Storfjord
This morning, we woke to our second day out on the sea ice of Storfjord. With literally no set schedule other than to have breakfast, lunch, and dinner, the day was ours to spend more time out in this white wonderland east of Spitsbergen. And how better to start the day than to have our Expedition Leader wake us up with the delightful news of bear right outside?! We climbed out of bed and went up to the quarterdeck to find ourselves returned to the dramatic, frozen bay Isbukta. This was where we witnessed the previous day's drama of a bear killing a seal for its breakfast. This time, we found the bear again at a close range of 450 meters near the ice edge. It was quite clear that he could smell our ship and its inhabitants (not to mention the bacon!) approaching, and he would lift his head and yawn with these signs of wariness. His curiosity kept him cautiously close to the ship, but being an experienced, older bear, he also didn't allow himself to get too close.
Eventually, our friend wandered away and we continued further north to a spectacular place along the shore for some morning Zodiac cruises out on the water. The wind was calm and the water glassy smooth with the Hamburgbreen glacier and southern mountains of Spitsbergen offering a terrific backdrop to the morning. We meandered in and about the broken ice flows on the water, and we spotted Brunnich guillemots, black guillemots, skuas, kittiwakes, phalaropes, glaucous gulls, fulmars, and barnacle geese flying about. Along the shore, we could see polar bear footprints and the signs of where it had emerged from the water, rolled around, and then walked about. We also had to watch out for mischievous Vikings who would swoop into our path in a Zodiac and offer us hot chocolate!
After a tasty lunch back on board, the National Geographic Endeavour re-positioned itself for our afternoon activities of sea kayaking and more Zodiac cruises. The weather continued to be spectacular and folks had great fun paddling around the water amongst bergy bits and beneath pretty cliff sides of orange-brown rock looming overhead. At last, we came back aboard and pulled anchor to continue our journey back south around the land of Sorkapp and towards the western fjords of Spitsbergen.
This morning, we woke to our second day out on the sea ice of Storfjord. With literally no set schedule other than to have breakfast, lunch, and dinner, the day was ours to spend more time out in this white wonderland east of Spitsbergen. And how better to start the day than to have our Expedition Leader wake us up with the delightful news of bear right outside?! We climbed out of bed and went up to the quarterdeck to find ourselves returned to the dramatic, frozen bay Isbukta. This was where we witnessed the previous day's drama of a bear killing a seal for its breakfast. This time, we found the bear again at a close range of 450 meters near the ice edge. It was quite clear that he could smell our ship and its inhabitants (not to mention the bacon!) approaching, and he would lift his head and yawn with these signs of wariness. His curiosity kept him cautiously close to the ship, but being an experienced, older bear, he also didn't allow himself to get too close.
Eventually, our friend wandered away and we continued further north to a spectacular place along the shore for some morning Zodiac cruises out on the water. The wind was calm and the water glassy smooth with the Hamburgbreen glacier and southern mountains of Spitsbergen offering a terrific backdrop to the morning. We meandered in and about the broken ice flows on the water, and we spotted Brunnich guillemots, black guillemots, skuas, kittiwakes, phalaropes, glaucous gulls, fulmars, and barnacle geese flying about. Along the shore, we could see polar bear footprints and the signs of where it had emerged from the water, rolled around, and then walked about. We also had to watch out for mischievous Vikings who would swoop into our path in a Zodiac and offer us hot chocolate!
After a tasty lunch back on board, the National Geographic Endeavour re-positioned itself for our afternoon activities of sea kayaking and more Zodiac cruises. The weather continued to be spectacular and folks had great fun paddling around the water amongst bergy bits and beneath pretty cliff sides of orange-brown rock looming overhead. At last, we came back aboard and pulled anchor to continue our journey back south around the land of Sorkapp and towards the western fjords of Spitsbergen.
