Arctic Adventures - Day 9



Cutting through the Ice

 The plan today was for two landings, one to a little auk colony and the second to a lake where whooper swan may have nested - if this is the case it would be a first for Svalbard.   Our expedition leader, Rinie had been asked to check on the status by ornithologists who had spotted the pair on what appeared to be a nest a few weeks earlier.

Unfortunately the ice was worse than expected this morning which not only slowed us down but also forced us to travel far wider to the west and south of the island that we intended to go.   At lunchtime we still had 60 miles to to and we were travelling through perennial ice which was far thicker than any we had met previously.   We hoped to anchor near the lake site at around 3.30 pm but hour plans had to change yet again when we still had 30 miles to go at 3.00 pm!   The weather had been incredible with cloud handing over the sea, mist and fog closing in, the clearing to reveal a mirror flat sea with fulmar flying only inches above the surface of the water and bright sunshine.  

Scaling the Ice cliff

We finally turned into a fjord at Bellsun - Van Keulenfjorden and anchored up around 6.00 pm, after another polar bear sighting.   We prepared for a zodiac landing and faced a steep but short cliff walk and then onto the by now usual springy tundra where Jenny found more new plants for our list.  

As the lakes came into view we saw lots of long-tailed duck, barnacle geese with young and a distinct lack of whooper swan.   On the tundra beyond were pink-footed geese, again with you and Rinie was just telling me that arctic fox look out for humans as any disturbance of the geese could give them an opportunity to strike at the young birds.   As he spoke I noticed a fox on the horizon in front of us and perilously close to the pink-foots.   We managed to get quite a few people on to it before it dipped down the bank away from us and out of sight.   As we continued to scan it re-appeared always moving away from us but stopping every few feet to check us out.   Having forced the geese into the fox's path by our presence we were relieved to have at least put the fox off for now.

Botanising & looking for Fox 

Most of the group manged to see it as it continued beyond another group of pink-foots, a few reindeer and up the mountain-side out of view.  

It was now time to return to the ship for our "surprise dinner" which was a BBQ and disco on deck.   As this was our last night at sea (the next being the trip back into Longyearbyen) the staff were keen to celebrate our successful expedition.   First we had to negotiate the short cliff onto the beach which was over a very slippy ice and snow section.   Although the first people walked carefully down the slope by the time it was my turn the only thing to do was sit down and slide.   A few had already done this and there was a slippery smooth surface to use.   Surprising how much fun you can have on such a small section of ice.

No Penguins in the Arctic?

The evening couldn't have been nicer with bright sunshine and clear skies.  As we were anchored up by a glacier the food came out and the disco started - surreal to hear pounding music in such a wild and beautiful environment.   Jenny and I escaped for a while to the top deck on the helipad with a mug of tea and sat and enjoyed the ambiance of such a wonderful place.   I felt totally in awe of the scale and beauty surrounding me, and thankful that I had been given the opportunity to visit.

After a while Jenny, John and I joined in the dancing until midnight when the obligatory "midnight sun" photographs had to be taken.  

Then it was off to bed at 1.00 am as we have a 7.00 am wake up call!