It’s been a while since we paddled with icebergs, so you’ll have to forgive me, but I’m going to use the next 12 blog posts on our first sea kayaking trip in Uummannaq Fjord. We arrived in Uummannaq back in August 2006. This trip, the following June/July was the first time we left the island, apart from walking on the sea ice in the winter.
Just leaving the island is exciting, as was getting all the gear into the kayak. It was a big kayak (currently in my brother-in-law’s garage) made by Folbot. Folbot unfortunately went bust a few years ago, but we were pleased to paddle in their two-person folding kayak appropriately called Greenland II.
We said goodbye to one mountain while paddling among many, many others.
Plenty of room in the kayak. But then everything had to be taken out each time we made camp as we had to move the kayak high enough out of the water to stop it being washed away from the tsunami waves each time an iceberg calved. I’ve often described it as iceberg artillery and this trip was our first real taste of it.
Can you see the ice in the distance? Yep, we’re heading into that!
It can get a little chilly paddling around so much ice and the clunk clunk of the brash ice against the hull takes some getting used to. The kayak had a metal strip protecting the bow and stern. We put it to good use!
Oh, and the air temperature, when the sun was out was in the plus 20s Celsius. While the water temperature was, at a guess, around 5 degrees(ish). We wore drysuits which were stifling hot, but necessary if you fell in, of course.
Chris
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