Back to Svalbard

The trip continues.  We have left Frans Josef Land and have headed off to Svalbard.

Wednesday 23rd August
Cape Tegetthoff, Hall Island
80°00.6′ N 054° 28.2′ E     Air Temp: -2 ̊C

We had a zodiac cruise planned for the morning, but strong winds and largish seas got rid of that idea.
Instead we did a cruise past Cape Tegetthoff.

After this they decided to race towards Nagurskoye, the Russian base. The daily ice and wind charts showed that the pack ice was moving south then east. We had to race it back to be able to get into the harbour to do our immigration. 

So the day became a sea day as we motored to the base. We went through some huge patches of ice flows. So beautiful. The captain was throwing the ship around. The map showing our path has a huge three sided turn around ice.
We saw a few whales but couldn’t slow down for a better look.
There was a number of great lectures.
The great grand-daughter (Birgit Payer) of the man who discovered Franz Josef Land, Payer (as in Fire) was on board. She gave a lecture about him. She gave the lecture in German. We had to listen with the VOX system. This is a radio system. We, the English speakers, wear headsets. One of the German speaking expedition staff listens as she speaks, and talks into the mike in English. Great job. He normally does this for the German speakers into English. But today he had to translate into his second language, so much harder. All of the zodiacs have names. One is the Payer.

Another on the geology of the land which was great
And another on Polar Bears. Also great.
I spend a lot of time up on the bridge today. Saw a Ring Seal pop its head up. And lots of nice ice.

We made it into the bay for the station at about midnight. A zodiac has gone to collect the immigration guys and to take the park rangers and their big guns, back home.
They planned to do the ‘face to face’ immigration at around 2am. Hope no one lost their passport when carrying it around on land!
Then we then head off back to Svalbard and a few days exploring there. Two sea days first!

One of the great things about the trip is that Expedition Staff have guest privileges. They eat with us at all meals, and drink with us in the evenings. It is rare to have a meal without at least one leader. Much fun and very interesting.

The staff –

Jonathon is the Expedition Leader. He was also the leader for the Antarctic trip. He continues to wake us up each morning with his awesome PA announcement “Good Morning, Good morning, Today is…….”.  He is a scientist who has spent two winters in Antarctica, and made a documentary. Jonathon is French.

Saskia is the Assistant leader. From the Reunion islands, but works full time on the ships. She works full time on the ships. Chases the ‘summer’ form Arctic to Antarctic. A true ‘snowbird’.  She is a long way from the tropics!

Ab is from the Netherlands, and has been a birder since a kid. A landscape architect, worked for the King for 15 years, member of the Dutch Lifeboat rescue team, has lead birding trips all over the world. He works part time on ships then runs his landscape business. We are having a great time putting heaps on each other. Much fun!

Boris, from the Urals in Russia, or should I say Dr Boris. His PhD was on Belugas. He knows so much about so many things. Cultural (of people and whales), historic, animals, conservation. He is a photographer and world renowned lecturer. Fantastic.

Sanna is Finish and amazing. She climbs, treks, skis, mountaineers, kayaks and anything else amazing. She has over wintered in Antarctica. Here degree is in Geology and Glaciology. Apart from working on ships she has skied across the Greenland ice sheet and is preparing to ski to the south pole. A 90 days trip towing all her gear.

Sven, German, who has spent much time in both the north and the south polar regions. He has lived on his 39 foot yacht in Antarctica and is the co-founder of Polarworld, a nonprofit dedicated to protecting polar regions. He is the main interpreter for the Germans and is quite hilarious with the translations. We are listening to serious talks and they are laughing away. Always great for a laugh.

Ted is from California and is awesome. He was born into a wildlife expedition company and grew up doing amazing things like going to the Antarctic since a teenager. His company now runs tours to most places in the world! He started a website to identify and track Humpbacks. You send in your fluke (tail) photos and they are entered into the database and matched. You then get follow up emails regarding future sighting of ‘your’ whale. Happywhale.com  He is a visiting expedition staff member for this trip and lucky us. His trips have been amazing. An unbelievable amount of knowledge that he is so willing to share.

