Some
of us went up the hill and had a great view over the tundra. Back on MV Fram we
sailed on Hinlopen Strait and visited on our way Alkefjellet, an over 100m high
imposing dolerite cliff with hundreds of birds. Some Brunnich’s Guillemots were
still around, but mostly Kittiwakes were flying in and out of the nests with a
“Million Dollar view”.
In the afternoon Tom held a lecture about the lord of the
Arctic – the Polar Bear and got rid of many myths about this majestic animal,
while Frieda was telling us about the seabirds flying around on Svalbard. The
evening landing was on Torellneset where we first spotted a skeleton of a
walrus. It was obvious that a polar bear had fed on it, as there were only
bones and skin left but most of all, we had some polar bear footprints around
the “corpus delicti”! Luckily we met also some “alive” walruses, lying on the
beach and digesting. Some of them decided to take a bath and one was even
swimming quite closely towards us! But all at a sudden, Manuel spread the word
– “Polar Bear in sight”! Far away there was a yellow dot on the tundra – was
it the polar bear who fed on the walrus? No one knows, so we kept on watching
the walruses, before it was time to head back to the Polar Cirkel boats. What
an exciting day!
