In my quest to learn more about the world I live in, and to continue exploring the extreme regions of our planet, our son, Steve, and I are embarking on an expedition to Greenland. Alas, it is not an official UN country (it is an “autonomous territory of Denmark” ) so I will not add another notch in my “Countries Visited” list, but it is new to me and thus makes the “List of Countries and Territories” list at number 128!

Steve and I visited Antarctica in 2013 and the Arctic(Svalbard) in 2019. We thought of doing the Northwest Passage this year but the trip was too long (27 days) for Steve’s schedule (he still does work) so we compromised on this trip which explores the southern portion of Greenland. Our previous trips were with Lindblad/National Geographic, but we are trying a new expedition company, Quark, which surprisingly is headquartered here in Seattle. What was appealing is the ship we will be on; “Ultramarine” is brand new (launched in 2021) and carries 199 passengers, with a crew of 140. Even more appealing is it carries two helicopters which will take us on some excursions while cruising the southern reaches of Greenland.

The trip we are on is called: “Greenland Adventure: Explore by Sea, Land and Air”.  If interested you can learn more about it at: https://www.quarkexpeditions.com/expeditions/greenland-adventure-explore-sea-land-and-air.

We fly from Seattle to Reykjavik, Iceland on July 12 where we will spend the night before boarding a charter flight to Narsarsuag, Greenland to board our ship and begin our week long journey.

Join us on my latest adventure. I am not sure how reliable the internet connection will be on the ship so this might be one of those times where I will complete my tale after my return. I will do the best I can.

And now for the rest of the story:  Greenland got its name from Erik the Red, the Icelander who was exiled there. He called it Greenland in the hopes of attracting settlers to join him. By the way, scientists say that Greenland was mostly green 2.5 million years ago.