Mon
16 Sep
2024

The won­derful, remo­te Nord­aus­t­land! „Remo­te“ is a rela­ti­ve term of cour­se. But in the eyes of someone who star­ted dis­co­ve­ring Spits­ber­gen by hiking from the sett­le­ments, it is kind of the dark side of the moon (and we did stretch the boun­da­ries pret­ty far back then).

So the­re we were. In Wahl­enberg­fjord. At Idun­nes­et, to be pre­cise. A love­ly hike with gre­at views of the inland ice.

Gyl­dé­nøya­ne did not turn out to be a polar bear para­di­se this time as on pre­vious occa­si­ons. Would have been too good, I guess. Curr­ent­ly the beasts just don’t want to show up. Well, we’ve still got time.

In Pal­an­der­buk­ta, we star­ted a hike in the polar desert, but retur­ned soon becau­se the wind was real­ly start­ing to blow quite hard.

Gal­lery – Wahl­enberg­fjord: Idun­nes­et & Pal­an­der­buk­ta – 16th Sep­tem­ber 2024

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Sun
15 Sep
2024

In Wors­ley­ham­na in Lief­defjord we had a look at Vil­la Oxford, a real Nøis hut from the 1920s. And we made a love­ly litt­le hike to the coast of Wood­fjord. On the way we found a memo­ri­al for Frank Wors­ley (Shackleton’s cap­tain on Endu­rance), which I had somehow never seen befo­re. Who may have put it the­re? Pro­ba­b­ly the expe­di­ti­on of Geor­ge Bin­ney from Oxford in 1924, I sup­po­se.

We made a loop into Mus­ham­na. Ever­y­thing fur­ther north – pos­si­bly polar bears, cer­tain­ly the Rit­ter hut at Gråhu­ken – remain­ed pret­ty much hid­den behind low clouds and rain.

Gal­lery – Wors­ley­ham­na, 15th Sep­tem­ber 2024

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Sat
14 Sep
2024

We star­ted the day near Ler­nerøya­ne in Lief­defjord. A beau­tiful mor­ning, the air crys­tal-clear, mir­ror images on the water. It con­tin­ued this way at Mona­co­b­reen. What a beau­tiful world! By the way, Mona­co­b­reen is curr­ent­ly advan­cing mark­ed­ly on its eas­tern side.

Later it was time to stretch legs a litt­le bit. So we did on Reins­dyr­flya, after a visit at the remains of the Kreuz­rit­ter wea­ther sta­ti­on from the dark years of the second world war.

Lief­defjord: Mona­co­b­reen & Sørd­a­len – 14th Sep­tem­ber 2024

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Fri
13 Sep
2024

A gol­den day at the nor­t­hern west coast, the „Seven ice­bergs“, Dei Sju Isfjel­la. One of tho­se rare days when you can actual­ly do a bit more on the wild outer coast bet­ween Kongsfjord/Krossfjord and Mag­da­le­nefjord than just pas­sing by. We went by Zodiac into the lagoon of Fjer­de­breen and spent a sun­ny mor­ning on the morai­ne hills near this migh­ty and very impres­si­ve gla­cier. Stun­ning!

Later we went into Kob­befjord on the west side of Dan­s­køya. Exact­ly, that is the place whe­re the tra­ge­dy of Møkle­by and Simon­sen hap­pen­ed in 1922. But what main­ly caught our atten­ti­on were the seals that Kob­befjord owes its name to (Kob­befjord = Seal bay). Har­bour seals, to be pre­cise. And a litt­le evening walk with a faint hint of wha­ling histo­ry. And an arc­tic let­ter­box.

Gal­lery: West coast: Fjer­de­breen & Kob­befjord, 13th Sep­tem­ber 2024

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Thu
12 Sep
2024

Kongsfjord. We had rea­ched Ny-Åle­sund during the night and that’s whe­re we also spent the mor­ning. Cold, win­dy and inte­res­t­ing, as always. With some gre­at views of the Tre Kro­ner and all the other moun­ta­ins and gla­ciers in inner Kongsfjord.

In the after­noon, we got more views of this grand sce­n­ery from a clo­ser distance. Stun­ning. But so is also the gla­cier ice loss, which has even acce­le­ra­ted in recent years. The­re is no deny­ing of that.

On the other hand, the amount of ice in Kongsfjord was quite sur­pri­sing.

The day finis­hed with an ama­zing sun­set in Fjor­ten­de Juli­buk­ta.

Gal­lery – 12th Sep­tem­ber 2024 – Kongsfjord

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Wed
11 Sep
2024

We spent the first full day in For­lands­und, with a won­derful mor­ning in Eidem­buk­ta, with the litt­le gor­ge, green tun­dra, wide views. It was pret­ty cold – that’s how it should be on 78 degrees north in mid Sep­tem­ber.

In the after­noon, we spent some gol­den hours on Her­man­senøya. From the distance, a small, not very exci­ting loo­king island. On a clo­ser view, full of inte­res­t­ing and beau­tiful details.

And the sun­set later that evening in nor­t­hern For­lands­und … stun­ning!

Pho­to gal­lery For­lands­und: Eidem­buk­ta & Her­man­senøya, 11th Sep­tem­ber 2024

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Tue
10 Sep
2024

Here we go again. The last time „Spits­ber­gen under sail“ for this year. The last time „Spits­ber­gen under sail“ with SV Anti­gua for me. The­re is inde­ed a bit of sad­ness.

But for now and here, we are loo­king for­ward to a gre­at trip and we enjoy a fan­ta­stic start, sai­ling with 10 knots into the sun­set. Just beau­tiful!