Adam, a pommy lad, has a bio that reads a bit like the main character from a great BBC drama. Grew up in a fishing village, was running seal viewing tours at 16 and worked with the lifeboats. Joined the army and worked in Northern Ireland. Then served in Kenya as a boat operator. He then joined special unit and worked with his search dog Charley. He was also an expert witness trainer. He spent a year in Antarctica with the British Survey unit. He is great fun.

Hella, from the Netherlands and a self-confessed ‘Whale Freak’. Her degree is in animal management. She has spent years working around the world on marine mammal projects, in exciting places like The Azores, Canary Islands, and NZ and Australia. So much knowledge and so much fun.

The crew are amazing. So much enthusiasm, so much fun and so much knowledge. Don’t know how they have all done so much. They are not ancient. They are all so enthusiastic about their jobs and so committed to the environment. Beautiful. I haven’t got to spend a huge amount of time interacting ie drinking, with everyone, but those I have, have been amazing.

That evening we sent our Russian rangers back home. The expedition staff would become our guards now. So after immigration we had to race back to Longyearbyen to collect the guns, as the Russians would not let us take our guns into Russia. It wasn’t that bad…….just a 1300km detour! as we were unable to land without the guns. We arrived in Lonhyarbyen at around 2am and Ub and Sanna jumped into a zodiac, went to the dock, met the agent, collected the guns and came back. Then had to be up at stupid o’clock to go out scouting for the next days activity.  Then the ship steamed off to our next stop for the morning.

Thursday 24th August
Barents Sea
79° 09.3′ N 043° 06.0′ E    Air Temp: 1 ̊C

A fun day of lectures and whale watching. Humpback and Minke whale and also a few white beaked dolphins.

Lecture on the Fram Expedition, the expedition of Nansen in 1893-96.

Then a brilliant lecture on the Culture of Whales from Boris. For a start, the word ‘culture’ comes from to cultivate! Not about society and art at all.
One definition is “Social transmission of behaviours, among peers and between generations”.
This context was about things like chimps teaching their young to wash potatoes or use stick to extract ants. Cetaceans (whales and dolphins(, with their big brains, are the apes of the sea. Many of the cultural teachings relate to hunting and feeding.
Lobtail feeding (where they slap their tails and stun fish) was first observed in one individual. Eight years later 50% of that group were slapping. Today most of that group now do it
Bubble net with Humpbacks is taught to the young.
Irrawaddy River male dolphins brings bunches of plants life to the females during courting time. They do not eat it.
Orcas and their ‘ice washing’ where they get in line and create a wave to wash seals off ice flows.
Other Orcas go to a beach themselves on a certain beach in Argentina to get seals ( I went there….but it was the wrong season!) They are unable to move backwards so have to be taught how to wiggle sideways. They are often observe teaching young this technique. Grandmothers do the teaching

Humpback songs are amazing. Only the males sing. They all sing the same songs. The song changes a bit, but totally changes to a new song every year two or so years. They have tracked songs moving from Antarctica, to Australia then across through all the islands to as far as Bora Bora.

Amazing.
High Tech window washing on the Brdige.

I saw more Humpbacks today.

A movie tonight. Heart of the Ocean. We cheered for the whale. The popcorn machine was out. We got given bowls full. Staff turned up with sick bags for their share.  Hahahah.

Friday 25^th August
At Sea towards Svalbard
76° 30.5′ N 020° 54.5′ E     Air Temp: 3 ̊C 

A breach with a back landing.

Saturday 26^th August
Coraholmen, Alkhornet
78° 39.5′ N 014° 40.4′ E    Air Temp: 7 ̊C

After lunch we did one landing at Alkhornet which was absolutely amazing!

The afternoon activity was a walk. We came in to a lovely little rocky beach then had to go up a climb. Bit of a goat track walk up through the rough rocks, but then it opened up to a huge green plateau. Tundra. Covered in spongy mosses and grasses. So green and pretty with little streams everywhere. A large buttress was a busy bird cliff.

Perma frost means that the soil below a few metres is frozen solid year around. In summer the top 200-300mm melts, and becomes a spongy wet area, with no drainage.

