Gallery 4: Hinlopen Strait
Polar desert and tundra, guillemots and walrusses. Our turnaround point at the ice edge
The polar desert on Nordaustland is a completely different world than Spitsbergen’s rich tundra. Still here is life here, and there was much more life here (wherever „here“ was back then) about 800 million years ago. Traces of this life are now cracked up by the frost, here above 80 degrees north.
But life is even more plentiful at Alkefjellet, the famous bird cliff. Life is teaming there! So it is in the water, a Fin whale is out and about feeding on plankton. We are at the right place at the right time, something that happens more than just a few times during this trip.
Time for a good hike in Lomfjord, and even though it is a bit foggy, this does not really matter as long as it is not too much and the curtain is lifting whenever needed.
Life on the ice is teaming in quite a different way, wrapped up in impressively thick skin and blubber layers, armed with big tusks. Both view, sound and smell are amazing.
We already knew that the southern Hinlopen Strait would be our turnaround point when we left Longyearbyen, but as said more than once: from now on we would not go back, we would just continue in the opposite direction.
Hinlopen Strait
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To Gallery: → Kongsfjord → The Northwest → Woodfjord → Hinlopen Strait → Wide-open tundra in Sorgfjord → The west coast → The west coast, continued further south → Hornsund → Bellsund and Isfjord
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last modification: 2015-10-19 ·
copyright: Rolf Stange