Exploring Storfjord
Early this morning National Geographic Explorer made her way around the southern tip of Spitsbergen, the largest island in the Svalbard archipelago. At around six we entered pack ice just off the southeast tip of the island, our intention to look for wildlife amongst the ice floes. It was another magnificent, sunny day, with not a breath of wind to be found, and mirror-like water. Within a matter of minutes one of the naturalists spotted our first animals, a pair of bull walrus resting on a distant ice floe. We approached very slowly and quietly, and were rewarded with an amazingly close look at these massive pinnipeds. The cameras were firing away, as these two giants rolled around, scratched themselves, and lifted their heads to take a closer look at their audience. The Captain slowly backed away and left the walrus to keep resting away in the glory of the morning sun.
Just then the call came for breakfast and most of us retired to the dining room to get our morning intake from the delicious buffet. Some of us gobbled down their food, and then hurried back to the bridge or out on deck to look for more wildlife on this stunning morning!
We spent the rest of the morning, and early afternoon, near Isbutka, enjoying the incredible scenery, while we continued cruising through the pack ice, looking for more wildlife. There was flight after flight of Thick-billed murres that seemed to be headed back to their nesting cliff, along with a constant fly-by of Northern Fulmars that were out searching for food in the open water between the sea ice. Never did we spot our elusive quarry, the polar bear, but we had a magnificent cruise through the ice, and found another very cooperative walrus that was snoozing away on one of the ice floes!
Late in the afternoon our Expedition Leader Tim announced that we had a plan for a short excursion. So the Zodiacs were lowered and we went for a short walk on a large ice floe, while keeping a very keen lookout for bears in the vicinity. This was a real treat, and a unique experience, a great way to end our day of exploration in Storfjord!
