Edgeoya Island
Bleak and beautiful, stunning and simple. Past and present, birth and death. So was the experience ashore today at Diskobukta on Edgeoya.
Exploring today had a feeling of contrast. Gray skies contrasting with drab brown hillsides, punctuated by yellow, purple, white and pink flowers around our feet. Piles of bowhead whales bones, a sign of the slaughter that took place here in the 17th century, and out of these a lush growth of vegetation. A melt water stream carving through black, vertical rock cliffs, alive with thousands of nesting Black-legged Kittiwakes. A beehive of bird activity surrounded by bleak, expansive tundra.
After dinner, we entered the realm of the ice bear. As we slowly worked our way through the drift ice, a distant polar bear was spotted. In a field of gray and white, a creamy head. The captain gently maneuvered the ship closer to the bear, when it decided to approach the ship. We sat in awe as the bear walked around the ship, seemingly as curious of us as we were of it.
