Franz Josef Land

Franz Josef Land
Latitude 80.30° N and longitude 56.00° E.  That is very North!

Tuesday 15th August

So I got onto the ship. They buses us from the hotel to the lovely MV Sea Spirit.

I’d booked into a three share room. Cheapest room on the ship. That way I could afford to go, and you do only really sleep in there. There was Helen and I and one other, Adreana, a lovely Italian lady. Our three share room was quiet cozy, but we would manage. Having places to out all our damp gear after each trip shall be the main challenge. LOL. We were on deck three which was very handy for lectures and for going out for excursions.
The ship is MV Sea Spirit. The ship I took to Antarctica. Just over 90 meters long. 104 passengers. 72 staff.
It was so exciting to go back on board. Lots of staff remembered us – especially our two lovely bar staff Sixto and Julia. As well as Jonathan the expedition boss and John and photographer.

We all sat and drank a cocktail while waiting to be called to go and check in. None of this stilly queueing stuff. Our room was three doors down the hall, and off e went.  My bags had been thrown on top of the sofa bed – so stupid Raina said that I would take the sofa bed. FOOL! Remember I am the true princess who normally takes my own mattress topper with me – but didn’t on this trip! Again fool!
The sofa was horrid. I got an extra doona as a mattress topper but … no good.  Not enough.
I spent the next three days whining to staff about the bed and getting more gear.
Night 1 – extra doona. Was made even harder as none of the staff had a clue what a doona was. And I couldn’t thinkof the work.  Quit, eiderdown……
Night 2 – an other doona and the two largish cushions that were on the lounge. They made a very skinny bed and as we hit some weather I kept toppling off – almost onto the ground.
Night 3 – some of the woollen blankets that you use when sitting at BBQs etc on the open deck.
Night 4 – a few more doonas, woollen blankets, my two sofa cushions and two more sofa cushions. I build a big nest. Two rows of two cushions, blankets for the knees down to bring it up to height, then a few doona’s on top. And guess what. It was lovely!
Of course Helen offered to swap with me each morning…….she obviously is not a true princess…but why should she have the horrid bed.
I was so happy when it was lovely. In fact, when Adreana was offered an upgrade (as she fell and broke her hand) I spent one night in her old bed, and decided it was too skinny and jumped back into my nest! LOL.

That afternoon we had our first briefing and……… apparently Franz Joesf Land is very rarely visited.
There is a company that runs a few trips from Murmansk, Russia. And Sea Spirit is the ONLY other ship with a permit to come here. Super exclusive. I knew it really was a ‘path less travelled’ when I booked, but didn’t know it was that special.
This trip makes less than 800 people have been here (on the Sea Spirit) from outside Russia.  WOW. So it is mainly only research people and Russian officials who have been up here.
And they (Poseidon Expeditions) have no idea how much longer they will be allowed to do this trip for. Could change at any day.
Not a lot is known about it Franz Josef. The expedition leader, Jonathon, said we were genuinely more “explorers then tourists”. Very comfortable explorers but none the less………..
How cool is that.
Hopefully we shall see Polar Bear, Walrus and who knows what else.
Apparently the ice flow was moving quiet south at the moment, so we were to go south from Longyearbyen, then east (around the bottom of the archipelago) and then could steam fast to get to FJL. If we went north then east we would have to travel slowly to get through the ice. That would have been very cool.
Each evening we had a recap, talked about the day, looked at the Wave Charts.

The ice charts and talked about the next day. Apparently the ice flow was moving quiet south at the moment, so we were to go south from Longyearbyen, then east (around the bottom of the archipelago) and then could steam fast to get to FJL. If we went north then east we would have to travel slowly to get through the ice. That would have been very cool.
We got our boots and jackets, and life vests for the zodiacs. Then dinner. We were about 1k off shore and were bunkering (filling the petrol tanks). It took hours of course, we wanted to be full. Right outside my bedroom window.

When that was over, we had life boat drill. For this ship we actually don our giant life jackets and all go outside to the life boats.

Then sleep.  Well – into bed, as remember this princess can not sleep with a pea under her bed.
Tomorrow was a sea bay with about 19 hours of lectures etc.  Hahaha.

Wednesday 16th August

Sailing to Franz Josef Land  

Today we sailed around the bottom of Spitzenberg. Originally we were sailing around the bottom then up the east coast, but due to big waves predicted for the next day, we have gone up the middle of the archipelago then out between the south east islands. Then scoot across to FJL.

