Nordenskiöldbukta-Rijpfjord – 09 August 2018

Thu
9 Aug
2018

Today and tomor­row we want to try to find out about some of Nordaustlandet’s secrets, which are hid­den deep in the huge fjords. Some of the­ses sur­pri­ses hap­pen just to be on our way. Sud­den­ly we have at least 2 Blue wha­le clo­se to the boat, pos­si­bly 3. Huge ani­mals! One is real­ly big, even to Blue wha­le stan­dards. Who said recent­ly that it was a bad wha­le year in Spitsbergen’s waters? Well, we can’t com­plain.

Nor­dens­ki­old­buk­ta

Later we ven­ture to explo­re Score­s­by­øya, in the midd­le of the wide-open Nor­dens­ki­öld­buk­ta. We don’t stay long, espe­ci­al­ly as we find out that we are not alo­ne on the island. The­re is some­thing lying behind a rock, and it is yel­lo­wish-white and it has fur and ears. Just slee­ping and far away, but we pre­fer to move away and lea­ve the island befo­re any unp­lea­sant situa­ti­on can deve­lop.

Score­s­by­oya

A bit later, we hap­pen to find to wal­rus­ses on a litt­le ice­berg. A mother with a litt­le calf! Well, „litt­le“ is a rela­ti­ve term when it comes to wal­rus­ses. But it is real­ly a very young one, still living on its mother’s milk rather than mus­sels.

Rijpfjord

We drop the anchor in Wordie­buk­ta in the late after­noon. This is whe­re the Ger­man Kriegs­ma­ri­ne had their war wea­ther sta­ti­on cal­led Hau­de­gen. The men were picked up in Sep­tem­ber 1945, being the very last Ger­man mili­ta­ry unit of the Second World War to sur­ren­der. Some­thing that they were very hap­py to do. The hut is still the­re. A bizar­re bit of histo­ry and a bizar­re place.

Hau­de­gen

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