Fri
28 Jun
2019

A fair bree­ze has brought us up north again. A few years ago in Engelskbuk­ta, a gla­cier had advan­ced stron­gly and tur­ned its sur­roun­dings into an impres­si­ve ice age land­scape. Geo­mor­pho­lo­gy live! And a chan­ce for an easy, litt­le gla­cier hike.

A cou­ple of hours later are we in Kross­fjord. Wind, sun, blue sky, blue water, rug­ged moun­ta­ins, wild gla­ciers, guil­l­emots, puf­fins, green slo­pes with colourful flowers. A para­di­se of arc­tic natu­re!

Gal­lery – Engelskbuk­ta, Fjor­ten­de Juli­buk­ta – 28th June 2019

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

But a win­dy one. After a stun­ning pas­sa­ge near Blomtrand­breen, we drop the anchor behind Blom­strand­hal­vøya for a calm night.

Thu
27 Jun
2019

Sou­thwards – that was to be Horn­sund for us. After che­cking the updated wea­ther fore­cast, we had chan­ged our plan and went to Bell­sund. The wea­ther does not seem to be too pro­mi­sing fur­ther south.

So Bell­sund is the place for today. It is a bit grey, but calm and silent as the anchor goes down after break­fast.

Recher­chefjord is a place full of histo­ry from seve­ral cen­tu­ries. Like the first win­te­rers on Spits­ber­gen, Tsjitsjagov’s bad­ly plan­ned expe­di­ti­on, the rather suc­cessful Recher­che-expe­di­ti­on, the unlu­cky voya­ge of the Mon­te Cer­van­tes and the mys­tery of Gjæver’s Vil­la.

Other sto­ries reach fur­ther back. Such as the fos­si­li­sed morai­ne that dates to the snow­ball earth era. Almost 600 mil­li­on years back.

Later, we enjoy a good tun­dra walk in Van Keu­len­fjord. Ple­nty of curious reinde­er ever­y­whe­re. We reach some beau­tiful view­points and stun­ning sce­n­ery, befo­re we get back to the ship, a bit late for din­ner.

Gal­lery – Bell­sund – 27th June 2019

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

I almost can’t belie­ve it when Cap­tain Robert shows me the latest wea­ther fore­cast. Sou­the­as­tern Spits­ber­gen, until recent­ly the place whe­re we wan­ted to go, will soon turn into a very unp­lea­sant wea­ther hole. We pre­fer to chan­ge our plans and stay some­whe­re nice, so we set cour­se nor­thwards again. It may look a bit stran­ge later on the map, but cares?

Wed
26 Jun
2019

The last two weeks in Lon­gye­ar­by­en went by very quick­ly … and now we are alre­a­dy off again, with 2 ½ weeks of sai­ling in Spits­ber­gen with SV Anti­gua ahead of us.

The north coast is still in den­se ice, so we will pro­ba­b­ly spend some time in the south and sou­the­ast. But to start with, we go at least a litt­le bit nor­thwards. Recent sightin­gs have con­firm­ed good chan­ces to see wal­ru­ses in For­lands­und, and the wea­ther fore­cast seems per­fect: a calm day for excur­si­ons and then a fair nor­t­her­ly bree­ze to fill the sails on the way south.

So here we go. On the first mor­ning of the trip, we wake up at anchor near a litt­le pen­in­su­la in For­lands­und. The­re is a group of wal­rus hau­led out on shore, may­be 40-50 ani­mals. And … two polar bears! A mother and her second year cub are making their way towards the wal­ru­ses.

It was to be a stun­ning mor­ning. With the Zodiacs we mana­ged to get into a good posi­ti­on to be a fly on the wall. The bears tried to make the wal­rus panic, but wit­hout much suc­cess. Final­ly they moved away again a bit, wal­ked up and down the beach and final­ly laid down for a rest. A beau­tiful series of events and beha­viours, which we are bles­sed to have wit­nessed!

Gal­lery – For­lands­und – 26th June 2019

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

Later we go for a litt­le tun­dra walk at Mur­ray­pyn­ten on Prins Karls For­land to earth our­selvs again (quite lite­ral­ly, the tun­dra is still quite wet and a bit bog­gy …)

Once all are back on board, we prepa­re the sails. The engi­ne can take a break, the wind is doing the work for us now. Let’s go south!

