Arctic Greenland - Kangerlussuaq Fjord

Our last day on the ship, we sailed towards Kangerlussuaq where we will be catching our flight back to Toronto.  Kangerlussuaq is located at the end of the Fjord so we had the opportunity to travel through some of the most spectacular mountain scenery on this trip.  On both sides of the ship, we saw snow-capped mountains, many with glaciers coming down the valleys.  This, coupled with the golden hour light and the sunset behind us, took our breaths away.

Looks like icing sugar on chocolate cake

Glacier visible beyond 

Mountain ranges as far as the eyes can see

From the first day that we got on this ship, the expedition leader had promised us he will wake us up if the northern lights showed up in the middle of the night.  Nothing happened for fifteen nights.  This was to be our last night on board and we all went to bed early because we had to disembark at 4 am to get to the airport to catch our flight.  Of course, shortly after 10 pm, the call came over the PA.  Only half awake, we took our time getting up to the upper deck.  

I was worried when I saw people coming down already - they had already seen it and were going back to bed!  I thought we had missed it when we saw nothing as we walked out onto the deck.  But a few minutes later, the aurora borealis emerged again from the darkness.  It was unbelievably magical - shimmering, shrinking then growing, glowing, from one streak till it enveloped the sky in front of us.  One truly has to see it to believe it!  For a while I was too dumbfounded to take photos.  

The phone was the quickest way of capturing the aurora borealis and half of these shots were taken with my phone.  We were on a ship, there is no point in using a tripod because of vibration from the engine.  But the northern lights that night was strong enough that we could capture it handheld for 1 second holding our cameras steady.  I wish I had the presence of mind to capture it on video - it would have shown the amazing movement of the lights.  

The first streaks of light.  Jupiter was visible on the horizon.

The red starting to come through

Intensifying - then fading

Then it moved from the west side to the south

It was a remarkable end to a remarkable trip - truly a journey of a lifetime!  

Thanks for coming along for the ride.