Mos­sel­buk­ta – 26th July 2015

Sun
26 Jul
2015

In inner Mos­sel­buk­ta, the land­scape does not real­ly know if it wants to be land or sea. A num­ber of bea­ches sepa­ra­te smal­ler and lar­ger lagoons, pen­in­su­las reach out into the bay, a num­ber of litt­le rivers is run­ning across the tun­dra. It is nice to hike in this diver­se and varied envi­ron­ment. Remains of an old hut show whe­re Rus­si­an hun­ters used to live cen­tu­ries ago, two gra­ves show that not all of them made it back home.

Pho­to Mos­sel­buk­ta – 26th Juli 2015 – 1/3

We found remains of woo­den ship wrecks near the shore. May­be from the cata­stro­phic win­ter in 1872-73, when the famous Swe­dish explo­rer Adolf Erik Nor­dens­ki­öld win­tered in Mos­sel­buk­ta? His ship was also forced to win­ter, as an ear­ly win­ter storm pushed ice into the bay. The ship made it well through the win­ter, but other ones that were also trap­ped were cra­s­hed and lost. The win­ter storms can be bru­tal here, as the immense amounts of drift­wood make clear. The­re are also immense amounts of pla­s­tic rub­bish, con­stant­ly coming in over long distances with sea curr­ents, unfort­u­na­te­ly. Mos­sel­buk­ta is defi­ni­te­ly on the list for a clean-up.

But away from the pla­s­tic, the­re is so much beau­ty on the­se coasts. Oyster­leaf is flowe­ring, pro­tec­ted by some lar­ge drift­wood logs.

Pho­to Mos­sel­buk­ta – 26th Juli 2015 – 2/3

Later in the day: fish soup with fresh, local­ly caught arc­tic char, the crossing of 80 degrees, roun­ding Ver­le­gen­hu­ken and crossing nor­t­hern Hin­lo­pen Strait towards Nord­aus­t­land, some­thing that does invol­ve some rock and roll as the­re is a bit of wind against us.

Pho­to Mos­sel­buk­ta – 26th Juli 2015 – 3/3

Later, Murch­ison­fjord brought shel­ter from wind and waves and a love­ly late evening walk in the polar desert of Nord­aus­t­land in the most beau­tiful evening light.

Pho­to Kval­ross­hal­voya – 26. Juli 2015

Do you agree that spitsbergen-svalbard.com is a gre­at re­source for any arc­tic enthu­si­ast?

Ever­y­thing is available for free, no pay­wall, no regis­tra­ti­on, no paid adver­ti­sing, and all this in spi­te of con­stant cos­ts and effort. Plea­se help us to keep it that way, wit­hout pay­wall and paid ads, and sup­port us through Ste­ady!