Sat
8 Jun
2019

It is unbe­lie­va­ble how time flies – not the trip was short, actual­ly! But the days were full and exci­ting. Today, we are back in Isfjord, and now the sun comes final­ly out behind the clouds. We have deser­ved that, we have not seen much from the sun recent­ly.

Ever­y­bo­dy is exci­ted, and the­re is a gre­at moti­va­ti­on to see more wild­life. Not that we haven’t seen any so far, but still. So we move on with Anti­gua, crui­sing various bays. And the guys are the­re. Wal­ru­ses in Bore­buk­ta. And the­re is even a polar bear near Sveab­reen. The bear is having break­fast with a seal. Well, in a way. Being the seal would be rather unfort­u­na­te.

It is a won­derful after­noon to round a gre­at trip off. We enjoy the who­le sce­n­ery with a lot of time, silence and peace. The­re is a lot of ice around us, drif­ting bits and pie­ces of gla­cier ice, fast ice towards the gla­cier, and the moun­ta­ins are still lar­ge­ly snow-cover­ed. Final­ly we step into the Zodiacs once again to enjoy the ice.

Gal­lery – Isfjord – 08th June 2019

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

Then it is time to set cour­se for Lon­gye­ar­by­en.

Fri
7 Jun
2019

It is love­ly to return to the tun­dra after so much snow and ice fur­ther north. The­re is, of cour­se, still a lot of snow also at sea level here at the cen­tral west coast, but the snow-free patches of vege­ta­ti­on are get­ting lar­ger and lar­ger, to the delight of geese and reinde­er, which are here in num­bers. We have even found some ear­ly flowers of the pur­ple saxif­ra­ge!

We are in Eidem­buk­ta and ven­ture out in three groups for a litt­le walk, fol­lo­wing the beau­tiful coast­li­ne and hiking to some low hills for the views. As always, Ingolf mana­ges to find some inte­res­t­ing birds, such as the first grey phalar­opes of the trip, and even some com­mon sco­ters. And the­re are geese, main­ly bar­na­cle geese, and of cour­se ple­nty of reinde­er. In some places the snow is still deep enough to make wal­king a bit chal­len­ging, but it is good fun at the same time and of cour­se it is good to burn some calo­ries …

Later we move up to St. Jons­fjord, whe­re we have a look at the fast ice edge and then drop the anchor near Gaf­fel­breen. Also here, we go for a walk. Some enjoy the views of the gla­cier from the morai­ne ridge, while others visit a litt­le hut, built from drift­wood logs.

Gal­lery – For­lands­und – 07th June 2019

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

Back on Anti­gua, it is time to cele­bra­te. It was – and still is – a gre­at trip. Anni­ka, Chris­tin and Jana have pre­pared a litt­le par­ty for ever­y­bo­dy, and Sascha is making sure that the BBQ is on and red-hot, with ple­nty of goo­dies. A big thanks to all of you – it is a gre­at evening in good com­pa­ny and stun­ning sur­roun­dings!

Wed
5 Jun
2019

It is ama­zing how quick­ly things chan­ge here: just yes­ter­day, Dans­ke­gat­tet was com­ple­te­ly ice free, and now the­re are floes of loo­se drift ice, so we stay away from this part­ly shal­low pas­sa­ge and keep to the outer side of Ams­ter­damøya.

Drift ice around the nor­thwest cor­ner of Spits­ber­gen. That is how it used to be – just that it used to be well into July in the old days and not just in the begin­ning of June, as it is now.

We pass one field of drift ice after the other, and some of the off­ly­ing islands: Fug­le­son­gen, whe­re we hear the cra­zy laugh­ter of the thou­sands of litt­le auks, and Klov­nin­gen. Later, we reach the ent­rance to Raud­fjord. Den­se drift ice ever­y­whe­re, and the who­le map is still fro­zen solid, at least accor­ding to the ice chart. After a litt­le Zodiac excur­si­on, we take off and move out, as we don’t want to spend a cou­ple of weeks here.

