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

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

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

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

Fri
12 Aug
2022

After a bit of a grey day yes­ter­day – we could watch a polar bear on a small island dis­ap­pearing in the fog – it cle­ared up today. The wea­ther was on our side again, and it was to remain so for seve­ral days. We were (and still are) cle­ar­ly in the right area on the right time. Good stuff!

That is also the simp­le reason why the­re was just no time for blog wri­ting. I need to catch up a bit now.

We spent that Fri­day (12th August) on the north side of Nord­aus­t­land, in Nor­dens­ki­öld­buk­ta and in Rijpfjord. Stun­nin­gly beau­tiful sce­n­ery, bar­ren, of a high arc­tic, strong cha­rac­ter, not seen by many peo­p­les’ eyes. The­re are inde­ed places whe­re you can think that you might inde­ed be the first per­son the­re. Of cour­se that is impos­si­ble to tell for sure, and quite likely at least some geo­lo­gists have been the­re, they have been all over the place. But still, just the fact that the thought as such isn’t com­ple­te­ly non­sen­se is ama­zing, in the year 2022.

I lea­ve it up to the pic­tures to tell the rest of the sto­ry of this day.

Gal­lery – Nord­aus­t­land – 12th August 2022

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

Thu
11 Aug
2022

A wea­ther fore­cast that was quite bad espe­ci­al­ly for the nor­thwes­tern part of Spits­ber­gen made us move away from that area quick­ly, and a long night of sai­ling (motoring, actual­ly) took us to Sjuøya­ne, the nor­t­hern­most islands of Sval­bard. We pas­sed by Wal­denøya in wind and fog, but rea­ched Phippsøya not much later and could make a landing the­re.
 

Wed
10 Aug
2022

Nord­ves­th­jør­nest av Spits­ber­gen er et vel­dig vak­kert og variert områ­de, med man­ge spen­nen­de steder som man kan besøke. Været var litt grått men ellers fullt på vår side, og der­med ble det en vel­dig opp­le­vel­ses­rik dag. Vi begyn­te med en flott fot­tur på Dan­s­køya og så besøk­te vi noen hval­ros­ser på Ams­ter­damøya, ved siden av gam­le spek­kov­ner fra hval­fangst­tiden i Smee­ren­burg. Så til­ba­ke til Dan­s­køya. Det var en del stein­kob­be der på fjæ­re­st­ei­ne­ne, og ikke langt der­fra lig­ger fort­satt kul­tur­min­ner fra Andrée og Well­man sine nord­pol­fer­der i Vir­go­ham­na. På turen vide­re nord­o­ver gjor­de vi en avs­tik­ker inn i den utro­lig vak­re Fuglefjor­den. For en flott dag!

Gal­lery – Nor­thwest Spits­ber­gen – 10th August 2022

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

Tue
9 Aug
2022

Engelskbuk­ta gave us beau­tiful scenic views despi­te the low clouds.

Later, we rea­ched Ny-Åle­sund.

A lot could be writ­ten about the many beau­tiful impres­si­ons of this day, but it is late now …

Gal­lery – Engelskbuk­ta, Ny-Åle­sund – 09th August 2022

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

Sun
7 Aug
2022

We are off again, now with Arc­ti­ca II. Good stuff! Actual­ly, it doesn’t take much the­se days to make a start a good one: the trip actual­ly hap­pens, it starts as sche­du­led and with ever­y­bo­dy who is sup­po­sed to be here. That is enough to make us hap­py for now.

