This gallery contains 16 photos.
I spent the rest of the morning in the ship’s sauna, to warm up again; over lunch (and after the second group had made it back to the ship) we moved locations once more – leaving Krossfjorden, into the Kongsfjorden … Continue reading
This gallery contains 11 photos.
We had moved over night once more – and were now in the 14th of July Bay (Fjortende Julibukta), named after France’s National Day – just in front of the 14th of July Glacier. I was in one of the … Continue reading
This gallery contains 12 photos.
Over lunch the ship had made the 26 nautical miles to Amsterdamøya – named after the city of Amsterdam. The island had been the heart of the Dutch whaling operation from as early as about 1614; by 1619 the operation … Continue reading
This gallery contains 12 photos.
During the night we had left the Liefdefjorden and made our way around the Reinsdyrflya peninsula and into the Raudfjorden – everything was now ready for a landing at Alicehamna. As with other stops a short hike was waiting for … Continue reading
It had already been a great day, with time ashore, a polar bear show and a cocktail-hour pre-/recap gathering. But there was more to come …
The first highlight was another visit of the Japanese-Peruvian restaurant. For some reason (well – I guess, the timing of the second highlight) there were only two tables to cater for here today, which resulted in a service even more attentive than usual. The food (they had just changed the menu) was delicious … and dessert was the clear highlight today. As we could not decide for a dessert, we ended up taking both – and their interpretation of a pavlova was the clear winner – possibly the best (food) dessert of the whole trip.
Well – after dinner the second highlight was waiting: a zodiac cruise in the Liefdefjord in front of the Monacobreen (Monaco Glacier) … or (in other words)the third, (now) ice-based (and calorie-burning) dessert of the evening.
The cruise took us about an hour towards and along the glacier (5km wide and 40m high) – and then through the ice back to the ship.
During lunch we had made it back into the Woodfjord, now heading for Gråhuken – place of the hut, where Hermann and Christiane Ritter had spent the winter 1934/35 along with their hunting aid Karl Johan Nikolaisen). The site will be off limits for tourists from the coming (2025) season, hence a last chance to visit and get a glimpse of the hut and an idea of the living conditions during that winter.
My zodiac group eventually got called and we made it into the rubber boots and then on into a waiting zodiac, heading for the beach – when out of a sudden the instruction to abort blared through the radio. A polar bear had been sighted in some distance – and we were directly brought back to the ship … those already ashore were immediately evacuated – with no humans left ashore in less than 15 minutes.
While it was a bit disappointing to not get to see the hut – the show the polar bear put up was fully compensating for that. The bear was taking a pass slowly along the shore line, easily watchable from the ship using binoculars, photos also kind of worked out – even with simpler cameras (as mine) – check the zoomed-in picture below and look for the white bits along the shore.
This gallery contains 12 photos.
We made our way back to the Hinlopen Strait. Over night we had passed the Northern most point of the trip at 80°5.8’N, 16°15’E – officially beating my Northern record from my trip in 2015 by about 80km – or … Continue reading
We now left Nordaustlandet, over lunch the ship made the ~70km over to Svalbard’s main island – Spitsbergen. First crossing the Hinlopen Strait and then into the Lomfjorden; destination for the afternoon was the Faksevågen site.
And once again the plan was thwarted – as one of the white stones close to the original landing site turned out to be (likely) another polar bear. Now was the time of binoculars and the cameras with the big lenses – most folks were out and about, watching the bear from a distance.
The expedition team was meanwhile working on a plan B – and were eventually ready to offer an alternate landing on the other side of they bay – far away from the polar bear and the potential danger.
As such we made it ashore for another short hike, this time up a hill for great views of the area. The real shocking piece here was all the plastic littering the beach – from fishing equipment to all sorts of more domestic plastic garbage … all brought in by the currents and washed ashore. The expedition team had prepared a garbage collection point at the zodiac site – and we were encouraged to collect plastic garbage during the hike and bring it back for proper disposal via the Clean-Up Svalbard program. The result was (shockingly) massive … five big bags and two barrels filled with plastic – plus several pieces too big to even fit in there.
This gallery contains 11 photos.
The ship had continued its journey North – we were now about 30km North from the polar bear sighting yesterday in the Palanderbukta (Palander Bay – named after a Swedish admiral and Arctic explorer). The fog had lifted, so visibility … Continue reading
Fog had been our companion all day after the aborted shore landing in the morning. The expedition and bridge teams eventually decided to continue North – to make it up to Nordaustlandet … a trip of ~130km that took us all afternoon.
Our destination here was Torellneset – a bay where walruses were to be expected. The plan now was to make use of the midnight sun and have a zodiac cruise in the late evening – after dinner – to (ideally) get a glimpse of the animals. Zodiac groups were swapped this time, so the ones who did not get ashore in the morning were now allowed out first.
While dinner was pulled in by an hour (now starting at 18:00), it still turned out a bit hectic for folks to be ready in time for the cruise. I ended up in the ship’s smaller specialty restaurant tonight, indulging on Japanese-Peruvian fusion cuisine – and as I now was in the second group to go, there was plenty of time to enjoy the food and drink.
The time came – and it was out and onto a zodiac. As we made our way through the fog we eventually could see the outlines of the small walrus colony – and a white dot a few hundred meters from it … that white dot was polar bear – indulging on his (or her?) dinner … possibly a serving of walrus (no cilantro here). We could not believe our luck – what a great day!