Mean­while, the drift ice around Ams­ter­damøya has beco­me so den­se that the pas­sa­ge back to open water takes more time than plan­ned. This is gre­at – natu­re is in con­trol! We spend one more night, just drif­ting in an area of open drift ice, and then it takes about half a day to navi­ga­te through Smee­ren­burg­fjord and Sør­gat­tet.

Gal­lery – Drift ice – 05th and 06th June 2019

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

From the­re, we fol­low the west coast to the south. Ever­y­thing here is grey today. In the evening, we reach Prins Karls For­land, whe­re we visit a group of pret­ty acti­ve wal­ru­ses to round the day off.

Gal­lery – Drift ice – 05th and 06th June 2019 – 2

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

Tue
4 Jun
2019

We had rea­ched the nor­thwes­tern cor­ner of Spits­ber­gen over night. Here, in the high north, the land was still cover­ed with a thick lay­er of snow, so we got the snow shoes out and went for a love­ly walk.

On the way to Smee­ren­burg­breen (-gla­cier), we found two wal­ru­ses. One of them was quite curious and swam towards the ship. The wild­life encoun­ters that invol­ve the curiou­si­ty of the ani­mals as much as ours are always the best ones!

Final­ly we took the oppor­tu­ni­ty to revi­ve an old and almost for­got­ten tra­di­ti­on. We went to the „post­box“ in Kob­befjord on Dan­s­køya, a cairn whe­re north­go­ing ships used to lea­ve mail. This was often their last oppor­tu­ni­ty for weeks or even months to make cont­act with the out­side world! South­bound ships went and took the mail with them if the oppor­tu­ni­ty occu­red and deli­ver­ed the let­ters to a post office in Nor­way. Let’s see when our post­cards arri­ve at their desti­na­ti­on …?

Gal­lery – Dan­s­køya – 04th June 2019

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

Some har­bour seals have alre­a­dy occu­p­ied their sum­mer posi­ti­on on rocks on shal­low waters just off the shore.

Mon
3 Jun
2019

The wea­ther in For­lands­und was not quite like what the fore­cast had pro­mi­sed: a stiff nor­t­her­ly bree­ze made things a bit dif­fi­cult and life unfom­for­ta­ble until we had rea­ched shel­te­red waters again in Kross­fjord. The­re, we were hap­py to walk on solid ground again. We had a look at the remains of the geo­phy­si­cal obser­va­to­ry that was ope­ra­ted in Ebelt­oft­ham­na from 1912 to 1914 and later we visi­ted a sea­bird colo­ny fur­ther north in Kross­fjord.

Gal­lery – For­lands­und & Kross­fjord – 03rd June 2019

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

Sun
2 Jun
2019

We were very curious what the day might bring – the­re had been ple­nty of polar bear sightin­gs recent­ly in Bil­lefjord. Just yes­ter­day, no less than 3 bears had been obser­ved here! So soon under break­fast we were under steam again. Just a few miles to the ice edge in inner Bil­lefjord.

It did not take much time until we had seen the bears on the fast ice near Nor­dens­ki­öld­breen, but far away, too far for good pho­to­gra­phy. One of the bears was eating a seal, the other one was wal­king back and forth in the same area, wai­ting for his chan­ce to get a share of the meal. We fol­lo­wed the who­le sce­ne with our bino­cu­lars and secu­red good views with Ingolf’s telescope, but it was too far to obtain reasonable pho­tos. But the who­le land­scape set­ting was stun­ning, with the ice cliff of the gla­cier in the back­ground and the ice edge whe­re some seals were res­t­ing on ice or play­ing in the water.

Gal­lery – Bil­lefjord – 02nd June 2019

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

Later, we ven­tu­red for our first landing in Skans­buk­ta, whe­re we saw reinde­er in ama­zing num­bers and we enjoy­ed the sun­ny views of the impres­si­ve sce­n­ery – well deser­ved after ascen­ding the slo­pe through deep snow.

