Heley­sund & Free­man­sund – 25th July 2016

Mon
25 Jul
2016

Com­pared to the bar­ren polar desert of Nord­aus­t­land, the lush-green tun­dra around Heley­sund is a dif­fe­rent world. The rock colum­ns of basalt remind of wild west coun­try. Inland, flower car­pets with saxif­ra­ges and Sval­bard pop­py are stret­ching bet­ween the rocky hills, while strong tidal curr­ents are rus­hing though the chan­nels. We hike around Straums­land and then we crui­se through Orm­ho­let; at slack tide, it is just calm enough.

Some hours later, we reach Free­man­sund. A polar fox is ste­al­ing eggs and chicks from nests in a bird colo­ny. The coun­try around it turns out to be a polar bear hot spot: more than 14 bears are lying or wal­king around on slo­pes, most of them on one sin­gle moun­tain side. A true polar bear para­de!

Gal­lery Heley­sund & Free­man­sund – 25th July 2016

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

The­se Free­man­sund-polar bears are a phe­no­me­non and a mys­te­ri­um. Samples of their drop­pings may help to ans­wer the ques­ti­on what makes this area so unu­sual­ly attrac­ti­ve for them. My cla­im for fame in polar sci­ence.

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By the way, my new book is in print and it can now be orde­red 🙂 it is a pho­to book with the title “Nor­we­gens ark­ti­scher Nor­den (3): Die Bären­in­sel und Jan May­en”, with Ger­man text Click here for fur­ther details!