Arctic Adventure - Day 5

We were supposed to be heading for an area to do a zodiac landing, but the weather conditions were foggy, overcast and not deemed safe for a landing so we continued for the most northerly area of our trip - the seven islands area.  The plan is to try to go to the first area planned later on today and we have been told to prepare for a late night tonight and a very early morning tomorrow - deep joy, can't wait!

The Ice Field

To help us on our way two more polar bears were spotted on the ice - a much more enigmatic place to see them than on land as yesterday.   The captain was skilled in his job and managed to get the ship to gradually drift towards these fantastic creatures and gave us all great views, photo and video potential, and some breathtaking moments.   During lunch two ringed seals were found and a harp seal spotted.

This area had far more icebergs and and ship was being slowed down by having to weave in between the larger ones - the captain however seemed far happier when we were thrashing our way through the middle of them.   At times the ship rose high out of the water before the weight of it finally cracked the iceberg into many pieces.   As the bergs broke fish were released from their hiding place - much to the delight of the kittiwake and fulmar following the ship, and we were mesmerised by the movement and breaking of these amazing natural creations.   Hours were spent on the bow just enjoying the whole process take place as we progressed through the frozen sea.

Iceberg


It was announced that the place we had intended to stop at this morning for walrus had already been visited by another ship and no walrus appeared there as the ice was still packed solid and they would therefore not come out onto land where there was so much ice.   They much prefer the land or sea when the ice has melted away from the coastal areas.

blue morph fulmar

We therefore spent the day bashing through the icebergs and watching the birds.   Reading was impossible as the views from the windows was too amazing to miss.

After dinner we were to go off on the zodiacs for an evening expedition looking for walrus we were warned to wear both cold and wet weather gear as the sea was a little rough and the return journey would probably be a little rough.   Being in the leading zodiac, we were lucky to spot the first walrus in the sea by the land, they had a good look at us, decided they didn't really like what they saw, then swam off at speed.   As we were getting over the excitement of that viewing, the boat behind had 5 grey phalaropes on the sea, again we were lucky to spot them before they flew off.



Walrus skull

 On the land our first interest was a walrus skull, an amazing thing with one tusk and the teeth visible.  After ensuring that the zodiacs were safely tied up onto huge pieces of driftwood and rocks, we moved along the beach and made our way to a small inlet where sabine's gulls were known to nest.   We were lucky again and spotted a pair of these pretty gulls and were able to watch them for some time.   As our attention was taken by the gulls a purple sandpiper came to within 10 feet of us totally at ease with our presence.   The journey back was definitely defined as "lumpy" and we were bounced about for about 45 minutes - absolutely well worth it all though.

Back on board a warming cup of tea was required before the reality of a possible 4.45am wake up call drove us to our cabins about 11.30 pm!