Sat
1 Jun
2019

Bra­ve Mara­thon-run­ners do their work in and near Lon­gye­ar­by­en, while we get rea­dy for action on Anti­gua. In the after­noon, we are rea­dy to set sail on Anti­gua, and that is exact­ly what we actual­ly do as soon as Cap­tain Robert has said hel­lo to ever­y­bo­dy. A brief intro­duc­tion turns us all into real sai­lers, and soon the can­vas goes up into the bree­ze, and the reason­ab­ly warm sun sees us sai­ling out of Advent­fjord and nor­thwards, across Sas­senfjord.

We have set cour­se for Skans­buk­ta, whe­re we drop the anchor for the night. It is a won­derful nor­t­hern evening in good com­pa­ny, many here on board have been on Anti­gua more often than some of the crew!

Gal­lery – Lon­gye­ar­by­en – Skans­buk­ta, 01st June 2019

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

Ingolf has got a lot of work with his telescope, the­re are ple­nty of reinde­er and seve­ral arc­tic foxes on the tun­dra and hundreds of com­mon eiders with an ama­zing num­ber of king eiders among­st them.

Sun
26 May
2019

Spring has also arri­ved in arc­tic Spits­ber­gen. Ear­ly migra­ting birds such as the snow bun­ting and Litt­le auk came alre­a­dy more than a month ago in April, fil­ling the tun­dra in and around Lon­gye­ar­by­en respec­tively the moun­tain slo­pes with their sin­ging (snow bun­ting) and cra­zy laugh­ter (snow bun­ting).

Tem­pe­ra­tures are still cold, mild frost, but the snow-free tun­dra patches are gro­wing every day and the rivers show signs of brea­king up.

Tun­dra is coming through the snow in Advent­da­len.

By now, most migra­ting birds have retur­ned to their sum­mer ter­ri­to­ries. A good week ago, the first Pink-foo­ted geese were sud­den­ly sit­ting, well camou­fla­ged, on the tun­dra next to the roads in Lon­gye­ar­by­en, and the first Bar­na­cle geese fol­lo­wed soon.

Brent geese on the shore of Advent­fjord (a Bar­na­cle goo­se in the back­ground).

Once the first geese had arri­ved, dozens and hundreds fol­lo­wed during the next cou­ple of days to sett­le down on snow-free tun­dra are­as in Advent­da­len and even within Lon­gye­ar­by­en. In this area, the snow melt starts regu­lar­ly a cou­ple of weeks ear­ly than else­whe­re in Spits­ber­gen, making the tun­dra are­as here an important res­t­ing area for many birds, which feed on tun­dra vege­ta­ti­on, after their spring migra­ti­on. Later they will disper­se to their various bree­ding are­as within the regi­on.

Brent geese on the shore of Advent­fjord (Pink-foo­ted geese in the fore­ground).

Curr­ent­ly, it is very easy to obser­ve all geese spe­ci­es that breed in Spits­ber­gen as well as Com­mon eider ducks, King eider and many otehr spe­ci­es very clo­se to or even within Lon­gye­ar­by­en. Soon they will move to more inac­ces­si­ble are­as and then most of them will also be very shy. Then, it will be much more dif­fi­cult, if not impos­si­ble, to secu­re good obser­va­tions and pho­tos, even with good equip­ment.

Espe­ci­al­ly the Brent goo­se is a dif­fi­cult spe­ci­es to obser­ve. It is not an ever­y­day sight during the sum­mer and obser­va­tions are usual­ly from a grea­ter distance. So it is a spe­cial plea­su­re to see this spe­ci­es on a short distance on the shore of Advent­fjord just next to Lon­gye­ar­by­en. As long as you stay a bit hid­den or within a car, the risk of dis­tur­ban­ce is low.

All three spe­ci­es of geese that breed in Spits­ber­gen in one pho­to:
Pink foo­ted goo­se, Bar­na­cle goo­se and Brent goo­se, Advent­fjord.

I am almost a bit proud of this last pho­to that has all three spe­ci­es of geese that breed in Spits­ber­gen in one frame: Pink foo­ted goo­se (upper left, not sharp), Bar­na­cle goo­se (lower left) and Brent goo­se (lower right).

