Hin­lo­pen – 07th Juli 2015

Wed
8 Jul
2015

The sou­thern Hin­lo­pen Strait is full with ice, no thought of get­ting through. Ice, ice, ice! Inclu­ding ple­nty of ice­bergs. The sou­thern part of Aus­t­fon­na, the lar­ge ice cap on Nord­aus­t­land, has been sur­ging in recent years, pushing a lot of gla­cier ice into the sea.
 
 

Hin­lo­pen – 07th Juli 2015 – Pho­to Vibe­buk­ta – 1/2

Almost 80 wal­rus­ses are lying on 3 ice floes, most of them young ani­mals, some just bey­ond the baby sta­ge. The lar­gest group alo­ne is near 50 wal­rus­ses on one qui­te over­crow­ded ice floe, hard to belie­ve that it did not alrea­dy break under tho­se many tons of huge seals. The wal­rus­ses are very busy with them­sel­ves, figh­t­ing play­ful­ly, very acti­ve, some going into the water just to get out onto the ice floe again. We watch the magni­ficent dis­play for a while from a care­ful distance and disap­pe­ar again.

The long gla­cier front of the ice cap Aus­t­fon­na is in den­se drift ice, out of reach. Cap­tain Joa­chim mane­ouvres the Anti­gua as far into the drift ice as pos­si­ble and then stops the engi­ne for a while. Ice, ice, ice any­whe­re. Drift ice, ice­bergs, gla­ciers. High arc­tic.

Hin­lo­pen – 07th Juli 2015 – Pho­to Vibe­buk­ta – 2/2

An evening visit to a group of wal­rus­ses res­ting on the beach rounds a won­der­ful Hin­lo­pen day off.

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