Seas were over 3 meters this morning. Lovely. It was a very quiet ship. Only about half of us made it to the mandatory lecture this morning re AECO (Arctic guidelines), polar bear safety etc.
That evening we would finally get through Russian Immigration after arrival at FJL and pick up our six Russian armed rangers.  They will be with us at all times when we land.

To enter Russian territory, we needed to present to a certain point near the Russian military base. Immigration officials were collected by zodiac and came on board. Them and their giant hats. They looked like garbage bin lids. We then had to do a ‘face to face’ with us all – including all staff. This was predicted to take anywhere between 2 to 15 hours – going on past trips.
If the entrance to the port was to be blocked with ice would go to plan B. The officials would come overland then meet us. They would then come on board and do it all. BUT …..after that we would need to sail around …….until the ice lets into a cross a very specific line on a map. When that happened they would stamp us in. We would be official. We all hoped the ice was cooperative.

Today was full of lectures.

Franz Josef Land. In the Atlantic, and the northern most point of Eurasia. There are 192 islands.  Last year there were 191 but glacial retreat has revealed that one island was actually two!
It is all very flat basalt, from volcanic flows. But we will not see much of that, 85% is covered in glacial ice. 10 months of the year it is totally ice bound. Only July and August have open water. His year has very heavy ice so we shall see how far we can get.
It is a Polar Desert, with little soil. Therefore not many plants. There are over 100 different lichens and 159 moses though.
We are going to the area where the submarine K141 Kursh sunk in almost on this day in 2000. There was no way to rescue them and the world all watched as all on board perished. The poor lecturer was very emotional talking about it. He had friends on board.
There were huge whale populations and walrus – until whaling.  Most were almost whipped out.  There are only about 100 Narwhales left – so will not be seeing one of them.

Birds of the Arctic.
One of the birds – the Little Auk – The Penguin of the North. Looks so like a pengun but can fly. Fly and dive below 200 meters.
And of course many more.

and Arctic Mammals.
Polar bears, Walrus, various seals. The Arctic Fox is the only land mammal. No rodents etc.

We also had a good lot of mammal sightings. Lots of fin whales.

And a new dolphin for me – The White Beaked Dolphin and a number of Fin Whales.
So a good day was had.
That night we were sailing out of the Spitsenberg archipelago. And across the open sea to FJL.
The landscape was pretty stunning.

Should arrive tomorrow afternoon.
After getting to bed late – as look at how light it is at 11pm…we got a midnight wakeup call.
“Polar Bear”. So into clothes and off we went.
It was way up on a high slope. Probably looking for bird scraps to eat. Only a tiny look but day 2 and our first Polar Bear. Yay. They had a spotter scope set up so everyone got to have a look.

Thursday 17th August
Today was very relaxed. Food, look, sleep, food ……….
Minke whale breached – but we didn’t see it.
Swimming walrus at a distance Humpback and Fin whales.
More lectures.
We are zig zagging our way up to the Russian base. Zig zagging around ice floes.  Only small ones at this stage. Hundreds of metres long and maybe 40 metres wide. Nothing sitting on them as yet.
Looks like the immigration will be done at about 3 am.  Get out of bed and be charming to the Russian guys in ginormous hats.
All is good in Sea Spirit land.

Friday 18^th August.

Immigration was done at 2am. Go figure. Some people came in their pyjamas. 
It was then back into bed. There was no breakfast and lunch today.  Just brunch to give us all a sleep in.
Lovely.
Just before we were getting ready for our first landing, the immigration guys decided that we…….needed to carry out passports with us at all times – when on land.
It does make sense thought.  – There is a huge change I might decide to defect and run to Russia. From the most remote island group there is.
Maybe we would decide to swim  – though the icebergs, and the polar bears for many days to reach mainland Russia.
OR maybe the polar bears will find the passports interesting.
Utter madness.  Polar bears cannot even read!  Why would they want to see our passports.
They just look at the pictures.

But you know what is NOT madness.
Bow Head Whales.  Second biggest whale.  Three times the size of a Humpback. So huge!
And the head – Like a truck. And I saw three!  

