Wed
31 Aug
2022

An ama­zing day, and ever­ything worked out as plan­ned, just for a chan­ge! You couldn’t have ima­gi­ned some­thing more beau­ti­ful. The bright autumn colours of the tun­dra in Rosen­berg­da­len. A huge pile of wal­ru­ses at Kapp Lee (Doleritt­ne­set, to be more pre­cise). Water like a mir­ror in Free­man­sund, with count­less rein­de­er on the sur­roun­ding islands. Thousands of kit­ty­wa­kes and a polar fox on Bar­entsøya.

Zeiløya­ne are a land­s­cape expe­ri­ence of their own, in a rather spe­cial way. A few metres wide only, but several kilo­me­tres long.

Gal­le­ry – Sou­the­ast Sval­bard – 31st August 2022

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Tue
30 Aug
2022

Things rare­ly go accord­ing to plan A on a wild arc­tic island such as Edgeøya. A lot of hikes tur­ned out to be shor­ter the­re than plan­ned due to the pre­sence of polar bears. Same thing today, near Habe­nicht­buk­ta. Which didn’t mat­ter. Ins­tead of one lon­ger hike, we made two shor­ter ones.

And then one more polar bear, this time one we could actual­ly see well. And then yet ano­t­her hike. In the light of the evening sun.

Gal­le­ry – Edgeøya – 30th August 2022

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Mon
29 Aug
2022

The south cape (Sør­kapp) – well, the­re are tho­se rare, gol­den days, when you can actual­ly do some­thing the­re.

Then the­re are tho­se days when you real­ly don’t want to be in that area at all.

And then the­re are tho­se days in bet­ween. Then you just sail around the south cape and you get from one side to the other without too much delay or other trou­bles. That’s what we got today.

On the east coast, the wea­ther was qui­te grey, but good enough to go for a fine walk in Isbuk­ta, whe­re were also collec­ted several bags of plastic gar­ba­ge on the beaches.

Gal­le­ry – Isbuk­ta – 29th August 2022

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Sun
28 Aug
2022

The­re is still a fresh bree­ze blowing out of the lar­ge fjords, and the wea­ther fore­cast remains an important tool for the plan­ning. Akseløya gives us enough shel­ter for a morning hike, and later we make good use of the wind and set sails.

Later, we get a good moment for a rare lan­ding on the west coast, name­ly in Dun­der­buk­ta, in the most beau­ti­ful evening light.

Gal­le­ry – Akseløya – Dun­der­buk­ta – 28th August 2022

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Sat
27 Aug
2022

It was a bit of a quick chan­geo­ver in Lon­gye­ar­by­en, most of my gear did not even go to town, but direct­ly from ship to ship in the har­bour. Now we are alrea­dy well on the way with SV Mean­der, a beau­ti­ful, small sai­ling ship.

We made the first lan­ding alrea­dy a few hours after depar­tu­re, in Cole­s­buk­ta. It kind of hap­pen­ed that way.

The first full day hap­pen­ed today in Recher­chefjord. Gla­cier, moun­tain, tun­dra …

Gal­le­ry – Isfjord – Recher­chefjord – 26th-27th August 2022

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Wed
24 Aug
2022

„Bellsund“ – just one word. This time, it stands for almost 3 unf­or­gett­able days. From Fin wha­les under the mid­ni­ght sun (just about to touch the hori­zon again) to a ran­ge of beau­ti­ful walks and hikes, visits to various islands and wild­life sightin­gs.

Today it was time to lea­ve this beau­ti­ful area. We are now back in Isfjord and thus almost back in civi­li­sa­ti­on (and back to grey and wet wea­ther, but this is of cour­se coin­ci­dence, it could have been the other way around). Tonight we will be back in Lon­gye­ar­by­en. Fin wha­les and white-bea­ked dol­phins joi­ned us for an while on the last cou­p­le of miles, as if to make our good­bye swee­ter.

So, this is the end of a tru­ly unf­or­gett­able voya­ge, as rich of all kinds of Spits­ber­gen expe­ri­en­ces and impres­si­ons as you can just ima­gi­ne, or pos­si­b­ly even well bey­ond that. In the best of spi­rits, for which I tru­ly thank all tho­se invol­ved, first of all Hein­rich Eggen­fell­ner, skip­per and owner of Arc­ti­ca II!

Gal­le­ry – Bellsund – 22nd-24th August 2022

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Sun
21 Aug
2022

It is good to be back on the west coast. The south cape can be a bit of a chal­len­ge, depen­ding on wind and wea­ther, but it went well again and we arri­ved in Hyt­tevi­ka alrea­dy during the morning. That is the place whe­re the legen­da­ry fema­le trap­per Wan­ny Wold­stad win­te­red a cou­p­le of times during the 1930s.

Later we made a lan­ding on Dun­øya­ne. Bird have been bree­ding the­re every sum­mer for thousands of years, which is clear­ly seen on the rich tun­dra of the­se small islands, and the rich bird life is stun­ning also after the bree­ding sea­son (during which the islands may not be visi­ted).

