnt apple purée. Dessert was an apple “rock” a shell made of hardened apple Joyce filled with apple cremeux, with apple caviar, apple chips, an apple biscuit, and Pink Lady sorbet.
We ended the evening in the lounge as usual, meeting up with our friends and joined by some new folks who were delightful. Tonight we sail a but farther Dow the east coast of Greenland.
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