Today was our first expedition. As always the preparation was amazing.
The staff go out, with the Russian rangers that we had picked up, and scout the land. They look for Polar Bears waiting to eat us, and any other dangers or animals that we should not disturb. If all is OK they unload all the emergency gear (in case weather came in and 100 plus people were stuck on land) and set up a landing point.
Some stay on land patrolling and other come back and ferry is to land.
Sea Spirit has an amazing mariner. The best. the only one I have seen in person – but so easy. 

You swipe out when your group is called then stand in line. Down the stairs and onto the flat, undercover mariner. A zodiac comes in, sailers catch and tie it up then help us in. One person on each arm. Step onto the side, down the step, sit and slide. As simple as that. Even wobbly me with the tin knees found it so easy.

Bell Island
80° 02.6′ N 049° 14.3′ E   Air temp -1
We went for a walk on an island today up to an explorer’s hut – Eira Lodge built in 1881.  The last one of the explorers  left. It was a really hard walk, flat but rocky. They were big round river rocks. And ice and snow.   

The plant life was amazing. Tiny little plants in this stony desert. Some like 10c coins.  Others like tea cups. A few were in flower – it is the 6^th week of their eight week growing season I guess. One was the northern most flowering plant.

We had Russian Rangers walking with us. Some had shotguns.  Others had huge caliber rifles. They scout the area before we even get there so all is very safe. If they see a bear a new plan is made.
The hut was lovely. 100 years old – but as it’s so dry and cold here, wood takes hundreds of years to break down. The timber on this building was glorious.

The whole area was very stunning. Bell island in particular.
The zodiac ride back was exciting.  Swell, chop and wind. Freezing. About 30 minutes long ride as we had to go right up around the corner to land. Miles from where the ship could get in.
It was snowing and giant splashes. We were soaked.  Thank goodness for good clothing.
Lots of people in other boats were scared.  Hahah

It is so different here to Antarctica. The cold is different. The temp is usually around -1 to +1, but it’s a nasty cold. Bone chilling. The sun is never out, always totally overcast (well almost always). And often a fog all around. It has been snowing on mist trips. Fat floating flakes. Lovely.
And the wind! A very lazy wind. Too lazy to go around you – prefers to go straight through you.
But we were fine. Dressed in all our warm windproof clothing. Snug. In fact still a bit warm at times. I haven’t had to wear more than the bare minimum yet. One thermal set, light gloves, hat and my jacket and overpants.

More whales that evening. I spent a lot of time up on the bridge looking for them. Much fun.

Saturday 19^th August
Champ Island, 
80° 37.3′ N 056° 54.3′ E  Air temp -1

The plan today was to go the Champ Island. This is where the famous spherical rocks are. Ball Stones. Rocks that grow. They are Concretions and grow under very specific conditions. They start with an organic material and water. In the perfect conditions a chemical reaction occurs and they grow.
“A process by which the the precipitation of mineral cement between the particles in sedimentary rock or soil forms a hard mass – in this case, the intriguing stone spheres.”
They range from two cm to over two metres in size. They are between 220 and 100 million years old. They are incredibly hard and as the surrounding areas erode away, and with the land mass rising, they are pushed to the surface – as happens in arctic regions they are appearing.  They are also rolled around by wind, earth shifting etc.
“The land mass rising?” you ask. Frans Joseph was under extremely deep glaciation since the last ice age. The physical weight of the glaciers compressed the land. Over the last  10,000 year it has been rising at around 3mm a year.

These rocks are ‘cousins’ to the Moreki boulders in New Zealand. We were going there to look at them. To wander around them all. To marvel at their amazingness.

BUT when the expedition team and the rangers scouted the area, there was a Polar Bear up on the ridge. Way up on the ridge. But still there. Polar Bears hunt like cats. You see them then they disappear. They use their incredible stealth skills and creep up like a cat. Then with a burst of speed they have you. They do the same in water. Swim a long way under water then pow! They have you, or the seal or whatever. Thus the searching for bears on land and whenever we were on land there was a zodiac patrolling the water as well.

Most of the land here is made up of huge buttress type hills, like volcanic plugs, but with a flat top. Very steep edges. Half way up are huge rubble pile as gravel falls. Birds nest on the cliffs. Below is always a wonderful green slope, well fertilised. Also a good supply of dead birds. Bears love these areas – fresh grass and birds. So there was our bear up at the top of the scree piles.
So…a bear up the hills meant no landing with 100 people wandering around. No walk among the spheres. Just in case the bear decided to come down and eat us. The plan changed. We did a zodiac cruise instead, with a bonus.  Each group was allowed to land for ten minutes, to look at the small spheres close to the shore, in a very small contained area, surrounded by armed Russians. Bonus – spheres and a bear. I was happy.

