Fri
19 Jul
2024

Here comes the sun ☀️😃 final­ly, good wea­ther! So enjoya­ble, espe­ci­al­ly on the last full day of the jour­ney!

We got the blue sky in the after­noon, but during the mor­ning it was alre­a­dy warm wit­hout any wind. Some­thing that the mos­qui­tos lik­ed on Erd­mann­flya. A rather rare wild­life expe­ri­ence in Spits­ber­gen, but not com­ple­te­ly unhe­ard of. Humans are usual­ly not too fond of mos­qui­tos, but fish love them! To our gre­at sur­pri­se, we found fish in a small morai­ne pond at Tun­draod­den. In lar­ger lakes, of cour­se, but such a small pond in a rela­tively young (may­be 200 years) morai­ne? Stran­ge, but the­re they were. Natu­re is full of sur­pri­ses!

Bore­breen was the final stop, under a blue, sun­ny sky. This gla­cier is curr­ent­ly advan­cing. Stun­ning! Just compa­re to our visit last Sep­tem­ber (click here for the blog ent­ry, the last pic­tu­re in the gal­lery). The island whe­re we lan­ded back then is now 500-600 met­res behind the gla­cier front! 😲

Then it was just a few hours of sai­ling back to Lon­gye­ar­by­en, whe­re we spent the last evening on board in good spi­rits.

Pho­to gal­lery – Isfjord: Erd­mann­flya & Bore­breen – 17t July 2024

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Fri
19 Jul
2024

Also today the mor­ning was a bit grey, but in the end the wea­ther tur­ned out to be on our side and we could enjoy a gre­at hike in Bell­sund: from Fri­dt­jov­ham­na, a reason­ab­ly well-shel­te­red bay at the gla­cier Fri­dt­jov­breen, to Inge­borg­fjel­let fur­ther west. That is a beau­tiful area with lar­ge colo­nies of litt­le auks and a tun­dra plain with reinde­er, arc­tic foxes and geese. A won­derful place!

Neither the wea­ther nor any polar bear made life dif­fi­cult for us today, so we could enjoy being out­side pret­ty much the who­le day 🙂

Then it was time to set cour­se for Isfjord.

Pho­to gal­lery: Fri­dt­jov­ham­na-Inge­borg­fjel­let – 16th july 2024

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Thu
18 Jul
2024

So now we had the noto­rious south cape behind us. The pas­sa­ge had not been that bad at all.

The next day saw us in Horn­sund. Prin­ci­pal­ly one of Spitsbergen’s finest fjords, the magni­fi­cent land­scape lay lar­ge­ly hid­den behind grey fog and the occa­sio­nal rain show­er. But again, we were actual­ly lucky. Gås­ham­na tur­ned out to be the best place, with reason­ab­ly good visi­bi­li­ty and we didn’t get wet. But the­re was not­hing more to achie­ve today. On the other hand, the­re is worse than rela­xing a bit on a quiet ship and lis­tening to some lec­tures.

Then it was time to head up north. The swell was still quite strong, so we stay­ed away from Hyt­te­vi­ka and went straight to Bell­sund. It was gre­at to get out for a litt­le walk on Akseløya in the evening. After that the spi­rits were high as ever 🙂

Pho­to gal­lery – Horn­sund & Bell­sund – 14th/15th July 2024

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Sun
14 Jul
2024

We knew that sai­ling could be a moving expe­ri­ence, some­thing that we got con­firm­ed again during the night. Later in the mor­ning, we were moved not only by the swell, but only by a won­derful encoun­ter with a cou­ple of hump­back wha­les in sou­thern Storfjord.

In the after­noon, we found some shel­ter in Isbuk­ta whe­re we also mana­ged to go for a walk. The choice was eit­her a rather bizar­re morai­ne land­scape or a gla­cier walk. Any­way, it was win­dy!

Pho­to gal­lery – Storfjord & Isbuk­ta – 13th July 2024

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Sat
13 Jul
2024

A night of sai­ling took us to Free­man­sund bet­ween the lar­ge islands of Barent­søya and Edgeøya in sou­the­as­tern Sval­bard. A won­derful area, high arc­tic in its very own way, very dif­fe­rent from Nordaustland’s very bar­ren polar desert eco­sys­tem.

Here, polar bears tend to chan­ge one’s plans even more fre­quent­ly than else­whe­re. No excep­ti­on today. In this very cha­rac­te­ristic land­scape with its wide, dark, pla­teau-shaped moun­ta­ins, the­re are colo­nies of kit­ti­wa­kes and arc­tic foxes are roa­ming the tun­dra. And the wide, green tun­dra is won­derful. Even when the sky is rather grey.

