In the ice

Today is has been marvellous weather, as usual in NE-Greenland. The guides have been giving lectures on different topics and different languages, as German and English. Olav and Bjarki also had an un-formal discussion about the Norwegian annexation of a part of NE-Greenland, named "Eirik den raudes land".

Most of the day we have been following the edge of the pack-ice. We saw flocks of seals, a whale blowing in the distance, polar bear tracks on the ice flow and a few birds.

At the end of the day we finally turned the ship westwards towards the coast of NE Greenland. At the moment we are south of Bontekoe Ø heading for Myggbukta where we will make a landing tomorrow to stretch our legs.

The sun set today was beautiful, but the days are getting shorter by 20 min each day so the light is fading quickly. The ice we have been sailing through all day has loosened up and the mountains are rising up from the sea.

Sailing westward

After two real expedition days we had a sea day onboard Fram on our way to Greenland´s north east coast. So we could sleep a little bit longer and had enough time for a nice breakfast. 

But after breakfast a lecture series started and we had the opportunity to learn a lot. So we had a lecture about Umberto Nobile and his expedition to the North Pole, a geological lecture about 4.6 Billion years in a nutshell, we learned about the Sirius Patrol in the National Park North East Greenland and about the history and the modern life in Greenland and we were thinking about the question who was really the first at the North Pole. The photographers under us had the possibility to learn from our expedition photographer the last important facts to get the best photos on the trip. We felt like students at the university, but everything was so well prepared by our expedition team that we did not want to miss any information.

In the afternoon we have been happy about a little rest with Norwegian waffles in the bar on deck 7. The whole ship smelled so wonderful that we had to go for waffles even we did not feel hungry as lunch had been excellent and most of us had already eaten more than we planned.

The evening ended with the famous FRAM fashion show. It was so nice to see the Captain and his officers together with the expedition team walking as models on the parquet. 
Tomorrow we expect our first ice very early in the morning. So when we awake tomorrow morning the world will be different. We are looking forward to the ice – that´s one reason why we are here.

Winter is coming!

In the early morning of day two on the Fram we arrived at the small scientific settlement of Ny-Ålesund at 78° 55´N. Ny-Ålesund has not always been a scientific settlement. It started out as a Norwegian mining town, owned and Kings Bay. The mining here was the tertiary coals which were produced some 50-55 million years ago, when Svalbard was on a more southerly and warmer latitude.

Mining commenced in 1917, disrupted by WW2. There were many difficulties with mining the coals here, due to a lot of faults and folds in the bedrock and the fact that methane gas could accumulate in the mines which resulted in numerous explosions and causalities. Until mining was closed down in 1962, 76 souls had perished. The high number of causalities as well as difficulties with mining and bad working conditions led to the fall of the Norwegian Gerhardsen government.

After being a “dead” town for some years (1964), scientific work started up in Ny-Ålesund and until present day has grown into a popular and important community. During the summer month up to 200 scientists and logistical personell have their dayly work here. In the winter months most people leave and left behind is a small handful of around 20-30 logistical, technical staff and scientists which most likely will enjoy the quietness and tranquillity of this magnificent landscape. Because this is a truly magnificent place with spectacular scenery to the 3 kroner (the three crown) which are some pyramid shaped mountains formed during the Carboniferous (290-360 mill yr). These mountains consist of chalk and anhydrite and dolomites deposited from the drying up of salt-water lagoons. 
Large calving glaciers are at the end of the fjord as the magnificent Kronebreen and Kongsbreen.
The settlement has the history of Amundsen, Ellsworth and Nobile which flew to the North Pole in Airships in 1926 (Norge) and in 1928 (Italia). The mast or tie-point of the large airships is still visible just outside the settlement
More than 20 000 tourists visit Ny-Ålesund every year, most of them come on smaller and larger cruise-ships, although there is a small air-port.
At 1600 hrs we cast anchor at Trinity harbour at Graveneset in Magdalenafjorden on the NW corner of Spitsbergen. This is the same are as Willem Barents came to when he discovered Svalbard in 1596. The name Spitsbergen means “Spitze berge” or jagged peaks which we also recognize today when we visit this place. There are approximately 130 whalers graves here, hence the name Gravneset, which means the grave point. During many centuries from the 1600 and until the 1800 several nations where hunting the whale in the waters of Svalbard. Mostly it was Dutch and British whalers later on smaller nations as Denmark-Norway.  In the early days hunting started in the bay in small rowing boats, later on they had to move further out with their ships and eventually they were hunting in the open sea and cocking the blubber and skinning the whale on the ships. The whale stock almost perished in the waters around Svalbard.

The weather was quite good, only a cloud cover on some of the summits and with the top of the jagged peaks covered in sugar snow.

After Magdalenafjorden we steamed NE through Smeerenburgfjorden and to the island of Moffen. We arrived here at hrs 2323, in twilight so it was difficult to see the walrus on the beach. A number of our guest stood on the front deck in the occasional snow showers to try to get a glimpse of this animal.

A dream comes true!

