Hornstrandir

We landed on the northernmost part of the Westfjords, Hornstrandir.  The land was very interesting in that there was grass, moss and then mud. So you would sink down quite a lot and needed to raise your feet quite high to take the next step. Because of this, although it looked flat, it took a lot of energy and I had to put away my fleece and down-jacket into my backpack because the exercise was making me so hot. It was very windy so I kept my rain jacket on, but my face was very cold. There were many beautiful small Arctic flowers in bloom including mountain avens (the national flower of Iceland), thrift, alpine barista, wild thyme, wooly willow, bog bilberry, and a variety of orchids. Peter pointed out a purple carnivorous plant called a butterwort.

We crossed many tiny streams from Glacier run off. Sometimes there was something that looked oily, but it wasn't crude oil like you might see at home, it was simply a botanical oil. We saw some swans and their 3 babies walking past. Then we had a steep climb up for a while. We never made it to snow because it was too far away, but that's okay. As we were walking back to the boat we heard that someone had seen an arctic fox. I was just saying I wish I had seen the arctic fox when it ran through the field. It wasn't super close, but I got to use binoculars and was able to see it up close that way.  I was expecting it to be white, but it is only white in the winter.  In the summer it is dark.  The fox ended up going to the shore to get some food and past close to some other staff and guests who got some pretty cool photos. Eventually the wind picked up and they requested that we take the Zodiacs back to the ship.

Guest Speaker, Tim Severin, spoke and showed a documentary about the Brenden Voyage. His project was trying to answer the question, "Could Irishmen have reached the Americas in about 550AD, before Columbus? Tim built a boat similar to the Brenden story to make a voyage around the Arctic, instead of straight across, beeecause in Breden stoies they had visited island, and perhaps this was Iceland and Greenland?  In order to build a boat he used the manuscript, any picture representations he could find (1 on a stone pillar), and any boats that seem to be descendants of the original. His boat was built with oak bark tanned leather and used hand rolled flax thread. 23 miles of thread was needed! Once the boat was complete, they took their medieval boat out to sea. They got to see a lot of whales because they were slow moving, they were silent, and they were shaped like a whale.  I am excited to hear about part 2.

After tea time National Geographic photographer Michael Melford spoke about his assignments. He said for everyone 1 photo published he took 1,331 photos. His first assignment for Traveler got on the cover, so he said, "Great, what is next?" The editor said, "We'll call you." And they did, but not until a year later.  He told us to, never walk past a picture, because you never know what it's going to be like when you come back."  (He had many stories of how the wind changed the pattern, or now the road was closed the next day, etc.) Interesting fact, Oregon has more scenic rivers preserved than any other states in the US. When Tim was trying to photograph bears, he used camera traps where animals trigger the infared beam, which takes the picture. Photography can be a powerful medium.  He has proof of this becasue some land became protected through the wilderness act after his photos of those places were in print.

Unfortunately, our ship, th National Geographic Explorer, started swaying around 5:30. I took some meclazine in preparation, hoping I wouldn't feel sick this time. They hung up ropes around the ship where hand rails were not available and we came into dinner hold ing the ropes. I sat with 5 lovely ladies for dinner, but I had to excuse myself and skip dinner becasue I was feeling so sick. Shannon was also feeling poorly so we both just talked while resting in bed. Xochitl feels fine, so she ran around signing us up for tomorrow's activities and such. We were going to write the Daily Expedition Report (DER) after dinner, but we will have to wait until we feel better.

Summary:
Wow moment-It was awesome to see an Arctic Fox out in the wild. I was surprised it was brown, but they are dark in the summer and white in the winter.

Worst part of the day-being seasick

Human/nature connections-I can't believe the dedication of Tim to recreate the Brenden Voyage just to see if it would be possible for a medieval ship to sail from Ireland to North America. It was interesting to hear how the leather and thread could withstand the cold temperatures of the Arctic. Also interesting that the whales got so close, probably because the boat was a whale shape.

Teaching connections-We are always trying to get our kids to persevere and not give up. I think telling them that Michael, who is a national geographic photographer, has to take 1,331 photos to get a good one is a good example of not getting frustrated and to keep trying.