Pho­to gal­lery – Barent­søya & Edgeøya – 12th July 2024

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

Thu
11 Jul
2024

Hin­lo­pen Strait … haven’t we just been the­re yes­ter­day? Yes, we have, but it is a big place. you could easi­ly spend a week the­re – bet­ter two! – wit­hout having been ever­y­whe­re in that huge and beau­tiful area.

So we picked some real­ly good places. Last night we still added a bunch of wal­ru­ses to a day that had alre­a­dy been bet­ter than good. Today, we star­ted the day at Von Otterøya, a stony pearl of high arc­tic land­scape. We retur­ned to the ship ear­lier than plan­ned becau­se the island tur­ned out to be alre­ay occu­p­ied by a polar bear, but at least we got some more time ashore than yes­ter­day in Wahl­enberg­fjord.

Brås­vell­breen is one of the seven won­ders of the arc­tic world, and we didn’t want to miss it eit­her. It is just an unbe­lie­va­ble place!

Pho­to gal­lery – Hin­lo­pen Strait (2) – 11th July 2024

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Wed
10 Jul
2024

After the par­ti­al­ly wea­ther-bea­ten last cou­ple of days, today was our day in Hin­lo­pen Strait. Alt­hough – it star­ted with can­cel­ling the hike that we had been loo­king for­ward to, on a small island in Wahl­enberg­fjord. Two polar bears on the even smal­ler neigh­bou­ring island!

So ins­tead of the hike, we got a won­derful wild­life obser­va­ti­on of a polar bear mother with her first-year cub who were wal­king across this litt­le island, lea­ving us with some unfor­gettable memo­ries!

Later, we got some more equal­ly unfor­gettable memo­ries at Alkef­jel­let, this huge colo­ny of Brünich’s guil­l­emots. Ama­zing!

Pho­to gal­lery – Hin­lo­pen Strait – 10th July 2024

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Tue
9 Jul
2024

After that very wet after­noon and evening in Murch­ison­fjord, the wind came. A lot of wind. The­re was cle­ar­ly not­hing to achie­ve in Murch­ison­fjord, so we tried our luck fur­ther north and set sail. Of cour­se it was blo­wing the­re as well, it was just blo­wing all over the place and it was not easy to find an ancho­ra­ge that work­ed, let alo­ne a chan­ce to go ashore.

Final­ly a win­dow ope­ned up for us at Sjuøya­ne, in the very fur­thest north of Sval­bard, and we got a magni­fi­cent landing on Phippsøya, the nor­t­hern­most “real island” in this part of the Arc­tic. We great­ly enjoy­ed it!

The drift ice east of Sjuøya­ne had drifted else­whe­re, the­re was just fog in that area and not­hing else. Well, we had real­ly made good use of our wea­ther win­dow!

Pho­to gal­lery – Sjuøya­ne – 08th/09th July 2024

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Mon
8 Jul
2024

Con­di­ti­ons were ide­al last night to cross nor­t­hern Hin­lo­pen Strait, hea­ding for Kinn­vi­ka in Murch­ison­fjord, Nord­aus­t­land. Next to the old Swe­dish-Fin­nish rese­arch sta­ti­on, we explo­red the bar­ren polar desert – what a con­trast to the com­pa­ra­tively rich vege­ta­ti­on we had seen the last cou­ple of days!

In the after­noon, the wea­ther fore­cast kept its pro­mi­se with strong winds and quite hea­vy snow and rain. The best place to be was obvious­ly in the cosy salon of the ship, lis­tening to some pre­sen­ta­ti­ons and enjoy­ing a good book. It seems to have been a wet place any­whe­re in Spits­ber­gen; in Lon­gye­ar­by­en, they actual­ly had to clo­se some roads becau­se of risks of floo­ding and ava­lan­ches!

Pho­to gal­lery – Nord­aus­t­land: Kinn­vi­ka – 07th July 2024

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Sun
7 Jul
2024

The head­line might just as well be: Kreuz­rit­ter and Rit­ter­hüt­te, which trans­la­tes to “cru­sader” and “Ritter’s hut”.

Sørd­als­flya is part of Reins­dyr­flya, a lar­ge area of most­ly flat tun­dra land north of Lief­defjord. This is whe­re the Ger­man wea­ther sta­ti­on “Kreuz­rit­ter” was loca­ted during the second world war, from 1943-44.

Sin­ce then, Reins­dyr­flya has again been a peaceful place whe­re natu­re rules.

This is also the case at Gråhu­ken, in nor­t­hern­most Wood­fjord. Nobo­dy is win­tering the­re any­mo­re, let alo­ne hun­ting polar bears, but the hut the­re has seen many well-known win­te­rers from Hil­mar Nøis who built the hut to Chris­tia­ne Rit­ter, who win­tered the­re tog­e­ther with her hus­band Her­mann Rit­ter and the Nor­we­gi­an hun­ter Karl Niko­lai­sen in 1934-35. The win­tering resul­ted in the famous book “A woman in the polar night”. See­ing the hut was high on the wish­list for many on board – gre­at that it work­ed out!

