It’s hard to believe that our amazing journey together is coming to an end. Today’s expedition in Bamsebu in Bellsund treaded an oddly comfortable line between the utterly foreign wilds of the High Arctic, and the now familiar embrace of a landscape we have fallen in love with. The wind was brisk, but explorers of all interests set out to absorb the scenery with new flames of intrigue, ignited by our two weeks of exploration.
Discarded reindeer antlers, whalebones left behind from human activities of the past, old ships, ancient fossils, lichens, mosses, fresh buds of spring plants: we were surrounded by a plethora of curios set amongst stunning scenery and snow topped mountains.
As we took time to talk about what we had seen in the morning during our afternoon “recap,” we were interrupted by a radio call from our captain. The folks on the bridge had spotted something white and fluffy on the ice ahead! Our time in Svalbard concluded, stunningly, with one last solitary polar bear ambling along the last remaining fast ice of the season. How lucky we have been on this incredible expedition!
As a little kid, Jackie Weston flew internationally with a bag of animal bones she found on the beach as her carry on. You could do that back then… Raised in Ontario, Canada and in the Orkney Islands of Scotland, Jackie has had an insatiable curiosit...
Enter travel details to receive reports from a single expedition
Loading...
Loading...
Loading...
Send Daily Expedition Reports to friends and family
*By clicking the submit button, I authorize Lindblad Expeditions to email me; however, I am able to unsubscribe at any time. For more details, see our Privacy Policy.
Please note: All Daily Expedition Reports (DERs) are posted Monday-Friday,
during normal business hours. DERs are written onboard the ship only and do
not apply to land-based portions of expeditions.
It feels so good to have National Geographic Resolution back in the ice! There are not enough superlatives in the English language to describe our day today. After a flat, calm crossing through the unprotected waters north of Norway, we awoke this morning to our first glimpses of the snow-topped landscape of Svalbard. The expedition team planned for a morning on the low headland of Russebukta on the western shore of Edgeøya, or “Edge Island.” Not long after the scout boat headed out to check the area for bears, there was an abrupt change of plans. A large, resting group of walruses were found tucked away in a little set of low-lying islands. Our morning was spent Zodiac cruising and admiring these grunting, snorting behemoths as they lazed about for our viewing pleasure. (Not so much for our olfactory pleasure, I might add.) King eiders were spotted, as well as nesting barnacle geese, adding two new species to our avian repertoire. Back aboard, we were treated to a delicious lunch as our ship cruised north, looking to explore our first sights of sea ice. As we plowed through the narrow channel between Edgeøya and Barents Island, the ice thickened, and we were unsure just how far we would get. I need to take a personal aside here to tell you just how impressed I was today by our bridge team and our incredible ship. With flat, calm seas and shining sun, we pushed through huge areas of “very close drift ice,” which translates to chunks of ice anywhere from car-sized to soccer-field-sized, and everything in between…all covering approximately 9/10ths of the sea’s surface. The ship maintained a respectable speed, and barely a shudder was felt as she steamed north. She truly is a fantastic ship, especially under sunny skies and in her true element – please see the photos! The energy on the bridge was contagious as all eyes were on deck to search for the kings and queens of the Arctic! Everyone was buzzing with anticipation and hope, and we were not disappointed. Our luck remained strong as a young male polar bear, the first of the trip, was spotted roaming the ice near our ship. We will go to bed tonight with exciting thoughts. What will tomorrow bring?
Our morning excursion took us to the stunningly beautiful Hellmobotn, a tiny settlement at the end of a small fjord. The few houses are summer homes and occasional residences for a small Sami population, so we were careful to respect their privacy as we passed through to our various hiking options. The longer hikers took a route past cascading waterfalls and over the hilltops towards Sweden, which is only a few miles in the distance. The more moderate hikers walked to a smaller but no less beautiful waterfall. We all enjoyed the peace and solitude of the old mountain forests for one last time before we head north to Tromso and onwards to the ice. An afternoon of fascinating lectures on ecology, geology, and the Indigenous Sami people was enjoyed as we cruised out through the fjord complex.
