Wea­king up with the Fjor­ten­de Juli gla­cier right in front of us was a grand way to start the day. We then went ashore in Sig­ne­ham­na, visi­ting the remains of a Ger­man wea­ther sta­ti­on from the dark days of the Second World War and then tur­ning our atten­ti­on back to natu­re with reinde­er, polar fox and views over fjord and gla­cier. Gal­lery Kross­fjord – 20th Sep­tem­ber 2016  Copy URL  gal­lery anchor link: #gallery_1050 Click o… Con­ti­nue rea­ding →

17th-19th August, 2016 – We made lar­ge steps back towards Isfjord, but not wit­hout an exten­si­ve stop in Bell­sund. The­re, we star­ted with a rela­xed after­noon in the pan­ora­ma lounge of the Arc­ti­ca II, wat­ching how wind, low clouds and rain tur­ned the arc­tic into some­thing very grey. Later that day, it cle­ared up a bit and we went out for a walk in Recher­chefjord. Things got bet­ter next day when we went for a lon­ger hike… Con­ti­nue rea­ding →

28th/29th July 2016 – The thin lay­er of fog that had cast such magi­cal light effects over Horn­sund yes­ter­day had grown over night into a solid, low lying cloud cover, making the world appear much more grey than it had been yes­ter­day. But both the litt­le impres­si­ons of the colourful tun­dra as the views from ele­va­tions are as beau­tiful as we had been hoping for. We go sepa­ra­te ways at least for a while in the after­noon. Whil… Con­ti­nue rea­ding →

Alre­a­dy the last day of this trip. Unbe­lie­va­ble how quick­ly more than 1000 miles go by. The fine tun­dra on Dia­ba­sod­den – just weeks ago the sce­ne of a memo­rable polar bear encoun­ter – is home to rather curious reinde­er who approach us repea­ted­ly. That is how it should be, not the other way around Bar­na­cle geese and Brünich’s guil­l­emots are sit­ting on the steep basalt cliffs, a ptar­mi­gan is on loo­kout on a rock, some­whe­re… Con­ti­nue rea­ding →

Why can’t I just stay and put up my tent in this land­scape here, north of Isfjord? Spend a week or more? Wide tun­dra with litt­le hills and lakes, a scenic coast­li­ne with many litt­le rocky capes and hid­den bays. Reinde­er so curious that it is almost dif­fi­cult to get rid of them again 🙂 Grey phalar­opes and Snow bun­tings, mos­ses gro­wing on ice. Can life in the arc­tic get any bet­ter? Gal­lery For­lands­und – 31st May 2016  Copy URL  g… Con­ti­nue rea­ding →

April is show­ing off with the best of clear, sta­ble, cold win­ter wea­ther. A trip to Barents­burg often starts with a view over Lon­gye­ar­by­en. Dri­ving along the coast is a regu­lar part of fre­quent tou­rist tours to Barents­burg, but you may not like the short, but steep ascents, espe­ci­al­ly when the sur­face is fro­zen over, if you are not used to dri­ving a snow mobi­le. Who would have expec­ted to see a wal­rus on a win­ter trip to B… Con­ti­nue rea­ding →

Back in Isfjord, and the lights are going on. A sun­set, that is moving more and more towards noon, is thro­wing a soft pin­ki­sh-red light onto the snow-cover­ed moun­tain tops. The tun­dra is fro­zen, the moss beds, soft and wet just a short while ago, are hard as con­cre­te. A few small rivu­lets are still run­ning under an icy cover, just a few spots of run­ning water are still expo­sed. Soon, they will also turn into ice, and not­hing will m… Con­ti­nue rea­ding →

The long trip from Wood­fjord to Kross­fjord went quicker and smoot­her than expec­ted, we were men­tal­ly pre­pared for some wind and sea, which did not hap­pen, but who would mind? Alt­hough, the wea­ther did chan­ge. The clouds were low abo­ve Lil­lie­höök­breen, with some fresh snow on the sur­roun­ding moun­ta­ins. A com­ple­te­ly dif­fe­rent atmo­sphe­re. Pho­to Lil­lie­hook­breen 21. Sep­tem­ber 2015 – 1/2 The­re was also fresh snow on the… Con­ti­nue rea­ding →

The day beg­ins as beau­tiful­ly as the last one ends. Kongsfjord in mor­ning light, belts of drif­ting gla­cier ice in the sun, you have to have seen that. Kings Bay has got its name for good reason. We are wel­co­med by a big reinde­er on the shore. Tun­dra and big erra­tic bould­ers, gla­cier-polished marb­le, views over wide gla­ciers and ice caps, crow­ned by the Tre Kro­ner. A roy­al sce­n­ery. Pho­to Kongsfjord – 16th Sep­tem­ber 2015 – 1/… Con­ti­nue rea­ding →

Let’s for­get yes­ter­day. Too many tough hours were spent criss-crossing Storfjord, back and forth, in strong wind and high seas, try­ing to find an ope­ning in the ice and a pas­sa­ge south. What loo­ked like a pas­sa­ge tur­ned out to be a dead-end road. The east coast of Spits­ber­gen loo­ked so clo­se, Horn­sund­tind was cle­ar­ly visi­ble, but as out-of-reach as the moon. Habe­nicht­buk­ta – 01st + 02nd August 2015 Final­ly we declared the… Con­ti­nue rea­ding →

Yes, good wea­ther, that’s what we want and what we need. The wind had lar­ge­ly cal­med down and even the sun was coming out at times. So on we went, with sand­wi­ches and ther­mos bot­t­les, into the tun­dra and up the moun­ta­ins. Gre­at views of the land­scape near and far, bizar­re shapes of wea­the­ring snow on the banks of litt­le rivers, ptar­mi­gans and reinde­er, flowers and erra­tic bould­ers, lar­ge val­leys with gla­ciers and morain… Con­ti­nue rea­ding →

You don’t have to go far away. Light and sce­n­ery, gre­at views and some wild­life – it is all here, clo­se to or even within Lon­gye­ar­by­en. No polar bears or wal­rus­ses, but tho­se endu­ring win­ter dwel­lers who can’t escape: reinde­er and ptar­mi­gan. The lat­ter are well camou­fla­ged also in win­ter, with their white plu­mage, so you almost can’t see them in the snow when they put the head down to pick some seeds from the fro­zen tun­dr… Con­ti­nue rea­ding →

The sou­the­as­tern islands are real­ly polar bear coun­try. Bears ever­y­whe­re, it can be dif­fi­cult to find a place whe­re you can go for a walk. In Free­man­sund, ever­y­thing is occu­p­ied by the­se cre­a­my-white polar sheep. And of cour­se, you might ask, why. The ques­ti­on „what are they doing here? The­re isn’t any­thing they can eat?“ is one that I hear about 100 times every day. One easy, but nevert­hel­ess true, ans­wer is becau­se… Con­ti­nue rea­ding →