Tag Archives: Svalbard

Final Views of Svalbard …

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The trip had come to an end. From Longyearbyen it was back to a sweaty Hannover with some final glimpses of Svalbard from the plane as we were starting the trip back South.

Overall this has been another amazing and mind-blowing trip. Starting with all the different landing sites … similar, but still different; then of course the animal life – from musk oxen, an arctic hare and reindeer to walruses, whales and puffins – plus lucky us to see polar bears on three occasions. Plant life was fascinating as well – to see, what plants and flowers actually persevere and make it through in the harsh conditions up here. A real highlight then all the geological gems we were allowed to see – especially in East Greenland – overwhelmingly beautiful.

I guess, to me the highlights of the trip were indeed the geological attractions in Eastern Greenland – those formations of sedimentary rock in all those colors, nicely layered – as if build by an artist – those simply left me awestruck. The package around this actually added nicely – incl. the animal sightings – but also simply the down-times during which I made use of the amenities of the ship … it was a vacation at last. An epic journey has come to an end – and it is indeed a privilege having been a part of it – and being able to have witnessed what Svalbard and East Greenland have to offer.

Final Impressions at Longyearbyen

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We had made it to Longyearbyen – Svalbard’s capital – in the morning. We were to leave the ship after breakfast. As there was still plenty of time until our flight, a quick tour around town was offered, taking in the main attractions – starting with a drive from the small port to downtown, a tour through the excellent Svalbard Museum, followed by a self-guided stroll through the downtown pedestrian / shopping area for a last chance to catch up on souvenirs. From here it was on to the airport for the flight back South.

Ice for (third) Dessert …

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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.

Polar Bear Alert at Gråhuken

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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.

Of a Polar Bear and loads of Plastic

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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.