Daily menus as posted - the food was great, and watching the two waitresses carry bowls of soup as the ship pitches back and forth sideways through 30 degrees was amazing!

The daily itineraries that were posted up on the noticeboards on the Molchanov...

One of our final zodiac cruises was along the coast of Greenland near a "summer camp" for the locals. Wouldn't like to stay in these places myself. It was VERY cold that day ...


corralling the zodiacs...



something lives here anyway - a very cold bird (twitchers were very excited at this point) ...


eider ducks - the twitchers were checking out wing shapes etc, whereas I was more concerned about whether I could pluck their little chests and add some lining to my gloves to try to keep my frozen hands warm ...



and some things under the water - quite a few ringtailed seals were playing around with us that day ...



the "summer camp" - homey!

more "summer camp"

the icebergs near the summer camp - not the largest or most spectacular but they tried

some photos stolen from www.melissalawrence.com - see this website for more photos of the trip... The funny part about these is that it was after one of our morning hikes, and when we got back to the zodiac the tide had gone out, and the zodiac was beached. So all hands to the ropes and dragging the zodiac out to sea, which was actually pretty good fun.

The guides described it as going for a little walk along a river ...


not often you land on a beach covered in chunks of ice


with a little arctic fox waiting for you (no winter fur yet ...)


heading up the frozen river bed


frozen river - fascinating


apparently the water does gush through here in the height of summer


there's a steep hill - lets climb it ...


B relaxing after the tough climb...

more of our favourite bunnies ... they must have their own little furry wellingtons on

the serious climbers head up for another view


Vladimir shows the best way to come down the hill on steep ice in wellington boots

some more company - a fat bearded seal hanging out as polar bear bait


The Blossefeld coast of Greenland


heading into the pack ice - we have ice-strengthened hull, so why not live a little!


lots of stiff ice, getting stiffer ...

and denser


and denser ...


until the Molchanov started to creak and snap a little ...

another beautiful morning ...


there was some wildlife apart from the bunnies - some lovely birds on the edge of a glacier. Of course, all the twitchers on the boat got very excited at this point, tugging out high range binoculars and discussing pink feet vs wedge tails. Hmmm, to me they are just birds ...


and the exciting muskox - a very shy and hairy creature, with a calf



speaking of musk ox

...

climbing another steep hill to look for musk ox (and another glacier). This time we were racing the sun however before our barbecue that evening. Surreal to be having a barbecue on the deck of a ship wearing thermals, looking at a glacier...

overlooking the glacier ...