For so many weeks and month we were looking forward to or dreaming of this journey – and now the trip started – it started with sunshine in Longyearbyen – could you imagine a better start of a cruise?

We began the day with a guided tour through the city of Longyearbyen. Longyearbyen is the administrative center of Svalbard with a population of app. 2000 people. The city lies at the shore of Adventfjorden at the west coast of Svalbard. The city was founded in 1906 when the Arctic Coal Company started its operations there. It was named after John Munroe Longyear, the owner of the coal company. But Longyearbyen was also an important place in the history of the North Pole Expeditions. So started Amundsen his very well known and successful expedition with the Zeppelin constructed by the Italian Nobile to the Pole. Today Longyearbyen is an important place for scientist from all over the world. They find here the best possibilities for their arctic research.    
At 12.00 am we went onboard FRAM. After the check in procedure and the safety briefing the ship sailed north in the direction of Barentsburg. There we had our first landing. 
Barentsburg is a Russian coal mining settlement on Svalbard. It is after Longyearbyen the second largest settlement in Svalbard with app. 400 inhabitants. Most of them are working in a Russian-owned coal mine.
In groups the passengers were guided through the settlement and learned a lot about the history and the present life in a city so far in the north.
Some inhabitants prepared a wonderful show with dancing and singing for the guests in their culture house. 

Our first day onboard ended after a nice dinner buffet with the Captain´s welcome cocktail. Most of us went to bed very early as the last night in the hotel in Longyearbyen has been very short and the day was filled up with so many new impressions, that we had to sleep to be well prepared for our next expedition day.

Cycles - Circles

Several things are coming to an end, others are about to start. That's not only the ever cyclic pattern of Nature but also part of our trade. We went around the Svalbard archipelago for the last time this year, circumnavigation at its best, with all possible wildlife and a lot of extra excitement. The seasons are turning, too, night time is dark now, there is much less birds around, and according to the ice charts the sea ice is slowly moving back into place.

Most of our guests are going to leave us during the night, many of them have been with us before, so there will be quite a few who are going to come back in the future, for another spin, or cycle, or circle.

Our last day spoils us with wonderful light, polar foxes, lots of reindeer at Alkehornet and a rather gentle walk on the still soft ground, which will be frozen over very soon, as the Arctic heads for the new winter.

Later on in Skansbukta the very last landing, a last hike, ending at a tremendous viewpoint over the fjord. Above our heads and around the corner there's Puffins in the cliffs, sharing the space with the Fulmars. They also won't be staying on for long, their time to leave is at hand, well, wing.

So, time to leave for us, too. Tomorrow is last changeover in Svalbard, the last trip that has to be protected by flare and rifle is about to begin. The Svalbard season has ended.

For this year...

Memo to Bear:

Our apologies as we neglected to inform you of our morning’s plans at Gåshamna.  No doubt it was quite a surprise when you saw so many people standing on the beach when you walked down from the moraine.  Once we realized that you were there first we made haste to leave the beach so as not to disturb your privacy.  Upon reflection we can imagine your disappointment when the colourful blue and red buffet hopped into small boats and fled the scene.  We do however think it a little unreasonable that you followed us by swimming to the next beach to which we had evacuated.  Furthermore it seemed more than a little aggressive that you would further challenge us by walking the 2km to the west and then take over our main landing site. 

This morning we split everyone into two groups at two different landing sites.  Starting at 09:00, the hikers landed first about 2 km to the east of the main landing site at Gåshamna.  Once they were on their merry way, the remainder of the Expedition Team prepared the main landing site and by 10:00 the first blue jackets dotted the expansive plain.  It wasn’t much more than 30 minutes into the landing when we got the call to evacuate. Apparently the hikers to the east of us had encountered a bear.  They had already abandoned their site and the bear was steadily moving to our location.

The Expedition Team very efficiently cleared everyone from the landing site in a brief thirty minutes.  Sure enough, once everyone was safely on board Fram the bear strolled down the entire length of the beach we had just occupied!

Here follows the actual report of what transpired on the hiker’s beach.

The hike sets off at the flanks of a small, but very beautiful glacier, the Körberbreen. Since FRAM drops anchor far away we are ferried over with the Polar Cirkel Boats in two tiers, which gives us the time to clamber up the little moraine and get a good view on the bluish wall of ice.

Just as we have everybody on the narrow path a Polar Bear appears out of nowhere at the foot of the moraine where he must have been dozing behind a rock. After a few steps he stops for a moment, obviously to study us. And then he walks towards us...

That requires action. While everybody makes it down the moraine and back to the beach, two things happen: The boats are called back to the beach for fast evacuation, and we ready our flare guns. Since the bear keeps coming at the group, the first flare is fired - no reaction. These things are really, really loud and usually one is enough to scare the animal away. Not this time. More flares, not a flinch!

Finally the boats arrive and start bringing people away. Now the bear takes to the water, but instead of leaving he starts swimming towards our beach. Bugger!

Fortunately the boats distract him more than the flares did, so with the help of the boats we can buy us some time. Since FRAM is far away we quickly bring everybody to a nearby bay as a first step, in order to do a "normal" evacuation from there. The bear swims away now, had enough of us, as it seems.