Gal­lery Isfjord, 10. Sep­tem­ber 2024

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Sun
8 Sep
2024

And the sun went up ☀️😃 wun­derful! A blue sky, bright suns­hi­ne. We cer­tain­ly enjoy­ed that, we had not had so much of that the last cou­ple of days.

We enjoy­ed this final full day accor­din­gly, with a litt­le hike on Erd­mann­flya in Bore­buk­ta. And final­ly on beau­tiful Bohe­man­nes­et.

Pho­to gal­lery Isfjord: Tun­draod­den & Bohe­man­nes­et. 07th Sep­tem­ber 2024

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And not much later we were back in Lon­gye­ar­by­en. Back in civi­li­sa­ti­on. Pack­ing, say­ing good­bye and fare­well … but first, time to cele­bra­te!

Pho­to­gal­lery Lon­gye­ar­by­en, 07th Sep­tem­ber 2024

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Fri
6 Sep
2024

Belie­ve it or not but the Arc­tic can actual­ly be pret­ty unp­lea­sant. Then it’s bet­ter to stay insi­de the cosy ship and talk about rocks. Mean­while out­side – let it rain, rain, rain.

But the sun does shi­ne after every rain­fall. The after­noon at Alk­hor­net tur­ned out to be won­derful. A tun­dra para­di­se with reinde­er and polar foxes. Stun­ning.

Pho­to gal­lery Trygg­ham­na, Alk­hor­net. 06th Sep­tem­ber 2024

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Fri
6 Sep
2024

Bell­sund was today a bit grey, but we could spend a dry and beau­tiful mor­ning in Recher­chefjord, from the green tun­dra at Asbes­tod­den (the mine­ral asbes­tos occurs the­re natu­ral­ly and an attempt was even made to mine it the­re a cen­tu­ry ago, hence the name) to Recher­che­breen.

The after­noon was real­ly wet and our visit at Kapp Tos­ca­na thus tur­ned out to be a short one. Later it cle­ared up again at Fri­dt­jov­breen.

Pho­to gal­lery Bell­sund: Recher­chefjord, Kapp Tos­ca­na, Fri­dt­jov­breen. 05th Sep­tem­ber 2024

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Thu
5 Sep
2024

The drea­ded south cape: plea­sant­ly uneventful. Fog­gy and calm.

Horn­sund: also fog­gy. But once again we mana­ged to be at the right place in the right time, at Gnå­lod­den in the evening.

Pho­to gal­lery: Sør­kapp – Horn­sund. 04th Sep­tem­ber 2024

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Wed
4 Sep
2024

It was a bit of a bum­py start into the day, with a pret­ty strong bree­ze blo­wing through Free­man­sund. We deci­ded to stay on the east side of Edgeøya today. Good thing.

The­re, we had the migh­ty Ston­ebreen – a uni­que spe­ci­men of a gla­cier! Edgeøy­jø­ku­len is an ice cap of a good 1300 squa­re kilo­me­t­res, and on its eas­tern side it just flows out into the sea, on a coas­tal stretch as long as 25 kilo­me­t­res. The actu­al gla­cier front is much lon­ger. We were lucky enough to get clo­se to that impres­si­ve bit of land­scape in suns­hi­ne ❄️☀️😎

This was fol­lo­wed by a scenic pas­sa­ge of the east coast of Edgeøya and final­ly a litt­le evening landing on Halv­må­neøya, at the famous trap­per hut of Bjør­ne­borg – very atmo­sphe­ric, not the least due to some fog banks and the sad call of seve­ral red throa­ted divers on some ponds in the vici­ni­ty.

Pho­to gal­lery – Edgeøya: Ston­ebreen, Halv­må­neøya. 03rd Sep­tem­ber 2024

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Tue
3 Sep
2024

What’s bet­ter than a gol­den day in Hin­lo­pen Strait? I can’t think of much. We ven­tu­red deep into Nordaustland’s fjords, into Pal­an­der­buk­ta, whe­re we were kind­ly gree­ted by some hump­back wha­les 🐳😀 and of cour­se the bar­ren polar desert land­scape and the huge ice caps that are so cha­rac­te­ristic for Nord­aus­t­land.

The evening brought a sun­ri­se that we enjoy­ed from a low hill on Von Otterøya.

Pho­to gal­lery – Hin­lo­pen Strait: Pal­an­der­buk­ta, Van Otterøya. 02nd Sep­tem­ber 2024

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Sun
1 Sep
2024

We visi­ted Andøya­ne during the mor­ning, a litt­le para­di­se of arc­tic natu­re in Lief­defjord. Red rocks, green tun­dra, blue sky, screa­ming arc­tic terns and the sad call of the red-throa­ted diver.

In Wood­fjord, we saw seve­ral polar bears. A mother and her cub had obvious­ly found some­thing to feed on – we couldn’t quite make out what it was – and a loner wat­ched from a save distance.

The famous “Rit­ter hut” at Gråhu­ken was the cul­tu­ral high­light of ano­ther love­ly day.

Pho­to gal­lery – Lief­defjord & Wood­fjord: Andøya­ne, Gråhu­ken, 01st sep­tem­ber 2024

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Sun
1 Sep
2024

The calm night ancho­red in Raud­fjord and some sun­rays last night and in the ear­ly mor­ning were a good thing. We spent the mor­ning in the beau­tiful bay of Hamil­ton­buk­ta.

In the after­noon it was time to stretch legs a lit­te bit, and so we did during a hike across Buchan­an­hal­vøya in inner Raud­fjord. Just in time befo­re it star­ted rai­ning again.

Pho­to gal­lery – Raud­fjord: Hamil­ton­buk­ta, Buchan­an­hal­vøya, 31st August 2024

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