Reindeer were grazing all around. They were not at all interested in us.

There guys were genetically diverse form the other reindeer. They haven’t had predators so have developed shorter legs and bigger bellies. They barely get any food in the winter so eat lots in the summer! They were in fantastic condition!

They took some of them to Norway…but they eat themselves to death (reindeer equivalent of founder I guess) as they had food all year.

Better than the reindeer were the Arctic Foxes.  We saw three. They are so beautiful.

The first two were very young. I guess they have just been thrown out of home.

Running along then coming across 60 people was just too scary. One was running along, saw another group and didn’t know what to do. So threw in a few cartwheels and spins before almost falling over then taking off again.

The second was in the same situation. “What were these two legged things?” She became so overwhelmed and disoriented, she ran around, then had a quick drink, a pee, then just curled up and lay down with a worried face. Poor darling. It was all too much.

They were amazing. Losing their summer coats, and growing in the white winter coat.
Then an adult came along. In (almost) full winter coat! That tail!

Glorious, glowing white against the bright green and the tail! A gigantic thick tail, almost as long as the fox and held straight out. Sensational.

Such beautiful animals and such economic movers. They seemed to glide across the ground with such little effort.

Sunday 27^th August
Alkekongen, Magdalene fjord
79° 33.4′ N 011° 08.2′ E     Air Temp: 5 ̊C

The day started with a heavy fog and some snow as we started our zodiac cruise along the shore line then in front of a large glacier. Saskia was our leader for this trip.

We were entertained by Harbour Seals. The kind you see sitting around the piers in North America. Very cute and curious. Some were basking in the 5 degree heat, by lying on the beach or on rocks. Others swam around us, continually peaking at us.

We then went off and cruised along the front of the glacier. It was very vocal with lots of internal calving. Creaking and cracking! It was very pleasant, until the Katabatic wind kicked in. These winds, flow downhill carrying high density winds from higher elevations. Since that are flowing over the top of a giant ice block…they are fairly chilly.

The sun peeped out a few times.
We came across the bluest iceberg anyone had ever seen. Amazing. The older ice is the clearer it becomes. And therefore bluer. This chunk may have been thousands of years old. Caught in the glacier with the pressure pushing all of the air out.

Amazing.

Once back on the ship crazy people had the oportunity to do a Polar Plunge. Down they went to the mariner, rope on and in they went. Two very different styles of getting in. All crazy!

We then headed north again. Some of us so wanted to see the ice flows – so off we went to 80°  N where the pack ice had come down to.

And it was amazing. Kilometres of chunks of ice. As the season gets colder, and the wind pushes it together, it will compact and become solid. This happens really fast – thus our need to run away from it when Frans Josef Land was icing in. Remember the expedition ship that got stuck in the ice on Christmas Day 2013. We didn’t want to be like them.

Then we had a BBQ dinner out on the back deck. Lovely.

Then another fun night at the bar. Lots of laughing. Only problem with socialising on this trip is that there is no dark. You will be having a fun time then look a a clock…and just like that it was 2 am AGAIN!

Monday 28^th August
St Johnsfjorden, Poolepynten
78° 33.2′ N 013° 09.8′ E    Air Temp: 4 ̊C

The morning was a zodiac cruise to St Johnsfjorden – a long high ridge of land running between two glaciers. Pretty stunning. One group walked up the ridge for the view and saw Ptarmigan.  The rest of us has a fun zodiac ride.
Fantastic ice.
The glacier was very active with huge internal carvings happening. The cracking and crashing noises were great. We even saw a few carvings.

Much of the glacier had tidal undercuts. They looked quiet small – but were far from on closer inspection. And the detail of the ice underneath was amazing.

Harbour seals and bearded seals were swimming around and some great birds.

We collected some ice for our cocktails to be drunk that evening. Ted displayed athletic skills by catching them while on the move.
This trip was what it was all about. Zipping along looking at stunning scenery, your face burning in the cold, laughing and learning. And doing it all with fantastic people. Doesn’t get a lot better then this.
So good in fact I refused to get out of the zodiac at the end. I only got out as I had to take the ice up to the bar!

