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 the clouds had “pulled a curtain” over the landscape, as Woody our Expedition Leader describes it, this time we could see the mountains stretching high above the sea, some glaciers crunching down between them, while others were fully retreated and are now valleys filled with rocks and snow.
The morning excursion was onto an unsuitable (for me) landing site, so I went up to Deck 5 to take photos of the spectacular scenery and enjoy the warmth of the sun. I was still rugged up with my double hat and gloves – the temperature was definitely Arctic!
During lunch, we moved to Burgabukta where we were positioned in the centre of a series of bays, icebergs dotted on the deep blue water, and even more majestic mountains reaching out of the sea. The way the mountains caught the afternoon light was stunning.
I was in Woody's zodiac at around 2:40pm and off we went to explore the base of a mountain – the attraction was green vegetation and some small purple flowers that were blooming in the early spring. Huge numbers of Glaucous gulls and Kittiwakes flew around us – we even saw some Little Auks and Eider ducks on the water and rocks. It was a little shallow in parts – noticeable as we scraped the base of the motor! But all was well and on we went.
Then it was time to take a closer look at the icebergs – matt white, glistening white, blues ranging from light to deep hues, and black where the iceberg had been grounded in its originating glacier or on the ocean floor. “Oh wow” “can we stop here” “look over there” came from most of us on the zodiac.
We were moving towards a rather large piece that looked to me like a ring of icebergs joined in a giant circle, and not overly high above the water. I commented on the shape to Woody, suggesting that maybe there’s a view into it from one side. He said: “let’s take a look,” and off we went.
We were 3-5 meters away when the side we were close to started to tilt towards us – it was breaking up from the centre, splitting into two pieces. Woody sped up and we quickly moved away, watching the ice roll around, water cascading off it, until it found its new centre of gravity. I managed to take some photos, but with the telephoto, these are mostly of the water fall. Of course I do have some of the “new” iceberg – the previous version will never exist again.
After all that excitement, we zodiac’d down the fjord with a glacier at the end – the fjord has been carved by the glacier that once stretched from the head of the entrance to the fjord (photos from 80 years ago apparently show this). The water surface was littered with tiny bergy-bits that were coming from the glacier as it pushed into the sea – we dodged the larger bits and the icebergs but ran over the smaller ones. One of the really nice things to do is to turn the motor off and enjoy the silence, birds and popping come from the water as the ice released air – like sitting in a glass of champagne.
Glaciers, their icebergs and bergy-bits are fresh water, diluting the salinity of the sea water – I dipped my finger into the water and licked it – definitely less salty than normal sea-water!
Our final stop on this excursion was around the corner from the fjord to a small bay – it was filled with Glaucous gulls and kittiwakes flying in and out and sitting on sea-ice and burgy bits, making some great photo opps. Birds are so hard to photograph, I’m happy with a few, although most are not “Sue Flood tack sharp” as the saying has now become.
After 2 hours on the zodiac it was time to come back to our warm ship after a really beautiful day.
Last night was lots of fun, starting with a barbeque dinner on Deck 5 – delicious food in a glorious fjord, icebergs floating by and a chilly Arctic breeze keeping the lettuce crisp and cooling the gluhwein perhaps just a little too quickly. This was followed by the customary auction, this time to support the Polar Bear Institute and the Polar bears that it works hard to learn about and protect. And yes, I was the successful bidder on a great book about Polar bears and a rather yummy Arctic blanket!
Back in my cabin it was time to start organising everything for packing – always a tedious task. I was well into packing with “The Devil Wears Prada” on the ship’s movie channel (again), when I caught a glimpse of a bird flying by my window.
It was 10:15pm and the sun was shining high in the sky, snow-capped mountains on the other side of the slightly choppy deep blue ocean, and birds were flying all around us. It really was a beautiful sight, and one I’ll definitely miss.
Today (13/6) the clouds have moved back in, the wind has dropped the wind-chill to below zero, and it was snowing lightly when I was on the Bridge while some passengers were out for an early morning hike along the shore.
We were in another fjord complex this morning, visiting Bourbonhamna in Van Keulenfjorden, and Camp Millar in Van Mijenfjorden just before lunch. And this afternoon we cruised in Bellsund, a 20km long fjord system – unfortunately no animals were visible as we completed final activities ahead of disembarking tomorrow morning.
The end of these journeys is always difficult – it’s easy to get into the rhythm of the ship and the exploring we’ve been doing. Now we have to leave it all behind.
This evening we had a farewell toast with the Captain – he’s been fantastic taking us to wild and out of the way places, spotting Polar bear and other animals. As part of his toast he described how much fun it is for him and his crew to see walrus close up, reindeer, and of course Polar bear, including the one intent on scratching the hull of his ship!
Before having a farewell drink with some of the Quark team, it was time for a pre-birthday dinner celebration, courtesy of Quark. This includes decorations hanging from the ceiling and some of the waiters coming together with a Mariachi band to sing happy birthday – cake, candles, the works.
This was an opportunity to thank some of the people I’ve met – just enough for a table of 8. Sue Flood – what a superb wildlife photographer; Cindy Miller Hopkins – also an amazing wildlife photographer will to share her knowledge; and Pat Dykstra who joined us at breakfast one morning, wearing his Blue Planet 2 cap. He’s a very interesting and experienced underwater photographer who filmed the Manta Rays in the Maldives for that series, and is now up for an Emmy for some of his work with the BBC. They joined me, with Sue M, Virginia and Ginny. It was a feast of wildlife photographers – pro and amateur!
It’s now nearly midnight, and we’ll be docking in Longyearbyen in the next few hours. I’ll spend the morning in the town before going to the airport for our mid-afternoon flights. Then it’s on to Copenhagen , where I’ll have the opportunity for a little more exploring while I acclimatise to darkness at night and a more temperate climate that has significantly more humidity than the Arctic.
It will also provide some time to reflect on this amazing trip and all that we've seen and done. More on that in the next post.