Pho­tos – Hyt­tevi­ka – Dun­øya­ne – 21st August 2022

Sat
20 Aug
2022

If you mana­ge to get ashore in the most­ly qui­te expo­sed coast during the long stretch around the south cape, then I would always con­si­der it a bonus.

Gre­at when it works. And even bet­ter when it hap­pens to be in Kval­vå­gen. A stun­ning place! Ab out 100 mil­li­on years ago, dino­saurs wal­ked around and left their foot­prints. You can still see some of them. And the sce­ne­ry is inde­ed qui­te ama­zing!

But the wea­ther has to be on your side for a lan­ding the­re. It is a chal­len­ging place in case of swell or onshore wind.

Gal­le­ry – Kval­vå­gen – 20th August 2022

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Fri
19 Aug
2022

Anyo­ne who might have been lon­ging for a peri­od of rest after all tho­se hikes and acti­vi­ties got that now, if you want it or not. After a while of wai­t­ing some wind and wea­ther out in sou­thern Hin­lo­pen Strait, it was time to set cour­se for Heley­sund. But whe­re­ver we wan­ted to make a lan­ding on the way the­re, the­re were alrea­dy polar bears han­ging out on shore.

Pho­tos – Heley­sund – 19th August 2022

Thu
18 Aug
2022

Wahl­ber­gøya is the second lar­gest island of Hin­lo­pen Strait, fol­lo­wed by Von Otterøya. Polar desert land­s­cape, whalebo­nes thousands of years old, wide-open plains with fos­sil beach rid­ges, silent litt­le lakes, lonely flowers, ple­nty of fos­sils and rocky hills with gre­at views of all the sce­nic beau­ty.

Gal­le­ry – The islands of Hin­lo­pen Strait – 18th August 2022

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Wed
17 Aug
2022

A long hike took us from the lagoon Cla­ra­vå­gen to the old Swe­dish rese­arch sta­ti­on in Kinn­vi­ka and back. Later, Hin­lo­pen Strait pre­sen­ted us with some of her mira­cles of natu­re, such as wha­les, polar bears and the famous bird cliff Alkef­jel­let. A gre­at day, which came a bit as a sur­pri­se, con­si­de­ring the poor wea­ther fore­cast.

Gal­le­ry – Hin­lo­pen Street – 17th august 2022

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Tue
16 Aug
2022

It was about time to get back to Hin­lo­pen Strait. After a morning walk on Chermsi­deøya, we pas­sed Bren­ne­v­insfjord and Lady Fran­klin­fjord and ent­e­red Fran­klin­sund. Most­ly known as a dan­ge­rous water­way, it can actual­ly have its plea­sant sides at least if you mana­ge to find a sui­ta­ble land site that works even when it is win­dy as it was by then.

Gal­le­ry – Chermsi­deøya-Fran­klin­sund – 16th August 2022

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Mon
15 Aug
2022

Orvin Land … ever heard of that? The end of the world, the eas­tern part of Nord­aus­t­land (North East Land). Whe­re the land disap­pears under the ice.

The Swe­dish Ymer-Expe­di­ti­on built a hut on Glen­hal­vøya in 1980, so sci­en­tists could spend some time the­re. In 2001, Hein­rich Eggen­fell­ner, owner and skip­per of our ship Arc­ti­ca II, was the­re with Ste­fa­no Poli, foun­der of the North Pole Expe­di­ti­on Muse­um in Lon­gye­ar­by­en. They went the­re by Zodiac, ama­zin­gly. In 2015, the Sys­sel­man­nen was the­re for an inspec­tion. And now we were the­re. A lone­so­me place.

You may have heard of Alpi­niøya. Sjef van Don­gen and Gen­na­ro Sora left a depot with some equip­ment the­re during their search for Nobi­le in 1928. We didn’t find any of it. Nevertheless, a stun­ning place.

As if this hadn’t been enough, we spent the evening at the huge gla­cier Schwei­gaar­d­breen in Alber­ti­ni­buk­ta. A breath­ta­king place!

Gal­le­ry – Orvin Land: Glen­hal­vøya. Alpi­niøya, Alber­ti­ni­buk­ta – 15th August 2022

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Sun
14 Aug
2022

This „right place, right time“ thing still app­lies to us here on the north side of Nord­aus­t­land. Stun­ning wea­ther in Duve­fjord. Which has qui­te a cou­p­le of side bays, and we went and had a look at some of them, hiking from one over to the next one. Ama­zing land­s­capes, seen by very few peop­le, and waters that are rare­ly visi­ted by ships.

Gal­le­ry – Duve­fjord – 14th August 2022

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Sat
13 Aug
2022

As men­tio­ned: it was a lucky com­bi­na­ti­on of right place and right time. Nord­aus­t­land was friend­ly with us, which is a rare thing. We expe­ri­en­ced some stun­nin­gly beau­ti­ful land­s­capes and were able to do some real­ly ama­zing hikes.

Gal­le­ry – Rijpfjord-Duve­fjord – 13th August 2022

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