We started with a cruised up and down looking at the bear. Amazing. So big. Fat and healthy. It was a male, around 5 years old. Really healthy for this time of year. Surviving on birds and such, waiting for the ice flow to get here with the seals.

We headed off (in the zodiacs) to look at the glacier, but as we got going we got word that the bear started to move. So back we went.

He walked about a kilometre over the next 30 minutes. Down the slope, at one stage only about 100 m back from the water, then out onto the glacier. It was amazing. He wasn’t at all worried about nine zodiacs sitting and staring and following him.

Watching him walk along the glacier was pretty amazing.

It really was special and a privilege to just sit and look at him. I am a luck person.

Pondorff’s Narrows
The afternoon was a zodiac cruise to Pondif Narrows. A narrow area where two full glaciers face each other. It was really windy and rough getting there – but oh well we would be protected in the narrows.  As we reached there – after battling our way through chop and wind… the wind changed directions so we had it howling down on us through the narrows.  Hahah.

These are ‘Cold Glaciers’. Most of the glaciers in the world are warm glaciers, but these are always at below zero. They are also low altitude glaciers. Most happen up high then make their way to the ocean. These happen at sea level. They were 20 to 40 metres high and just sheer ice cliffs facing the ocean. They looked like the side of a pavlova. They are incredibly dense with stacks of blue ice. These are frozen to the bedrock so move much slower than warm glaciers. The top is incredibly brittle so full of crevasses. The bottom, due to the pressure from the top generating heat, is like very cold honey.

Some of the ice was amazing.

And a huge bird rookery.

I even managed to get a decent photo of Little Arks. They are tricky little things. A relative of the Puffin, equally lacking in aerodynamics, but sooooo fast. Their build is so far from streamlined. Like flying bricks. So cute.



Then another long, rough and wet zodiac ride back to the ship.
The warm sweet tea and the hot towels that greet you back on board are much appreciated.
But what an amazing day!
The ship has become very social. We have had a change to meet each other now. It was a slower process then normal as there are so few English speakers on board. LOL. The Aussies, English and US people are such a minority group. Having fun.

Sunday 20^th August
Tikhaya Buktha
80° 19.9′ N 052° 48.7′ E    Air Temp: 0 ̊C –
A balmy day!
Expedition staff waiting for the others to head off on their inspection.A visit to Tikhaya Butka on Hooker Island. The first Soviet polar station, founded in 1929 and the northern most post office in the world. This place was the original capital of Franz Josef Land. The only inhabited place actually.…
It has been used for many things including a Soviet scientific station. It is now the summer headquarters of the National Park.
The water was so flat, no wind – wonderful. So a short easy zodiac ride over. The sun almost peeked its way through the cloud today. Almost! The place is built on a slope, on large round ‘river’ rocks.
They first over wintered here in 1914. A base was then set up. Radio station, weather station.
The German also took an interest in the place in early times…but ate polar bear. Which is really bad for you and they got really sick.
When people were stationed mere, many made it their home and brought their families. Seven children were born here.

Talk about a hardship posting. Dark for 8 months. Super cold, nowhere to go or the bears would eat you.
The base was set up with many separate buildings. Great in the event of a fire – you don’t lose the whole base, but no so good for living 8 months in the dark with winds that will blow you over.
The dog kennels were palatial.  Tiny kennels all in a line. With teeny tiny door holes.  Huge bowls with gigantic bones. “Here have a seal back bone!”

The place was reestablished in 2010 as a National Park. Rangers have worked for many years to cart away hundreds of tons of rubbish. And so much is still intact, due to the wood not rotting thing. The windmill has blown down and twisted. The building have weathered to a beautiful colour.

They also had the post office so we all lined up to buy little things and to send post cards. Poor post master. No business for 18 months then 100 people all lining up to buy things. He worked flat out for the three hours we were there.

One of the rangers  – not one carry a gun – donned a polar Bear suit and had fun with us.

Then a walk along the beach. Some amazing rocks.

And back to the ship.

