East of Barentsoya Island, Svalbard Archipelago
“Good morning, it is 3:40 am and we have three polar bears surrounding the National Geographic Explorer”, and so our day begins. We have only 4 days in the Svalbard Archipelago before we head south to northern Norway. I am not sure if we could keep up the pace if we had more days. Our time in the high arctic has been chocked full of exploration. Remember of course, that our “days” have no sunset, no dark time, no sunrise. Today we begin with a bang. Some are able to return to sleep after our encounter with the 3 polar bears, some are too awake from the encounter and remain awake and talk in small groups about our experience, waiting for the next adventure to begin. Our sighting was in pack ice to the east side of Barentsoya Island at Sundneset and we continue to push on through the ice to our landing site during the early morning hours.
Our landing is on Barentsoya and the beginning of our land based explorations occurs at 9:00am, we are suddenly ashore among the arctic fox and Svalbard reindeer. The reindeer, in particular, are curious with our presence and continue to feed very close to our hiking groups. We are overwhelmed with the high arctic landscape, the flora and fauna are too much for our senses. We are still yet to see the middle of the “day”.
Returning to the National Geographic Explorer around noon we enjoy a long lunch as we begin to make our way south through Freemnasundet, a narrow water way between the islands of Edgeoya and Barentsoya. Our destination is Bjornoya (Bear Island) and we are nourished, rested, and ready. Our adventures continue…