Thu
9 May
2019

The win­ter sea­son is now, in ear­ly May or actual­ly soon mid May, about to come to an end, but we are curr­ent­ly having beau­tiful days, after an April that was part­ly quite, well, mixed. Now we having tem­pe­ra­tures below zero again – but not much, it is not too cold – and it is nice and sun­ny at times. Good reasons to get out the­re and enjoy the ama­zing ice- and snow land­scape, once again in win­ter mode.

Spring is not far away any­mo­re in Spits­ber­gen: Ptar­mi­gan and reinde­er are hap­py about spots of snow-free tun­dra.

We move rather effi­ci­ent­ly trough the val­leys to the east. Advent­da­len, Eskerd­a­len and Sas­send­a­len, one by one, like perls on a neck­lace. We lea­ve them quick­ly behind, as we want to tra­vel far this time.

At Rabot­breen we enter the wide gla­cier land­scapes of east Spits­ber­gen. The huge morai­ne of Rabot­breen also shows signs of the approa­ching spring, ici­c­les are han­ging in small ice holes and caves. The sun is strong enough to make some ice melt even when tem­pe­ra­tures are actual­ly still below the free­zing point.

Litt­le ice cave in the morai­ne of Rabot­breen.

Ici­c­les in an ice hole at Rabot­breen.

We lea­ve also this inte­res­t­ing landc­sape quick­ly behind us, and soon we turn north, devia­ting from the popu­lar and bel­oved rou­te across Nord­manns­fon­na towards Mohn­buk­ta on the east coast. This time, we want to go fur­ther north.

Hea­ding north across Fim­bu­li­sen.

All we have around us is snow, ice and moun­ta­ins. The land­scape appears infi­ni­te­ly wide. Coas­tal and tun­dra land­scapes have dis­ap­peared far behind us. Ins­tead, the­re is one gla­cier after the other, one small ice cap neigh­bou­ring the next one. Well, they are not exact­ly small. Of cour­se they can’t com­pe­te with tho­se in Green­land and even Ant­ar­c­ti­ca, but still, we are tal­king hundreds of squa­re kilo­me­t­res. Fim­bu­li­sen, Filch­ner­fon­na, Lomo­no­sov­fon­na … the lat­ter one is the source to the migh­ty gla­ciers Nor­dens­ki­öld­breen and Mit­tag-Leff­ler­breen. Lomo­no­sov­fon­na is 600 squa­re kilo­me­t­res lar­ge!

Infi­ni­te spaces: the ice cap Lomo­no­sov­fon­na.

Our desti­na­ti­on: New­ton­top­pen. This is Spitsbergen’s hig­hest moun­tain, 1713 met­res high. Or to be clear: the hig­hest moun­tain of Sval­bard, the who­le archi­pe­la­go. 1713 met­res are, of cour­se, not very impres­si­ve, com­pared to the lar­ge moun­tain ran­ges of this world. But it is far away … get­ting the­re is the first thing, and even on a love­ly spring day like this, it is pret­ty cold.

New­ton­top­pen comes into our view.

For me, it is the second tour to New­ton­top­pen. The first time was in 2010. Back then, the two of us used ski, pulk and tent, some­thing that took us almost 4 weeks through this vast land­scape. Today, we are fas­ter.

New­ton­top­pen with a deco­ra­ti­ve cloud.

Back then, we were a bit more lucky with the wea­ther on New­ton­top­pen: today, the top remains in a thin cloud, alt­hough it is lar­ge­ly fine and clear other­wi­se.

New­ton­top­pen is not a dif­fi­cult moun­tain to ascend, it is “only” far away – and cold.

The top of New­ton­top­pen with clouds and stor­my wind.

The wind on top of New­ton­top­pen is strong and it is ice cold, near -20 degrees of cen­ti­gra­de – plus wind­chill. So it is not exact­ly pic­nic time up here, but we enjoy being here, hig­her than any­whe­re else on Spits­ber­gen, for some moments.

And the view is clea­ring up just a few met­res fur­ther down. The­re is a should­er in about 1500 met­res whe­re the gra­ni­te is coming to the sur­face. From here, we have got an impres­si­ve view over the sur­roun­ding moun­ta­ins and ice fields.

View from New­ton­top­pen to the south.

The way back home is a long one … more than 300 kilo­me­t­res in total, from Lon­gye­ar­by­en to New­ton­top­pen and back.