And then the afternoon activity. Rubini Rock. And this shall remain in my mine as the OMG activity.
Earlier in this blog, weeks ago in fact, I said that some days and diamonds and some were coal.  Well this activity was The Hope Diamond!
A zodiac cruise. We were in Ted’s boat. And this was THE BET TIME EVER! Mind blowing, gobsmacking and unbelievable! Truly not enough superlatives.
It was a great group so we started off with lots of laughing and fun.
We headed over to Rubini Rock and WOW!

The whole thing was basalt columns, like in Iceland and in Ireland. But these ones were not neat and tidy.
Basalt column and lichens. I went nuts!

Amazing rookeries.

Frozen springs.

They were all over the place. Some vertical, some horizontal, some in a giant fan shape. Others looked like stacked wood.
Amazing. Of course I was bounce around like a fool with excitement.  The colours, the shapes, the textures!
And in the scree piles, where grass had grown, were huge hexagonal patterns caused by the permafrost. As the permafrost freezes each year it pushes material up. These were huge.

Oh… and don’t forget the five species of birds nesting on these amazing rock columns.  Millions of birds.

But we had to leave the rocks (sad face), we headed off to an ice flow to see some Walrus (Happy face). Huge guys lying together enjoying the day. One was scratching his huge nose. They all had tusks. Some were huge.

But wait …there’s more…..
Polar bears spotted. So over we all went. Not just a Polar bear. A mother and two cubs.  WOW.

Spend an amazing 45 minutes watching them. Wandering around (them not us), grazing, looking at us. So amazing.
Better look at some amazing glaciers too.

On the way back, Ted, asked if we wanted to walk on an ice flow. OMG did we! “Was this a trick question?”
So off we went. He pushed the nose of the zodiac up onto the ice and we all got out and danced around. Weird. It was totally stable but we were in the middle of the ocean standing on frozen water. SO MUCH FUN!

AND the sun came out.  We saw blue sky. Very special.

BLOODY AMAZING TRIP.  Ted Rocks. We love Ted!

After we finished we all sat around eating scones and cakes. The ship moved us to the next place. The poor expedition staff followed along driving the zodiacs. Took about half an hour. Plus the getting us ready etc. Poor guys were out for about 7 hours straight. You could see them out there doing pushups, and dancing in their boats to stop from freezing solid.

After a quick afternoon tea, we headed off to Dead Seal Island (probably sounds better in Russian) for another zodiac cruise.
Just a short ride from the ship.
Dead Seal Island was a small flat island that Walrus use as a ‘hauling out’ place. They all climb out and bask – not in the sun! Hundreds of them. Yodelling, slapping, scratching and sleeping.
We went out in a big flotilla. The Walrus are very social and follow each other. If we had of made a loud noise and scared one – the whole pack would have jumped up and bolted into the water. So we floated around and whispered.

A number were in the water swimming around. Popping their heads up and looking at us.

Their heads are big, but their bodies! The males are up to 1500 kg. Their tusks are awesome. Some are long and thin, others really thick. Then some have little devil’s horns.
And of course always glaciers nearby.

Fantastic day.  We shall all sleep well tonight. But not as well as the expedition staff.
But wait.
At 10pm. Whales. Bow Heads. These giants are baleen whales who spend much of their time near the ice flows, and do not migrate south. They have giant triangular heads and can come up under ice up to 60cm thick and break it. They are believed to be the oldest living animal on earth – up to 200 years old.

Up I went. The bridge is my preferred whale spot! And there they were – Bow heads. All around us. There were 20 or 30 according to the whale people……and there are less then 100 left up here. WOW.
This guy had a floppy tail. They believe he is very very old and the cartilage has started to collapse in his tail.
So this guy may have been around since the 1820’s and may have kids around until the 2220’s. A very hard concept to get the head around.

It was amazing. I spent an hour up there watching. And marvelling. One of the things I loved so much was to watch the three whale experts – Beate, Hella and Ted. Professionals. People who have devoted their lives to whales, whooping, cheering and bouncing around with excitement. This was special.

Yep. Today was a pretty good day.  

Monday 21st August
Stolichky and Apollonov Island.
81° 10.7′ N 058° 14.9′ E     Air Temp: -2 ̊C

You know you are in the Arctic, when the first person you speak to in the morning as you walk out your cabin door, is a Russian ranger with a huge rifle.

