Day 15 – En route to Svalbard
The early part of the day was pretty quiet. The calm was frequently interrupted by northern fulmars gliding freely on the air currents and barely escaping collisions with the array of camera lenses pointing at them. The crew on deck and on the bridge were carefully scanning the horizon with binoculars. A pod of white-beaked dolphins and a few northern bottlenose dolphins were seen from the bridge. By the time it was called out, they disappeared and were less curious.
In the afternoon, as we sat through a presentation on barnacle geese, the most exciting moment we were waiting for all week occurred. Some people saw a tiny snow bunting circling around the ship from the window, a total break from the routine bird sightings. Chaos immediately erupted as the fanatic bird and non bird watchers rushed out with their lenses. I stayed put on deck and was immediately rewarded for my nonchalance, the snow bunting flew across the deck and landed right in front of me.
Finally the hazy outline of Spitsbergen’s mountains began to emerge. At around 5:30pm our view was obscured by a rare sighting of spouts of three blue whales swimming right beside the ship. Humpback whales also appeared, their presence created a buzz until we neared Prins Karls Forland, the long dramatic island on the west coast of Spitsbergen.
Day 16 – Svalbard Islands ( Poolepynten & Alkhornet)
The sea was flat as the captain navigated the ship into the Forlandsundet Strait, headed for a stop at Poolepynten, named after British Whaler Jonas Poole, a sailor who hunted bears, whales and walruses in 1610s and founded “Jamestown” in the New World. His life abruptly cut short when he was murdered in London in 1612.
In tribute to his exciting life, we were deposited onto the beach to admire the walruses who were doing their best to honor his legacy by simply being asleep in a massive, pungent, blubbery pile. A few more ambitious ones went for a quick dip. I was in the group of lucky ones who witnessed the feat.
We were split into two groups and swapped scenes after an hour. While one half enjoyed the snoring colony, the other half were led to the “other side of the island” to look at a collection of driftwood. The major wildlife event was two terns asleep on a log and some were treated to a view of a reindeer grazing by the lake, visible only as a tiny speck that required maximum binocular effort.
At around 9:30am, we were back on the ship and headed across Isfjord toward Nordre Isfjorden National Park which is unexcitingly close to Longyearbyen. We dilly dallied around the island which felt less like exploration and more like the crew were biding time. I also wondered about their “meticulous safety check” of the island especially since a few of us nearly sank to our knees in the snow and came back with soaking wet feet. The wildlife sightings didn’t exactly help the suspense either. We spotted a couple of reindeer grazing, their bums facing us and jogging aimlessly, kittiwakes shouting from the heights of Mount Alkhornet and an Arctic fox that was elusive it appeared to be nothing more than a dust speck.
The whole underwhelming affair was made worse by a recent conversation I had with another traveller on the plane who was on a sister ship. In these same waters, a day before we landed, they had seen 150 beluga whales. If not for that knowledge and the fact that the leader told us she “collaborates” with sister ships for sightings, I wouldn’t look back at this particular day with such total indignation.
CRAYSCAPE 