As we all are in the boats, relief sets in and a lot of laughter is heard about this spectacular morning show. But isn't it the hallmark of a good horror movie that the villain comes back after the Happy Ending…? Just as we are down to the last two boat loads on the second beach, the very same bear appears on the far end of said beach. He must have run the whole way to be here in such a short time! He gets as close as 60 metres now, obviously uncertain what to do. But somehow, sometimes, instincts wake up in an otherwise very determined animal. Maybe he finally felt that red jackets with rifles are not good food, maybe the last bang of our flares finally got into his thick skull - he now decided to keep distance and finally trotted away from us.

While the regular landing was going on in the far distance of Gåshamna we went parallel to the shore to keep an eye on the bear. And believe it or not, now he sped up to about 5 knots - in the direction of Gåshamna...

That means full evacuation, because at that speed he will be there in under half an hour. About 100 people have to be shuttled back to the ship. That takes a while. And again, timing turns out to be on our side, as the last of our guests hop into the boat, the bear, the relentless, stubborn, probably very hungry bear, arrives on the shores of Gåshamna. This time we wave him good-bye. All of us - we are definitely out of reach now.

What an exciting way to start the day!

Then, at 13:30, we were enjoying scenic cruising in Brepollen when another bear was spotted lying peacefully on the shore.  This was another large male.  It got up as we approached, stretched, yawned and then plopped back down again, obviously not bothered by Fram’s stealthy approach. 

We stopped to admire the bear for a few minutes and then continued to Burgerbukta.  This was the first time landing at this really splendid site.  We were surrounded by glaciers.  A trail was flagged up the ridge of lateral moraine that bordered glaciers on both sides.  The trail continued in a very large loop to where we could actually walk on the glacier!

When we got back to the beach we were then treated to a cruise in the Polar Cirkel boats to one of the glacier fronts deep in the bay.

As if that weren’t enough, when we arrived at the ship there was a sumptuous barbeque on deck seven.  A perfect day!

Bear with me!

A journey that is named "In the Realm of the Polar Bear" puts quite a bit of pressure on everybody who is on the delivering side of the trip: The officers on the bridge slowly get red marks around their eyes from the binoculars they use all the time, keen sea men are scanning the shorelines, and the expedition team uses every free moment to watch the area, be it from the bridge, from every possible window or ashore. So far it was a dashing trip with wonderful wildlife, but now everybody wants him - the King. Where is the Bear...?!! Please...?

At 7:20h in the morning, a BingBong goes into all the cabins (everybody who has traveled with us ever knows what I mean). This can only mean one thing! And really, Karin's voice is full of excitement when she announces from the bridge - Polar Bear!

OK, in the distance, not so close, but a bear!

Just before we go back to our cabins, or to breakfast - BingBong! This time it's two bears, mother and a cub, much closer, too. Only now the relief sets in, the Realm of the Polar Bear has actually Polar Bears to offer. It is a totally different thing to know that they are there, and to see them.

This also creates a new sensation ashore: Now everybody feels the presence of the animals, they are literally just around the corner. We are feeble humans in the presence of the strongest land predator, and the fresh vigilance of the hikers is tangible as we set out to climb up the ridge. However, there is one obstacle on the way, the mud fields that have gained a reputation of being a boot grave. And apparently the last couple of days have seen plenty of rain, which is not only unusual, but also turned the already muddy plains into a big swamp. Fast, tiny steps, don't stop, don't help, this is the recipe to get across. The thing with all recipes in the world is that they might go wrong the first time. The swamp is taking its toll. A bit later we are a lot muddier, some boots are wet from the inside, but we are still happy and relieved, and we certainly have learned the pitter-patter walk...

In the meantime Manuel found Polar Bear No. four...

It is a very, very skinny fellow,  about a mile away. So there is no need to abort the hike at all. On the contrary, once we reach the first plateau we actually have prime seats to watch the animal ambling in the far side of the wide valley beyond, across the deep green of the tundra mosses. A beautiful sight, which we enjoy in awe, before we return to the mountain walk.

Up and up it takes us, until we reach a cairn in lofty 260 metres above the departure point, sporting a huge tripod with a webcam. This rather unexpected arrangement belongs to the Norwegian Polar Institute and provides valuable data about weather and ice conditions. Today it probably sends a quite surprising image to the far away screens; happy hikers assembling for a group picture, in front of a splendid overview over the bay and FRAM out at anchor.

The way back is downhill all the way, so we make it in no time, all hikers are steeled after almost a week of daily exercise. Just before we git the plains again, we literally stumble across a big fat male reindeer, antlers red from shedding the protective skin at the end of the season. They have to be ready for winter soon, and they do look in very good shape.

Without getting stuck, we make it back to the landing site, definitely time for lunch now. All are hungry like, well, like a bear...

The rest of the day is a welcome mix of lectures, relaxing, and the staff's Fashion Show in the evening. Many had been on a hike every single day, so a little break won't hurt, will it?