A visit to another Walrus hauling out station this morning. This one was an ice flow hauling out spot. But wait – On the way to the Walrus another bear was found. This one was sleeping on top of a huge hill. Very pleasant, overlooking the huge area of icebergs and flows. They sleep a lot at this time of year, conserving energy and waiting for the ice and therefore the seals to return. This guy had a missing left eye. No doubt from fighting.Beautiful. They are such awesome animals.

Then off to the Walrus. They were almost wiped out by hunting here, and were totally wiped out around Spitsenberg. The population from here has re populated that area, but I guess that whole genetic pool was lost. They are extremely social animals, and love touch. So they sleep in huge piles of bodies. Babies climb on top. The mothers feed the babies for two to three years. They are also fairly flighty. When one sees something it throws it’s head up to look. Due to the touch thing, they all then throw their heads up. When in the water the same happens. One looks, they all look.  So cute.
The males grow to 1500 kg. Male tusks can be a metre long. 

They dive to around 50 metres, can stay under for 30 minutes and eat clams and mussels as well as other things – squid, fish. They dive down with a mouthful of air, then sand blast the area. Then their think whiskers fish around for food. The whiskers are very dexterous.They take in a mouthful, crunch it and spit out the shells.
Pretty icebergs on the way back.

Back on the ship we sailed past many ice flows. We are starting to see life on the flows now.
I saw my first Bearded Seals.
They area a large seal, growing to two to two and a half metres long and up to 300 kg. They are a solitary animal. We saw a mother and calf. Cute beards.
They dive from 100 to 300 metres and stay down for around 25 minutes eating much the same as the Walrus.

Also so saw more walrus. One was dancing on an ice flow. Lying there gyrating and squirming. Itchy?

In the afternoon one of the Russian rangers spotted a bear on an ice flow.

After watching it through the scope and taking photos, the afternoon plans were changed. We all hopped into zodiacs and went off to see the bear. This was cool as the bear was in its real habitat.
They (the expedition staff) are really good about not harassing. I did ask how and when they knew to stop following. Jonathon, the expedition leader said that in past days, when bear tourism first started all photos where on the back of a bear as it ran away.
Now all care is taken to not disturb it – but to let us see.

This bear wandered around for a while, with a few glances at us. One the first day we were told that there are three types of bears – 1) shy who disappear when you see them, 2) ones they ignore us and 3) curious ones who like to look at us.
This guy was group 2. He would look at us then go along with his own plan. The bear a few days ago who walked along the glacier was curious.
This one would wander around on the ice, then jump in and swim to another flow. When it was swimming, we were a huge distance away. A tiny white dot visible with binoculars. When it went up on a flow we went closer (still about a kilometre away).
He even lay down for a little rest as we watched. And did the scraping himself along the snow to dry – shoulders down, bum up…but sadly was back on to us as he did this so no cute photos of it. Just a bum up photos.

After watching and following him for a fair while we set off to look at bergs around
Cape Heller and another historical site. Two people were left in a hut (at the start of the 1900’s) to protect a food storage site set up for a north pole expeditions. They over wintered in a tiny stone hut. One died of starvation. Don’t think they thought to use any of the stored food?

The sun peeked through the cloud at about 7pm. It was hitting icebergs out on the horizon. It looked like they were on fire. The light was so intense as it magnified through the ice. Everything had a golden glow. Beautiful!

We also did some faster driving zipping through the gaps in the ice flows. Very much fun. The ice flows absorb the energy of the waves, so it may be a bit rough on the windward side, then dead flat on the other side.

No whales today. We keep telling the staff we are waiting for the Narwhales. The whales with spears out their noses. They live in the total ice packs  – so we will not see them but keep telling them we want them. The staff tell us they want to see them as well.

Tuesday 22^nd August
Alger, Mathilda Islands
80° 21.23′ N 055° 50.14′ E    Air Temp: -2 ̊C

Almost every zodiac trip we have encountered snow. Beautiful fat, fluffy, floating snow. It was usually much warmer when it snowed. The savage winds drop. Often it was quite still and down it floated. Sometimes it was quiet heavy. I loved it.

