John Weinstock

John asked me how he should go about paddling amongst ice bergs - this sowed the seeds for my first guided trip, which he came out on in July 2008.

John came out again on a second trip which explored Sermilik Fjord in 2009.

I am sure he will be back.

I have been to Greenland with Martin twice, and I am thinking about going again! So that must say something. It is an extraordinary place.

I wanted to paddle in ice and so contacted Martin and he told me about his trip. As a result I got to paddle in as much ice as anyone could hope for; huge bergs and sea ice. Truly awesome!

We also got to spend some time in the settlements and find out a bit about the Greenland way of life.

Martin led the trip in a relaxed, flexible way taking into account the interests, fitness and skill levels of the people in the group. He was happy to involve us in all route planning decisions and fully explain to us the options open to us. I felt very comfortable with the way

that he ran the trip; I did not feel that I was being put in a more challenging situation than I wanted to be in, but I did feel that I was

being taken to places that I would not have been able to get to with out Martin’s guidance.

The two groups I was with were mainly made up of people who did not know each other before the trip. And there were not any real difficulties with personalities on either trip. That to some extent is because of how nice were all were (?) but is also down to Martin’s management of the group. I was wary about going on trip with people I did not

know, but it worked out fine.

As with all activities of this sort one is at the mercy of the weather. We did have

a few days of rain on both trips but we also had beautiful still clear days.

Perfect for photography. But it has to be said that even on the rainy days,

Greenland is spectacular.

One down side with the trip was that we saw less wildlife than I would have

hoped; but with a bit of understanding about how the Greenland people live their

lives one can see how this situation has developed, even if one does not fully

approve of it from a comfortable, affluent, vegetarian point of view.

The equipment that Martin provided was of very good quality, especially the

Rockpool kayaks and it was clearly being very well looked after.

The trip may sound like quite a lot of money but I would say it was very good value. How else are you going to get to see glacier after glacier, mountainous ice burgs, views of the ice cap, get to have lunch on floating sea ice and to camp in truly isolated, wild beautiful places!

John Weinstock