The­re is, by the way, a page within this web­site (click here) dedi­ca­ted to the the “Rit­ter hut”, inclu­ding a vir­tu­al tour.

Pho­to gal­lery – Sørd­als­flya & Gråhu­ken – 06th July 2024

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Sat
6 Jul
2024

The wea­ther at Spitsbergen’s nor­thwest cor­ner was as it so often is in that area, with tem­pe­ra­tures clo­se to free­zing, a stiff bree­ze and occa­sio­nal snow­fall. It was good to be dres­sed with all the out­door gear you can get, spend just a few hours out­side and then get back to a ship with cen­tral hea­ting and the next good meal on the table … so dif­fe­rent from con­di­ti­ons wha­lers had to endu­re in the­se waters 400 years ago.

Dan­s­køya offe­red the oppor­tu­ni­ty for some hiking, and at Smee­ren­burg­breen, the clouds lifted and gave way to views of stun­ning beau­ty. And when that polar bear had gone its way, we could go and have a look at Vir­go­ham­na, which is kind of an out­door muse­um of arc­tic explo­ra­ti­on, expe­di­ti­ons and dra­ma.

Pho­to gal­lery – nor­thwest Spits­ber­gen: Dan­s­køya & Smee­ren­burg­fjord – 05th July 2024

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Fri
5 Jul
2024

A day in Kross­fjord, again with the best of wea­ther. Fjor­ten­de Juli­buk­ta tur­ned out to be well shel­te­red from the stiff bree­ze that was blo­wing in the main arm of the fjord. We could enjoy a wide ran­ge of nature’s won­ders, from the bird cliff which included a few rare puf­fins and even a very rare razor­bill, to the “han­ging gar­dens” with a beau­tiful flower car­pet inclu­ding some rare spe­ci­es such as polar dan­de­l­ion (Tar­a­xa­cum arc­ti­cum) and Arc­tic alpi­ne fle­a­ba­ne (Eri­ge­ron humi­lis) and final­ly the gla­cier at the head of the bay.

Tal­king about gla­ciers: the migh­ty Lil­lie­höök­breen is one of Krossfjord’s scenic high­lights, despi­te of a sub­stan­ti­al mass loss during recent deca­des.

Pho­to gal­lery – Kross­fjord: Fjor­ten­de Juli­buk­ta & Lil­lie­höök­breen – 04th July 2024

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Thu
4 Jul
2024

We enjoy­ed the day in Kongsfjord, whe­re we expec­ted the best wea­ther available. We didn’t reg­ret it!

Ossi­an Sars­fjel­let has some gre­at views over Kongsfjord, a mixed sea­bird colo­ny of Brünich’s guil­l­emots and kit­ti­wa­kes and last but not least an impres­si­ve spe­ci­es ran­ge of flowers, inclu­ding some rare ones such as arni­ca angusti­fo­lia.

Blom­strand­hal­vøya is one of Kongsfjord’s beau­tiful clas­sics, from the old marb­le mine of Ny Lon­don / Marb­le Island to the ele­va­ted parts such as Brat­lie­kol­len which has a sple­ndid pan­o­r­amic view of Kongsfjord.

Pho­to gal­lery – Kongsfjord: Ossi­an Sars­fjel­let & Blom­strand­hal­vøya – 03rd July 2024

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Wed
3 Jul
2024

Things hap­pen­ed quick­ly, the wea­ther was gre­at so made as much as pos­si­ble out of the day. Wal­ru­ses were high on the wish­list. We found them in For­lands­und, tog­e­ther with a lot of kit­ti­wa­kes. A love­ly com­bi­na­ti­on 🙂

We con­tin­ued to Ny-Åle­sund, grab­bing the oppor­tu­ni­ty to have the place to our­sel­ves wit­hout any lar­ge ship the­re. Nice!

Pho­to gal­lery – From For­lands­und to Ny-Åle­sund – 02nd July 2024

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Mon
1 Jul
2024

Today we took off again, this time with SV Mean­der! 18 days of Spits­ber­gen, that’s a lot. We are loo­king for­ward to the adven­ture!

And it was a good start: we enjoy­ed a love­ly litt­le evening crui­se in Ymer­buk­ta, enjoy­ing the evening light at the gla­cier of Esmark­breen.

And as we were just about to call it a day, we sud­den­ly saw a polar bear fami­ly at Alk­hor­net 🙂

Pho­to gal­lery – From Lon­gye­ar­by­en to Ymer­buk­ta and Alk­hor­net – 01st July 2024

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