Boyzz do the NW Passage

Well then we are off to the colder regions of the High Arctic You could say even more uttermost than the uttermost places that we have already visited. Let us not mince words- it is cold up there. And this is an adventure - less than 400 ships have made the Passage since Amundsen first did it in 1906. And before that hundreds of men died in attempting it. We sort of wonder if we are being responsible in taking the padres there

Anyway we got to Greenland via Business Class on Air Portugal, a poncy hotel in Montreal, and a rubbishy charter flight to Greenland (it made RyanAir look good)


From the vicarious excitement of packing, to..	..the stuffing ourselves in Business Class lounge ..	.. to a poncy, but modest, hotel in Montreal	..and via a really bad charter airline to Greenland

Once in Greenland, we started to see real snow and ice. With glaciers wherever we looked. If you really need to know this was Evighedsfjord - try saying that after a glass of champagne, or ever before it.


Greenland's glaciers	this is a "bear guard", specially for us	Heide had a toy drone to examine glaciers	and we had a (rare) scone for afternoon tea

On to Nuuk, Greenland. It was very cold here, but maybe we are a bit soft, fresh from the Spanish summer.. The locals dress up in funny clothes


Not sure what this statue is meant to be.	A musk Ox, looking really fierce	Locals drive these things to fish	And their traditional clothes are very natty

It really is not easy to know where you are in Greenland with these names. Morning in Manitsoq and afternoon in Sermilinnguaq Fjord . Plus a full afternoon tea (a very rare event, easier to spot a polar bear have then a full afternoon tea)


They hunt whales here	Nice table, but no food	Colourful houses everywhere in Greenland	Because of permafrost, burials are difficult

We move on to another glacier Chunks of ice..	..were falling off with enormous bangs	We took a photo of the padres being tourists	This is the full afternoon tea "tower" (rare sight)

Next day, at Sisimiut, the madre aborted to "adventure hike" as being too adventurous, and we blagged our way onto the Silver Endevour instead. Luckily the Security Man on the Endevour recognised us, and let the padres on as well. In the afternoon we sampled some local "delicacies" including whale meat - we think we will stick to buns in future


We visit the Endevour	Lots of dogs here, they look very fierce	Meet a plate of whale meat - buns are better	JK Rowlings yacht, there's money in Harry Potter

At Ilulissat - another of those Greenlandic names that rolls off the tongue - this nice man took is round the ice field in his boat. It is about the largest ice field in the world and was very spectacular. We gave the nice man a few tips on navigating in ice, and he as very grateful. It was very, very cold. We then had a long hike to the ice museum, and an even longer hike to the end of the board walk to see the ice field. We got to the lookout at the top of the hill - the madre was too knackered after all the walking, and she stayed at the bottom of the hill chatting to Japanese tourists.

Uummannaq (worst name of the lot to pronounce) where you come to post a letter to Father Christmas. Trouble was the large letter box, although apparently full of letters to the great man, had nowhere for us to post out lists of requests. Not sure how to get them to him now.


A moderate hike that turned adventure hike	..this is a Public Toilet in Greenland!	We could not find the place to post our letters	Locals used to live here until recently


A wine tasting	A bar tasting	Dinner with a Bear Guard	An after dinner drink with the padres


Not so much ice around	..but they still have these little runabouts	We survey the metropolis of Pond Inlet	..and have dinner with Mr Roberts. Very rich.

Dundas Harbour, Devon Island. Somerville was a bit worried that Pembroke had turned one of the huts upside down


A ghost town And look what happened when..	..Pembroke does not know his own strength	Food over 100 years old, we'll stick to the ship's	The graves of 2 Mounties stationed here

Beechey Island, and Radstock Bay. The only time we saw evidence of Franklin's adventures in the NW Passage


Franklin seems to have got here before us ..	.. and three of his men are buried on this beach	Our friend Jessica with an anti-bear gun

A house built by people looking for Franklin	And this is one built by inuits 2000 years ago ..	...that is probably older than the padres

4th September. A really exciting day. The old man's birthday and a Polar Bear sighting at Guillemard Bay. A really exciting day.

Then non stop partying with 2 birthday cakes from the ship and balloons (filthy butler later removed them before we could burst them). As a special treat the padres had champagne with lunch, champagne with tapas, champagne with dinner. While we got on with the serious business of demolishing the birthday cake. We even sang "happy Birthday" not very tunefully.

Gjoa Haven founded by some old geezer called Amundsen. We got to get close up and personal with his statue


We try to hire a quad bike. We were too young	Big pile of stones. Reminds us of Egypt	Amundsen's bust, looks like he was a big man	Dinner with Auntie Jane

Cambridge Bay. At last a name we can pronounce. A nice little schoolgirl showed us round town, and introduced us to all the scary things like Polar Bears and Musk Ox. There was just time for a quick snack of whale meat (yuch!), before returning to the ship. Dinner this evening with Leslie from Pond Inlet and her Greenland friend - a lot of peple on the boat wanted to dine with us. Mind you the Captain avoided us as did Uncle Dave.

Edinburgh Island - where we walked a long way, even further than the madre, up a boggy incline. We saw a Arctic hare in the (far) distance, and had great views from the top

Ulukhaktok - read that to me again Somerville. A little town, a little town so quiet that even the Catholic Church was closed and boarded up. Dinner with Mila


So called Smoking Hills - not memorable	A rare ice rainbow	dinner with Margaret, the Canadian academic	A (very) distant Polar Bear via telephoto lens

Pembroke drives the ship ..	..but was not too sure what all the screens did	A "proper" wine tasting with Ch Yquem ..	..and Ch Latour and a meal ..

Padre pretends he knows about Ch Latour	Dinner with Bernardo and his family	Hotel Director Sonia at the Crew Show ..	..and Julie from Expedition Team


A lot of walking, so we needed a rest	We are not sure what all this is	The nice man gave us a lift on his quad bike

Then we came upon this man grilling ...	hot dogs. Unfortunately we were rationed to ...	.. one hot dog between us. She is very strict


Nutters taking a Polar Plunge	Captain gives a farewell speech	..and we say goodbye to our favourite waiter	..give a last bit of computer help to maitre d'

We look at a buffet selection, note only look	Mr Roberts paid $5000 for this voyage chart	The goodbye and good riddance to Dave Katz	.. and we meet Star the reindeer in Anchorage

After which a flight to Frankfurt and Valencia. We regret to say this was not Business class , the shame of it if the rest of the bears found out