The Arctic has some memorable wildlife sights and is accessed through a famous explorer route.
Supplied/Seabourn
Welcome to News24 Outdoors, driven by Ford.
Outdoors editor Riaan Manser goes on a childhood dream adventure to see the “mythical” narwhal for himself near the Arctic and encounters an unexpected sighting that he calls the best wildlife experience of his life ever.
This was a childhood dream: Hunting a narwhal, a toothed whale native to the Arctic.
Not “hunting” in the traditional sense, as in the centuries-old Inuit tradition. But hunting one to see with my own eyes – and not just in the imagination of my curious eight-year-old head.
“Those animals cannot be real!!” I remember thinking.
Fair enough – narwhals look like a computer-generated image character created to blend in with Medusa, whose wild hair is a nest of vipers, and a mermaid story….
I had to see a narwhal in my lifetime. So, without hesitation, I agreed to join Seabourn cruises on a route we all know. The most famous of all explorer routes in our modern history: from Iceland, through Greenland and down the untouched Labrador and Newfoundland coastline of Canada. This is the same route Vikings and, later, other sailors had taken to “discover” the West.
Double whammy for me. I get to explore the lands of the “real” explorers of old that inspired me to take up journeys that no one else had; and secondly (and most importantly), see the ludicrous-looking animal I still do not believe exists: the narwhal.
Large, grumpy and unapologetic. How can you not fall in love with the narwhal?
CDA/Gallo Images
If you’re travelling from South Africa, you must go through Europe, stop over in Iceland and then get on the dedicated Seabourn charter flight to Kangerlussuaq, western Greenland.
We flew over Greenland’s grand block of ice for hours – the second largest body of ice on our planet. We landed on a runway that is almost sculpted into the valley – rocky and barren. The ship navigated up this most dramatic of landscapes to collect us.
For days, my binoculars and I were inseparable; some mornings, I woke with them still hung proudly around my neck.
The arctic has some memorable wildlife sights and is accessed through a famous explorer route.
The arctic has some memorable wildlife sights and is accessed through a famous explorer route.
The arctic has some memorable wildlife sights and is accessed through a famous explorer route.
The arctic has some memorable wildlife sights and is accessed through a famous explorer route.
But alas. No narwhal sightings because we were too busy with other things…. Experiences off the charts, including witnessing nature’s pyrotechnics, the Northern Lights, humpback whales and their young, kayaking inside a whirling spectacle of minke whales feeding on krill and jacklin fish.
And then… probably the best wildlife experience of my life ever: my first black bear sighting, on steroids; a live brawl between the black bear and four polar bears.
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Watch the video at the top of the article! I was scarcely able to believe we were watching this, live. The lesson to myself? Sometimes – nope, make that always – take a look around you. You may have “wanted” something – but the world gave you so much more.
The outdoors is screaming for you.
Time to listen.
– Riaan Manser is a pioneering international explorer with multiple world-firsts and is the newly appointed outdoors editor of News24 Outdoors, driven by Ford.
If you have an Outdoors story to tell, email feelgood@news24.com.
