Tue
20 Aug
2024

Hin­lo­pen Strait was almost com­ple­te­ly hid­den behind den­se fog. At least we had reason­ab­ly good visi­bi­li­ty when we came to Alkef­jel­let, the magni­fi­cent colo­ny of Brünich’s guil­l­emots. Bey­ond that, the­re was not­hing to achie­ve in the area given cur­rent wea­ther con­di­ti­ons, so we just kept going and went down south to Barent­søya.

Pho­to gal­lery: Hin­lo­pen Strait to Barent­søya – 17th August 2024

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

The litt­le can­yon with the kit­ti­wa­kes in Free­man­sund will not be unknown to regu­lar rea­ders of my tra­vel blog. It is a won­derful place.

Curious polar bear che­cking my gear.
Pho­to © Tho­mas Härtrich/Norwegenfotograf.de (pho­to taken with long lens from the ship).

And inde­ed the fog left us in peace for a while, but a polar bear dis­tur­bed our ori­gi­nal plans the­re in a very plea­sant way.

Polar bear with my came­ra bag (pho­to © Kris­ti­na Hoch­auf-Stan­ge, screen­shot from a video.
I couldn’t get hold of my came­ra 🤪 ).

We could obser­ve the bear for a while, inclu­ding two unsuc­cessful attempts to catch a seal.

Flip­book: Polar bear hun­ting seals

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

Then we con­tin­ued with kit­ti­wa­kes and arc­tic foxes at Büdelf­jel­let on Barent­søya.

The surf at Kapp Brehm on the east side of Edgeøya was too hea­vy for a landing, so we con­tin­ued towards Ryke Yse­øya­ne, a small, remo­te and very rare­ly visi­ted group of three islands east of Edgeøya. The islands were the sce­ne of a tra­gic sto­ry in the late 1960. The­re are even two pages on spitsbergen-svalbard.com dedi­ca­ted to Ryke Yse­øya­ne and that sto­ry, click here and here to access them.

Pho­to gal­lery: Barent­søya to Ryke Yse­øya­ne – 18th August 2024

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