Sat
31 Oct
2015

The final trip with Anti­gua is taking us to the nor­t­hern lights. In theo­ry, any­way. Soon more about real life. Any­way, we are start­ing in Trom­sø, about to sail to the beau­tiful Lofo­ten islands. One week of scenic islands, love­ly small fishing vil­la­ges, and of cour­se nor­t­hern lights, that’s what we are hoping for.

The wea­ther fore­cast, shown in the first pic­tu­re, is deter­mi­ning real life, that’s how it is in the far north. You don’t have to be a meteo­ro­lo­gist to under­stand that this fore­cast pre­dicts shit wea­ther. Yes, I wro­te „shit“ wea­ther. Some­ti­mes you have to be direct and honest, the­re is no way around it.

Gal­lery Trom­sø – 31. Okto­ber 2015

Click on thumb­nail to open an enlar­ged ver­si­on of the spe­ci­fic pho­to.

Sun
4 Oct
2015

Har­bour days are not the most exci­ting days. The­re is a lot to do to finish a trip and to get the ship rea­dy again, even though I won’t be on board when Anti­gua takes off again.

In the evening, I went back to Jan May­en in my mind. The Sval­bard­mu­se­um had invi­ted me to do a pre­sen­ta­ti­on about the island and my tra­vels the­re. For an hour and ten minu­tes, we went through the geo­gra­phy and the histo­ry of the island, over lava fields and moss car­pets, from the impres­si­ve coast­li­ne to the sum­mit cra­ter of Bee­ren­berg. Nice to go through all that again men­tal­ly, it was defi­ni­te­ly a high­light among­st my polar tra­vels, and the­se are not few. And in a place like Lon­gye­ar­by­en, peo­p­le are cer­tain­ly inte­res­ted in their remo­te neigh­bour island, 1000 km to the sou­thwest. Nice also that some of the Anti­gua crew are pre­sent in the audi­ence, as well as some well-known faces from Lon­gye­ar­by­en.

Gal­lery – Lon­gye­ar­by­en – 04th Okto­ber 2015

Click on thumb­nail to open an enlar­ged ver­si­on of the spe­ci­fic pho­to.

What an iro­ny: the first thing that we saw as we step­ped out of the muse­um was a nice nor­t­hern light. And this after having hoped for it for a week tog­e­ther with the group that left Anti­gua and lar­ge­ly flew home today! The hap­pier were tho­se few Anti­gua-guests who had not yet left. The evening was to be a long one, the nor­t­hern lights came and went. Bet­ween the various chap­ters of a culina­ry trip to Ita­ly, enjoy­ing and pho­to­gra­phing the auro­ra was one of the main plea­su­res of the evening.

By the way, a while ago I wro­te an artic­le on this site about the nor­t­hern lights: Gene­ral info and pho­to­gra­phy tips (click here).

Sat
3 Oct
2015

The­re were no nor­t­hern lights last night, but apart from that, it was a very nice evening in Pyra­mi­den, nice and calm.

We spent a nice, long mor­ning the­re, the­re is so much to see and to do in Pyra­mi­den, and the pho­to­graph­ers can never have enough time.

Nor­dens­ki­öld­breen was to be this trip’s final high­light. I could almost get a bit sen­ti­men­tal now. Also becau­se this gla­cier has shrunk so dra­ma­ti­cal­ly sin­ce I have seen in for the first time in 1997.

And now we are motoring the last miles back to Lon­gye­ar­by­en, into ano­ther colourful sun­set. The final miles of this trip, the last miles of a long arc­tic sea­son. I should cal­cu­la­te how many miles we have done, altog­e­ther. Four trips on Anti­gua, then the­re was Arc­ti­ca II, and of cour­se Jan May­en and East Green­land. In a few hours, when we are along­side, this season’s polar ship-based trips are histo­ry, as far as I am con­cer­ned (and almost ever­y­bo­dy else has alre­a­dy left a good while ago). Of cour­se, the­re is still the Lofo­ten trip on Anti­gua in late Octo­ber, but that is not the high Arc­tic. No polar bears, no wal­rus­ses, no tun­dra, no rif­les, no Zodiacs (well, may­be occa­sio­nal­ly).

Gal­lery Isfjord II – 03rd Octo­ber 2015

Click on thumb­nail to open an enlar­ged ver­si­on of the spe­ci­fic pho­to.

No reason to be sad, still. This year’s Spits­ber­gen time is not over yet, I still have some time here, shore-based. Calm time in Lon­gye­ar­by­en. Nice light, nice peo­p­le, and hop­eful­ly some pro­duc­ti­ve crea­ti­vi­ty.

Fri
2 Oct
2015

Back in Isfjord, and the lights are going on. A sun­set, that is moving more and more towards noon, is thro­wing a soft pin­ki­sh-red light onto the snow-cover­ed moun­tain tops. The tun­dra is fro­zen, the moss beds, soft and wet just a short while ago, are hard as con­cre­te. A few small rivu­lets are still run­ning under an icy cover, just a few spots of run­ning water are still expo­sed. Soon, they will also turn into ice, and not­hing will move here until well into the next spring.

Only some reinde­er are moving here and the­re, and a group of ptar­mi­gan high up on the slo­pe.

Eit­her the­re are no wha­les in Isfjord any­mo­re, or they have alre­a­dy left for the Azo­res or whe­re­ver they spend their win­ter. Ins­tead, we have time for a short late after­noon landing. Our choice is Skans­buk­ta, a clas­sic. The glo­wing evening light on Gips­hu­ken, a moun­tain on the oppo­si­te shore, is the undis­pu­ted high­light.

Gal­lery Isfjord – 02nd Okto­ber 2015

Click on thumb­nail to open an enlar­ged ver­si­on of the spe­ci­fic pho­to.

A cosy evening along­side the pier in Pyra­mi­den. We are won­de­ring if we will get nor­t­hern light. The sky is lar­ge­ly clear, and the moon is shi­ning on Nor­dens­ki­öld­breen. The poten­ti­al is not bad at all.

Thu
1 Oct
2015

Last night it loo­ked pret­ty awful out­side. Well, not awful, it was actual­ly quite exci­ting. Strong winds and den­se snow drift. Arc­tic in win­ter mode. The­re was even a snow­ball fight on deck.

Towards the mor­ning, the wea­ther cal­med down and we could easi­ly go ashore on Blom­strand. While we were hiking, the Anti­gua could even be moved to Ny Lon­don, to Mansfield’s old marb­le mine, to pick us up the­re. Very nice. And the light, while we were out, you should have seen that! Light snow drift while the sun was going up abo­ve the Tre Kro­ner … gigan­tic.

Gal­lery Kongsfjord – 01st Okto­ber 2015

Click on thumb­nail to open an enlar­ged ver­si­on of the spe­ci­fic pho­to.

The har­bour in Ny Åle­sund is small, and so is Anti­gua, so we mana­ged to sneak in to the inner side of the pier, which can be very useful. A calm win­ter after­noon in Spitsbergen’s nor­t­hern­most sett­le­ment, a calm evening in port, and then we went off, towards For­lands­und, towards Isfjord. The­re is curr­ent­ly still a bit of swell in outer Kongsfjord, but not so bad any­mo­re, and it will be calm again soon, in For­lands­und.