Now, as we had entered Hinlopen Strait from the south, we wanted to get further into this amazing area, hoping for some good hikes, scenery and wildlife. We were not to be disappointed. From a good hike on Von Otterøya, with great panoramic views over large parts of Hinlopen, to one of many smaller islands on the area to Alkefjellet. The latter is always something special, but that night, it was just unreal. Pure magic.
Photo gallery – Hinlopen Strait: Von Otterøya, Smittøya, Alkefjellet
Now that we were already as far east as Storøya, we thought we might as well sail all around Nordaustland. And so we did. The day was a bit grey, but the light was actually great to highlight the amazing colour of the ice and the water, which was, in parts, heavily coloured by sediment. A part of the ice cap of Austfonna, in the area of Domen, has clearly advanced by several kilometres. The amounts of glacier ice in the water are amazing.
The pictures will tell the story. That’s the view we had for most of the day 🙂
Photo gallery – Nordaustland: Austfonna from Domen to Bråsvellbreen
We started with a hike on Raschøya – in sunshine! Good thing. We may not get too much of both – hiking and sun – later today and tomorrow. The view over the surroundings, islands, bays and the huge ice cap Austfonna, from Raschøya is incredible!
Indeed, we lost the sun (rather, it disappeared behind clouds and fog) as we reached Storøya. If anyone had not yet mentally arrived in the high Arctic, well, this was it: as barren, cold, windy and foggy as anyone could imagine. An island not for humans, but for walruses and polar bears.
We even managed to make two landings on Storøya, one near the walruses in the north and one at the hut of the Ymer-expedition in 1980.
Now we have many miles at sea ahead of us as we sail around Nordaustland.
The world – this part of it, anyway – was ours today. Great weather, and some remote, wild arctic islands ahead of us!
Landings on such small islands are always exciting. Nordre Repøya, Karl XII-Øya, Foynøya. Amazing places! Strange that we didn’t see any polar bears (just parts of them). Where are they? All up to the ice? Hard to believe. Anyway, they were not here today. It is kind of strange to spend several days in this area without seeing a single bear. But we got all these great landings, so for us, it was not a bad thing.
Later we had the greatest arctic evening ever in in easternmost Orvin Land. At anchor in the easternmost bay before the great glacier front of Leighbreen starts, which is part of the huge ice cap Austfonna. What a light, what a view, what an evening! Unforgettable!
Photo gallery – Nordre Repøya, Karl XII-Øya, Orvin Land
Considering the weather forecast, our expectations for this day were somewhat limited, but actually, it turned out great! Starting with a great hike from Rijpfjord to Zorgdragerfjord across the barren interiour of the country, which is hardly ever visited. Also Zorgdragerfjord does enjoy its existence in solitude, and it is great to see places like that.
Later, we went for another hike in the northwestern part of Duvefjord. We even got some sunshine there, so we went out yet one more time in the evening, to enjoy the great light.
Photo gallery – from Rijpfjord to Zorgdragerfjord and Duvefjord
A day in some of the remotest and most rarely visited corners of Svalbard. That is certainly true for the western part of Nordenskiöldbukta on Nordaustland: poorly charted waters with a lot of shallows, where most Captains will refuse to take their ship. But Heinrich drives his Arctica II almost like a Zodiac.
That way we got the rare opportunity for a glacier hike on Sabinebreen.
A glacier from a more classic perspective was what we got later at Rijpbreen.
We finished the day off with a visit to the Haudegen war weather station. A pretty grim part of Svalbard’s history, but interesting.
Photo gallery – Nordenskiöldbukta & Rijpfjord: Sabinebreen, Rijpbreen and Haudegen-station
During the night we steamed to the northeast. At some stage we just have to do some miles. Big thanks to all who helped to keep the ship on course during the nightly shifts!
In the late morning, we started the day’s adventures at Kapp Rubin, a rocky headland on the north coast of Nordaustland. Looking for the traces of a tragic wintering in 1908-09 (we found some, including a grave and some small bits and pieces) and of Theodor Lerner’s expedition in 1913 (we didn’t find any). Lerner lost his ship and had to spend some time at Kapp Rubin, waiting for help.
Later, we explored Ekstremfjord. Strange name, there is no explanation for it. Probably after a ship. Anyway, the name is appropriate, for example regarding the extreme amounts of plastic litter on the shores (a good bit less when we left) and extremely rocky. And extremely beautiful views over an extremely barren, beautiful landscape.
Photo gallery – Nordenskiöldbukta: From Kapp Rubin to Ekstremfjord
What a day! Within 24 hours, we had spent a night plus some quality time in Ny-Ålesund and then went as far as Virgohamna, but not without a lovely landing at Diesetsletta on the open west coast, as we had the best of conditions, so we just had to jump at that rare opportunity 🙂 we rounded the day off in Virgohamna, exploring the traces of the expeditions of Andrée and Wellman.
It is wonderful to wake up on a small boat at anchor in a silent bay, with beautiful landscape in the sun all around. Of course that is just asking for a good hike. And so we did. Splendid! Wonderful views over central parts of Prins Karls Forland.
After our first, “failed” 😉 attempt yesterday to see walruses in Poolepynten, we made a new attempt today further north at Sarstangen. Today, we were not disappointed! (And of course, we were not disappointed yesterday either … just kidding …).
