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HomeArctic blog: Jan Mayen, Spitsbergen → Vikin­ge­bugt – 31st August 2019

Vikin­ge­bugt – 31st August 2019

Last night the anchor fell in Vikin­ge­bugt. Quite deep in the Score­s­by­sund – we had sai­led more than 60 miles sin­ce tur­ning around Kap Brews­ter – but the­re are not many shel­te­red ancho­ra­ges on this rug­ged coast­li­ne. It was a nice moment when the engin­ge was tur­ned off for the first time sin­ce we had left Grims­ey four days ago. Silence. Ever­y­bo­dy having din­ner at the same time. Nice.

After a calm night, we wan­ted to go ahead with our first landing. It was time to feel Green­land under our feet. It took a while to get the boats rea­dy after the open oce­an crossing – they were safe­ly sto­wed away and secu­red at open sea, nor­mal pro­ce­du­re – and then … a polar bear on shore! Who would have expec­ted that – polar bear sightin­gs are not an ever­y­day thing in Green­land! We had been tal­king about polar bears just a bit ear­lier today, the usu­al safe side of landings in the Arc­tic, but then actual­ly see­ing one, here in the Score­s­by­sund … well, as men­tio­ned befo­re, this is a pret­ty rare event in this area.

The bear fol­lo­wed a rocky slo­pe, then res­ted for a while on a snow field and final­ly ente­red a morai­ne area. It was not exact­ly an oppor­tu­ni­ty for stun­ning pho­to­gra­phy, but a fine obser­va­ti­on.

Gal­lery – Vikin­ge­bugt – 31st August 2019

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

Obvious­ly, we adjus­ted the plans for our landing and moved to a small island. It is always gre­at how such small islands, that seem to be just bar­ren rocks from a distance, turn out to be tre­asu­re boxes of natu­re. Basalt colum­ns as made by hand, and the­se stun­ning colours of the late sum­mer tun­dra, that Spits­ber­gen just does not have, at least not at this level. Bright yel­low and red, even on a rather grey day like today.

And, of cour­se, the stun­ning sur­roun­dings. Bits and pie­ces of gla­cier ice ever­y­whe­re, lar­ge gla­ciers in the back­ground, migh­ty moun­ta­ins sur­roun­ding the fjord.

Now we are con­ti­nuouing our way into the Score­s­by­sund.

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last modification: 2019-09-01 · copyright: Rolf Stange
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