Smeerenburgfjord – 16th September 2016

Fri
16 Sep
2016

It was a promising start to the day, with a very nice sunrise above the mountains and the big glacier, with mirror images on the water.

It is always worth keeping an eye open for wildlife here in the northwest. So we did. And we found it. Not just a bit of it. A whole sperm whale was lying dead on the shore. Impossible to tell how, where and when it died, but now he was there, on this rocky coast. And he was not alone. There were two polar bears hanging around, they had obviously eaten a lot, being lazy and without much motivation for sportive movements. They were lying around, slowly standing up, slowly making a few steps, lying down again, then the other one repeating the same exercise … we spent a good part of the day observing them. At some point, they went back to the dead whale, but without much motivation to eat anything really.

Gallery Smeerenburgfjord – 16th September 2016

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

Later we left the polar bears to themselves and made some miles north to Smeerenburg to set foot on solid ground. Some whaling history, and … not yet enough regarding big animals for today. There was a large group of almost 40 walrusses on shore. What a day!