Wrap-up: photographing polar bears --- first find your polar bear!
For at least a week after leaving the Ocean Adventurer, my dreams were of the Arctic. Nothing specific that I remember now – my overarching memories are of big wide-open spaces, the curiosity of polar bears, the size and bulk of walruses, and birds by the thousands. All of this amongst mountains and glaciers, and the ice – that wonderful, beautiful and colourful state of water that supports all life in the Arctic.
I’ve learned that it takes time to process the experiences of being in such a different environment for four weeks – hence this trip’s final blog post so many weeks later.
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Icebergs, fjords – Svalbard’s colours and textures
Over the last two days we’ve sailed south-ish along the eastern side of Spitsbergen, Svalbard’s largest island before turning around the southern-most area, and turning right, heading up the west coast into Hornsund, a large fjord complex.
Yesterday (12/6) the sky was bright blue with white puffy clouds – by the time I was on the Bridge at 6:30am, the sun was shining brightly, highlighting the fresh snow. We had been in this same area, Isbjornhamna, towards the end of the last trip from Aberdeen. However unlike that visit when we saw very little, this time we could see mountains stretching high above the sea, some glaciers crunching down between them, while others were fully retreated and are now valleys filled with rocks & snow.
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Polar Bear meets Reindeer
Yesterday (10/6) I opened the curtains to see a long wall of ice stretching as far as my windows would allow. It was the Austfonna icecap, the largest icecap on Nordaustlandet island. It runs for more than 100 kms and has a maximum thickness of 600-700m (above and below the surface of the water).
It reminded me of the Ross Ice Shelf in the Antarctic, although not nearly as high. Unlike that ice-tongue that pushes out into the sea and floats, the icecaps in Svalbard are “grounded,” sitting on the land beneath the sea, and pushing out slowly, grinding out dirt and rock as they edge forwards, with icebergs breaking off and floating off with the currents.
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The many faces of the Arctic … in 2 days
The strong winds continued throughout the night, ranging from 30-40 knots to gusts of 80 knots. We headed out of the “sheltered” fjord towards Faksevagen, a beautiful area of snow covered mountains, fjords, but also grey skies and wind. It seems that there was to be no shelter in this area above 78°N.
As we sailed along various fjords, birds continued to follow us – dipping and banking around the ship, and flying across the water. I was out on the fly bridge as we prepared to leave this area. The winds were very strong, regularly gusting to 60-70 knots, screaming through the “rigging” on the top of the ship (antennae, radar & communications systems), and flattening out the waves.
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82°N, strong cold winds & glimpse of a polar bear
We were the northern-most ship on 6/6, and with not many animal sightings, it was a very quiet day, following the edge of the sea-ice at 82oN. I’d gone out onto the bow early, following an announcement of a possible Polar bear way off in the distance. Unfortunately it didn’t eventuate - sometimes yellow algae on sea-ice looks like a Polar bear way off in the distance. The day started very cold at around zero degrees, with the strong wind blowing out of the North Pole making it feel much, much colder. With the sea-ice on our port side, we had views over this beautiful white sea-scape to the horizon, and to starboard, flat ocean to the horizon. Skies were light grey.
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Polar Bears, not just one but two
What a wonderful day. After seeing their tracks along the shoreline at our last landing yesterday, our plan was to sail north to the sea-ice and travel along the edge of this, looking for elusive Polar bears.
At around 5:30am I felt the ship slow. Outside it was grey clouds and ocean as far as I could see on the starboard (right) side. Perhaps the sea-ice was on the other/port side of the ship. An hour later I took the long route to the Bridge, and there it was, 9/10ths sea-ice stretching towards the horizon. This means that it was broken into large and small pans of ice, joined with slushy areas.
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Fjords, birds and reindeer
It’s been a busy few days sailing in and out of fjords as we head north towards the sea-ice in our search for polar bears. We left Longyearbyen very late with new passengers, made our way to Lilliehookfjorden and its glacier and continued further north to Smeerenburgfjorden, a historic site that was once a massive whale processing location. Smooth water, sunshine, large mountains - stunning scenery.
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Hornshund & Poolepynten
We woke to a grey, wet morning with a decent swell. The plan was to be woken at 6am for 6:30am loading onto the Zodiacs and a landing at Gashamna, a small landing site with potential for sighting little auks and other birds.
After consulting with Annie (one of our Expedition Leaders), I decided to not go there, but to wait to land at Isbjornhamna just after breakfast. There is more to see there – reindeer, historic buildings, birds nesting and lots of different walks. It seems that this was both a good and bad decision.
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Svalbard: snow and sunshine
Our sailing from Jan Mayen Island to the southern part of Spitsbergen, the main island of Svalbard, was uneventful – it took about 36 hours or so. Along the way we had lectures on the geology and history of the area from our specialists in the team. The weather changed from clouds to sunshine, and then to clouds. As we neared Spitsbergen, it became positively gloomy. Our first stop was an anchorage in a southern fjord, with plans for an after-dinner zodiac cruise to a nearby glacier front. I put all my gear together, including a wet bag for my camera, and out we went to load into the zodiac.
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Mysterious Jan Mayen
The sun is shining in a bright blue sky with a full sundog (ice crystals) creating a halo around it. The wind is a cold and somewhat ferocious 30-50 knots, as we quietly sail passed the 2,300m Beerenberg Volcano on the mysterious Jan Mayen Island in the Arctic. And as I write & review today’s photos, I’m listening to Mendelssohn’s Violin Concerto, a little Beethoven and some Mozart. A relaxing afternoon after an early start and busy day of taking photos.
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Puffins!!
I woke very early this morning to see our approach to Fair Isle at 6:30am – the weather was reasonably clear with a breeze causing a gentle swell. It was so nice to be out on the bridge deck in the fresh breeze (about 10°C).
Fair Isle juts suddenly out of the ocean, with its high grassy-topped cliffs, puffin and fulmar nesting in burrows and cracks, and the occasional sheep roaming on the grass. We saw fulmar and guillemots flying around enjoying the early morning light, and the small port with a few yachts at anchor, was visible between parts of the cliff faces.
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Days 2 & 3 of three amazing days touring Scotland’s Highlands
North into the Highlands. The morning started with beautiful weather, and some photos of the River Tummel that runs by the hotel. Our plan for the day worked, mostly.
One of the great parts of this trip has been getting off the main A9 road onto the narrow C roads – these are single lanes with passing areas. It sometimes felt as if we had an inch or two between the car and the stone fence. But these are the roads that take you through small towns, passed farms with black-faced sheep and their very cute new-born lambs (Awww), and providing opportunities to stop to take photos of old stone bridges.
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Day 1 of three amazing days touring Scotland’s Highlands
East to St Andrews & north to Pitlochry: Having agreed to the plan for the next 3 days, my driver, Alan, and I were soon heading out of Edinburgh towards South Queensferry. This is a gorgeous town right on the coast west of Edinburgh. History is everywhere I turn, and this town is no different, named after the ferry service established by Queen Margaret of Scotland in the 11th century.
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Tea, gin & zhug – a fabulous welcome to Edinburgh!
Wow, what a wonderful afternoon and evening of taste-bud tingling flavours that welcomed me to Edinburgh.
Having settled in to my beautiful room at the Principal Hotel, Charlotte Square, I grabbed my camera and went out into the warm spring afternoon – the sun was shining, Charlotte Square looked bright and fresh with very green lush grass, and the Georgian buildings surrounding it, had chimney stacks that caught my eye. Everywhere I look I see these rows of chimney pots high on the roofs – hence the photo.
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