Mon
13 Jul
2015

Horn­sund can be nasty, and it can be fri­end­ly and beau­tiful. Today, it was won­derful. Silent, clear wea­ther, calm water with mir­ror images of the sur­roun­ding moun­ta­ins. And the­re are some beau­tiful moun­ta­ins arran­ged at the shores of this fjord. Cha­rac­terful peaks that are uni­que, you will always reco­gni­ze them on a pho­to once you have seen them. Hyr­nef­jel­let with its beau­tiful­ly cur­ved and colourful sedi­men­ta­ry lay­ers. The rug­ged dou­ble peak of Horn­sund­tind. The jag­ged ridge of Lucia­kam­men. Bau­taen which can appear sharp as a need­le.

The tour along the ridge of the Tres­kelen pen­in­su­la reward­ed us with gre­at pan­o­r­amic views of this scenic spec­ta­cle and inte­res­t­ing insights into the events of Earth histo­ry that had crea­ted it. Devo­ni­an Old Red, Per­mo­car­bo­ni­fe­rous car­bo­na­tes and the dark, petre­fied wad­den sea from the Tri­as­sic. In this order from bot­tom to top, ele­gant­ly cur­ved as a huge fold bent upwards. Our landing site was cle­ar­ly mark­ed as the fold axis by some distinct coas­tal rocks. Ever­y­bo­dy had the over­view at the end of the hike. And tho­se who stay­ed a bit fur­ther down in the ter­rain, enjoy­ed reinde­er and a fami­ly of Bar­na­cle geese which was atta­cked by an Arc­tic skua within short ran­ge.

Pho­to Tres­kelen – 13th Juli 2015

The gla­cier-sur­roun­ded bay Bre­pol­len deligh­ted us not only with its long gla­cier fronts, but also with the sight­ing of a polar bear mother with a first-year cub, which had found a warm and com­for­ta­ble place on the back of its mother.

Pho­to Stor­breen – 13th Juli 2015

And later in Bur­ger­buk­ta, the­re was so much gla­cier ice drif­ting in the bay that we could not resist the tempt­a­ti­on of a late-after­noon Zodiac crui­se in ice­berg alley. The final high­light was the sight­ing of a Beard­ed seal on a grow­ler (a small pie­ce of gla­cier ice).