Photo gallery – Prins Karls Forland & Sarstangen
A silent night at anchor is one of the best things I know 🙂 and it is even better when the sun is out next morning.
The green tundra around Alkhornet is a perl of arctic nature. Many reindeer, polar foxes and mighty ice wedges. And a very busy birdcliff providing the appropriate noise.
Click on thumbnail to open an enlarged version of the specific photo.
Then we continued into Forlandsund, with a lot of sun and a bit of wind. The idea was to visit some walruses there, but that didn’t quite work out as planned. The place was already quite busy …
Yesterday we started in Longyearbyen with Arctica II. And now we have just about 30 hours behind us, but it feels already like 3 days.
After a look at the weather forecast my expectations regarding this first had been slightly limited, but as it turned out it was a good decision to stay in Billefjord. After a visit to the mighty Nordenskiöldbreen – still an impressive glacier, despite of its dramatic retreat – we found our first polar bear just after the first breakfast on board. And what a beautiful sighting it was!
The first hike took us up a moraine and then along a river where we found coal from the Carboniferous (near 300 million years old). Much older than the stuff in Longyearbyen, Barentsburg and so on. We finished the hike in the old coal prospecting “settlement” (well, four huts) Brucebyen.
Sailing out of Billefjorden took quite some time. Too many whales 🙂
We finished this first day – as far as activities outside were concerned – at Svenskehuset. An amazing place with some rather dramatic history.
A polar bear was shot on Friday (05 August) evening in Krossfjord, while it tried to get into a hut where there were several persons insisde. It is said that the group tried to scare the polar bear away without success.
The incident is now under investigations. Further details have not yet been released at the time of writing.
There are several definitions for the Arctic, depending on context. When it is a bout climate, then the southern boundary is usually the 10 degree july isotherm. Sounds technical? Maybe. But it makes sense: when the average temperature of the warmest month – July – is warmer than 10 degrees, then there will be shrubs or even trees. More than tundra, which is the typical vegetation for the ice-free land areas of the Arctic.
There are no shrubs or even trees in Spitsbergen (don’t get fooled with the polar willow and the dwarf birch, they are not really trees), but for the first time in history, local meteorological stations have now in July recorded a mean temperature that doesn’t really qualify as „high arctic“ anymore. 10.1 degrees centigrade were measured at the airport and 10 degrees in Pyramiden. At the airport, the monthly average in July was as much as 3.1 degrees above the long-term average, according to the Norwegian Polar Institute as quoted by Barentsobserver.
In July, tourists and locals could enjoy real summer weather in Spitsbergen, with temperatures far beyond expectation. For the regional climate, this is not good news, however: warming is continuing rapidly, with temperature records being broken on a regular basis.
It will not happen really soon that you can make a walk in the forest in Spitsbergen, but the warming trend as such is clear: during the meteorological period from 1991-2020, the average temperature for the summer months from June to August was, at the airport, 5.5°C, but looking just at the last decade gives a value of 6.4 degrees, according to the Norwegian Polar Institute. Warming is faster in the Arctic than almost anywhere else on the planet, due to regional effects such as the loss of sea ice.
This leads to worrying effects that may well even further amplify the warming process: scientists have recently found methane springs in areas previously covered by now retreating glaciers. Through these springs, large volumes of gases, mainly methane, can escape into the atmosphere, while they were stored in the underground as long as it was glacier covered. As a greenhouse gas, methane is much stronger than carbon dioxide. The amount of methane currently emitted this way in Spitsbergen is estimated near 2000 tons our about one tenth of the methane emissions of Norway’s oil and gas industry. But this value may see a significant increase in the near future as glaciers keep retreating, according to the University of Cambridge auf ihren Seiten.
Time is flying, this is already the last full day of a very long voyage. We are back in Isfjord, anchored in Ymerbukta since the very early morning. It was blowing quite strongly in the morning, but we moved a bit further into the bay where the mountains gave us some shelter and went ashore. Ymerbukta is not as far from zivilisation as many of the places we had recently been to; there is boat traffic and mobile phones work in there. Still, it is a beautiful place, and nature has a lot to fascinate us with, from 300 million year old fossils to the glacier Esmarkbreen.
The final landing took place in Colesbukta. An impression of the Russian history of Spitsbergen in the 20th century was followed by a quiet walk into the beautiful tundra of Colesdalen.
A beautiful finale of a beautiful voyage, which was blessed with luck … weather, wildlife … everything was there. The Arctic was friendly to us. Spirits on board were better than good and everything worked perfectly well – my appreciations for this go to all involved, especially to Mario, captain and owner of the good ship Meander, and his crew! Great work, and I am looking forward to joining you again in late August!
Photo gallery – Isfjord: Ymerbukta & Colesbukta, 17th july 2023
It was and remained windy everywhere where the easterly breeze could blow through or was even channeled. So Recherchefjord was an obvious choice. A little evening tundra walk took us through a lot of Spitsbergen history.
Next day, the sun smiled from the sky. A clear invitation to go for some good hiking in Chamberlindalen and on Observatoriefjellet. A great morning!
A visit to Recherchebreen was cut short as a thick fog bank came in with amazin pace. The world hidden in grey, we then steamed north, towards Isfjord.
Photo gallery – In Recherchefjord, 15th-16th July 2023