After a cou­ple of hours we had rea­ched Trygg­ham­na and took the oppor­tu­ni­ty for a first walk. To our ama­ze­ment, we find our­sel­ves wal­king in the fos­sil remains of a tro­pi­cal sea. Corals and other fos­sils ever­y­whe­re! But it is more than 300 mil­li­on years ago that they were ali­ve …

Gal­lery – Isfjord – 07th August 2022

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

Thu
28 Jul
2022

The last days of this voya­ge were just going so quick­ly, full of beau­ty and exci­te­ment as they were. I just didn’t mana­ge to wri­te any blog ent­ries during this time, so here is the update inclu­ding a slight­ly more exten­si­ve pho­to gal­lery, as I am able to use pro­per inter­net again. This chap­ter of the voya­ge star­ted in a slight­ly Raud­fjord and then took us to the magni­fi­cent St. Jons­fjord and the tun­dra on the west coast. It brought us the luck of a polar bear sight­ing (the only one other than the bears that we saw in the distance from Ny-Åle­sund) as well as the beau­ty of doing some miles under sails again in Isfjord befo­re we roun­ded the who­le thing off in Coles­buk­ta.

Gal­lery – From Raud­fjord to Isfjord – 24th to 26th july 2022

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

Sat
23 Jul
2022

We cover­ed some good distance to the west – we must not for­get that we will need to get back to Lon­gye­ar­by­en at some stage. The ear­ly mor­ning saw us all the way down in inner­most Wood­fjord. Sce­n­ery of stun­ning beau­ty all around us, with ama­zing colours. And ama­zing amounts of pla­s­tic gar­ba­ge on the coast. A good bit less when we left, at least.

Bock­fjord has Spitsbergen’s only vol­ca­no, or vol­ca­nic ruin, that is. And a gre­at varie­ty of flowers, inclu­ding some pret­ty rare ones.

Gal­lery – Wood­fjord & Bock­fjord – 23rd July 2022

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

Fri
22 Jul
2022

Gre­at that we made it as far as this – not­hing we could take for gran­ted con­side­ring the time we had left at this stage. But we made it into Hin­lo­pen and could enjoy a litt­le hike to and even onto the inland ice of nor­thwes­tern Spits­ber­gen as well as tent­hou­sands of Brünich’s guil­l­emots at Alkef­jel­let. And later, even a Blue wha­le! What a day!

Gal­lery – Hin­lo­pen – 22nd July 2022

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

Thu
21 Jul
2022

Murch­ison­fjord – So we made it to nor­t­hern Hin­lo­pen Strait, to Nord­aus­t­land. The bar­ren, most­ly ice-cover­ed second lar­gest island of Sval­bard. A very strong scenic con­trast to all that we had seen so far on this trip. Go to the Panos Murch­ison­fjord.
 

Gal­lery – Murch­ison­fjord – 21st July 2022

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

Wed
20 Jul
2022

And again, we are lucky with wind and waves. In the sen­se that both of them are absent, making it pos­si­ble to visit the famous hut at Gråhu­ken (Chris­tia­ne Rit­ter: A woman in the polar night).

After small water­falls fal­ling over red rocks, sur­roun­ded by an ama­zing car­pet of tun­dra and flowers, we roun­ded the day off at Mona­co­b­reen. Which, by the way, has recent­ly advan­ced by seve­ral hundred meters. Almost hard to belie­ve, but such things still hap­pen occa­sio­nal­ly, even in times of glo­bal warm­ing.

Gal­lery – Wood­fjord – 20th July 2022

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

Tue
19 Jul
2022

A rare beau­tiful day on the nor­thwest cor­ner of Spits­ber­gen, whe­re it usual­ly tends to be grey, win­dy and cold. Not­hing of that sort today. Ins­tead, stun­ning views over Dan­s­køya and later, more stun­ning views, wal­ru­ses and wha­ling histo­ry at Smee­ren­burg.
 

Mon
18 Jul
2022

We were blown out of Kongsfjord, but the sails made it easi­ly pos­si­ble to turn it into a situa­ti­on of gre­at fun.

Ano­ther kind of gre­at fun came later in the after­noon when we were unex­pec­ted­ly able to make one of tho­se rare landings on the expo­sed outer coast. Fan­ta­stic wea­ther, stun­ning sce­n­ery … what else could you ask for?

And even more of it in the evening in Mag­da­le­nefjord. Wea­ther, sce­n­ery, cal­ving acti­vi­ty at the gla­cier … all at a maxi­mum!

Gal­lery – West coast – 18th July 2022

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