Sabineøyane

Panorama of an arctic island in Nordenskiöldbukta

Sabineøyane (“the Sabine Islands”) are a small group of rocks islands deep in Nordenskiöldbukta on the north side of Nordaustland, northeast Svalbard. In other words, the end of the world. There is definitely not much traffic here, at least not human traffic. These remote islands get far more visits by polar bears than by humans.

This was also the problem during a first attempt to make a landing on Sabineøyane. The island was already occupied, there was a mother polar bear with her cub, enjoying life on one of the rocky hills.

Occupied! There was nothing to be done about it. Polar bears have the right of way. Always.

During a later attempt, on a lovely late summer day, we managed to make a brief landing and I had the chance to take this panorama image. The position is at the south end of the main island, which has some square metres of flat terrain with an easily accessible shoreline.

Panorama Sabineøyane

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pano anchor link: #210914b_Sabineoyane_04HDR

Other than that, there is actually not much to say about Sabineøyane.

View across the main island of Sabineøyane.

The main island is 1.7 kilometres long and quite narrow, it is rocky and has a hill on each end of the island, the higher (northern) one being 101 metres high. As the name of the islands, which is a plural word, suggests, it is actually a small group of islands. There is one – much smaller – neighbouring island on the west side, and several rocks and skerries.