And then there was time for one last landing. Poolepynten. This landing was our chance to land with the Walrus at a hauling out spot. This was another fun stop. We landed a long way up the beach and walked up, so a really long zodiac trip so as not to disturb them. This group did not care about us at all. I think disturbing them would be a tricky task.

The beach was in one of those weird current and wind places that collected rubbish. (When in Barrow Alaska we walked on a beach that collects all the lost shoes. You know when you are driving down the road and see a lost lone shoe, (or is it a Port Key from the Wizarding World of Harry Potter).

These shoes end up in the drains – the waterways and then the ocean.)
Well this beach collected logs. Logs and rubbish. The logs were raw timber from the Russian logging industry, wrecked cabins, strainer posts form fencing etc. It was outstanding to see so much timber on a beach. Most in useable condition.  The currents were obviously strong – going by the heights of the ‘sand hills’ made of stone and the size of the logs.

There was also huge amounts of rubbish. Plastic of course. We filled two huge sacks! Please use less plastic! If it is getting to a place as remote and inaccessible as this …….

Then back to the ship. Time for a quick shower. So under the shower and frothed up and on goes the PA.  “Everyone to the front deck for the group photo! How fast can someone get dry and put on a few , very few, items of clothing?

Tonight was that horrid night. Tomorrow is “Get off my ship day”. So back to that amazing game of tetras. Tetras and brut force. I was so careful not to buy too many things on this trip. But five weeks is a long time….so luggage does accumulate. Sarah’s resent of Blaaaasê – a gigantic Icelandic sheepskin rug and my expedition jacket can take the blame! But I did cram it all in. And was ready for the evening!
The offical farewell, dinner then bar time.
To make this an even worse night…about 40 people were leaving after midnight. The company had put on a charter flight  – bringing the next group up an taking there people away! So sad that so many of our friends were leaving. 
So we all chatted, laughed and said goodbye. Helen and I serenaded them don the gang plank with “So Long, Farewell” from Sound of Music. Many times. 

Tuesday 29^th August
“Get off my ship day”
Longyearbyen       
78° 13.7′ N 015° 36.8′ E   Air Temp: 10 ̊C
Imagine our surprise when they were all back for breakfast! The plane got to Longyearbyen, but turned back due to fog! Bonus.
So all on the buses and into town. We got to drop our gear at the hotel and hit the coffee shops. More chatting, planning and having fun. Before it was time to leave, I decided to plan a last minute (for me) trip to the Dominican Republic to snorkel with Humpbacks in February. WOW. How to lessen the sadness of leaving this trip.That will be me!

The airport was crazy with the charter flight coming in about 60 minutes before ours. So onto the plane to Oslo via Tromsa. At Tromsa we were re entering the EU so had to all go through security and immigrations then bak onto the plane. 
Then straight onto another flight to London.We got tot eh hotel in London at midnight! 

Wednesday 30^th August
London.

We took the train into London for a quick “I’ve been to London” for Helen.
On the way in I picked up the free trashy newspaper and had a look. It was so sad and depressing – Bangladesh and much of India was under water with millions homeless. News from Australia was that the Marriage Equality issue was bringing the nasties and the homophobes out in force. Trump was being a dick. North Korea was firing missile. A huge article about a poor little foster kid, who had been taken from abusive parents and placed with Muslim people. The must get her out of there. Poor child was not allowed to eat bacon! Give me a break. Texas was underwater.  And I still had a 29 hr trip to get home. I so wished I was back on a zodiac, face burning in the wind, laughing and looking!

But into London we went – Lunch, pub visit and of course a visit to Kings Cross Station Platform 9 3/4. It was the end of the school holidays so we were hoping to see some Hogwort’s people heading off.
Then back to the hotel to get our gear and off to Heathrow for the flight home.

What an amazing trip I had.

Drank Wodka in Poland.

Saw Jersey cows in Jersey.

Geology and waterfalls in Iceland.
A very different lifestyle in Longyearbyen.
A head explosion of amazing things in Franz Joesf Land. And more in Spitzenberg.

It as amazing.

THE END!