Bell­sund – 28th/29th July 2016

Thu
28 Jul
2016

28th/29th July 2016 – The thin lay­er of fog that had cast such magi­cal light effects over Horn­sund yes­ter­day had grown over night into a solid, low lying cloud cover, making the world appear much more grey than it had been yes­ter­day. But both the litt­le impres­si­ons of the colourful tun­dra as the views from ele­va­tions are as beau­tiful as we had been hoping for.

We go sepa­ra­te ways at least for a while in the after­noon. While one group is visi­ting a bird cliff, making fri­ends with litt­le auks, polar foxes and reinde­er with huge ant­lers, ano­ther group is crossing Nathorst Land from north to south. Yel­low and red frag­ments of clay­stone are lying on the black and soft ground, while we are working our way up the hill, enjoy­ing wide views over Van Mijenfjor­den with Akseløya, Fri­dt­jov­breen and Reind­a­len. Small, but deep­ly incis­ed tri­bu­t­a­ry val­leys requi­re extra effort and sweat, until we have rea­ched the hig­hest part. Down a steep slo­pe, and soon the tents are stan­ding on a bit of tun­dra, exact­ly whe­re each and every rain­drop has to make his decis­i­on: north to Van Mijenfjord or south to Van Keu­len­fjord. We enjoy a nice evening in beau­tiful sur­roun­dings and with good atmo­sphe­re while the coo­kers are hum­ming.

We awa­ke to the sound of rain­drops on the can­vas. The rain is not strong, but enough to make the world around as grey and wet. We fol­low a litt­le val­ley, fre­quent­ly chan­ging from one side of the litt­le stream to the other, while it is get­ting big­ger with every tri­bu­t­a­ry wea­ther.

Gal­lery Bell­sund – 28th-29th July 2016

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

A litt­le gla­cier on the side has a huge sur­pri­se for us. A litt­le hole of a small melt­wa­ter river turns out to be a huge cave insi­de. Ice is glit­te­ring far abo­ve us and to our sides, a won­derful world. We go 20 met­res, 30 met­res, the end is in dark­ness. An impres­si­ve place.

Out­side, it remains wet and grey. We find some waters­falls along our way and final­ly we are hap­py as Antigua’s masts appear from the fog.

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