But this morning was not one of those quiet, peaceful, snowy trip. It was a very long zodiac ride to Alger Island and the remains of Camp Baldwin. A basecamp from a 1903 expedition to the north pole. Well what was left of the camp. A group of archeologists had just finished work yesterday. They believe that Camp Baldwin will be gone next year. Not from the sea level rising the few metres up to it, but still as a result of climate change. With the ice receding, the shore line will now only be ice locked for 4 or 5 months, not 8 or 9 months. That means that stormy waves will lap on the rocky shore for many extra months – eroding it back the many metres to the hut.  
The ride was long and rough. More snow but this was a bit driven. Still lovely. Just not soft and fluffy.

Once a few of the slow ones hopped into a zodiac, and the law was laid down, the group managed to stay together much better. We wandered along for another 20 minutes or so.
It was so sad that many people disregard instructions and kept walking at their speed. The ranger with little English tried to tell them to stop, and the leader was trying to hear cats.
Imagining walking ahead…..then a bear comes around a corner. I cannot imaging the life long trauma of knowing a bear had been shot because I didn’t follow instructions.

The beach was made of the large “river rock”, on a not so gentle slope – like many of the beaches we walked on. But you know what’s harder than walking on those beaches – – walking on them when they are covered in 100-300mm of beautiful fresh powdery snow. Sneaky round rocks hiding underneath. It was fun, wobbly, but fun.

Then off to Matilda Island. We all jumped in and headed off – another 30 minute zodiac ride through horrid conditions. Into the wind, with a swell of up to a metre. John was our driver this time and tried his best to keep us dry, but it didn’t work. We were often lashed with big waves and spray drenched us. Helen’s side of the boat copped it worse, and she was soaked. I was still dry on the inside but she didn’t do as well.

The expedition staff work so hard. I was able to hunker down into my jacket and scarf and peek out through the slot between hood and high neck. Poor John had to stand there, just taking it.

Matilda island was another area of bird cliffs. Not too much activity as it was even too nasty of for the birds to bother flying around. By this stage many people were getting really cold so  back to the ship. As we were inside with our hot towels and sweet tea, the poor staff were still outside driving around, waiting for the last zodiac to return so the loading of the zodiac process could begin. They sure earn their tips.

After lunch we did another zodiac cruise to another Walrus haul out spot. I love walrus! They are so sweet, so ‘cute’ in 1000kg kind of way.  They are so inquisitive and have awesome faces.

This spot had some very active guards. Each hauling out place has a group of guards in the water patrolling, at all times. They watch you. Then swim up to you and snort. If they are a bit ‘cross’ at you, a gang of them swim fast, in formation and make a large wave roll at you.  500 mm high.

This group were more inquisitive then aggressive. They came up quite close to many of the boats, but mainly spy hopping and looking. About once a year a zodiac gets stabbed by one. Lucky the zodiac has five sections! The drivers are very careful not to let this happen as they have to stay up most of the night doing the patching.

My favorite!

After dinner we headed off to Hayes Island. Heaps of people didn’t come. Wow – what a mistake. This place was amazing.
It is a huge island made of golden sand – amazingly golden. Boulders in various states of being broken down. They were cracked to little pieces but the freezing water – and next decent storm will be scattered as small stones. They ranged from boulders cracked to pieces but sitting in perfect shape, to tiny chips all over the place. The place was covered in light snow.

And then large dolerite intrusions called Dykes. This formation is called The Pinnacles and was amazing. As it was late in the evening the light was a bit softer. The days are starting to shorten. There is no sunset, and it is not getting anywhere close to dark, but it is a bit less intense.

Winter Is Coming! Early they think!
None of the staff have ever landed at this site before. They have tried a few times, but there has been a polar bear on every occasion. We were lucky tonight. No polar bear. Sad as we wanted to see another one but we were certainly compensated by this place.
There was an old base up on the hill. Lots of old rusty stuff lying around.

And bear prints. A few lines of footprint. Each print was filled with snow. And the marks of where a bear had slept.

The sand was very wet in place. Well it was wet when the temperature was lower. It was frozen solid. Frozen sand! Solid! I couldn’t stab my walking stick through it. Amazing.

In the zodiacs on the way back the staff were so happy. They were all buzzing. Then I spotted some great clouds and started snapping. Siskya stopped and saw them and went mad with excitement. We all clicked away.
Back on board we did a cruise past Krenkel Station on Hayes Island to have a look at the once northern most meteorological and seismological station.

When we got back everyone was so excited. We drank, sang and danced (Time Warp) until the wee hours.
Great day.

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