War, Inuit, Ice and Polar Bears

Early this morning we lifted anchor at 0500 hrs and set course for the East side of Clavering Ø. At 0800 hrs we landed with the first boats on Dødemandsbugten (dead mans bay). In 1823 this was the first an last encounter between Europeans and an unknown Inuit settlement. Many eskimo ruins are within the beach area.
In the area the remnants of the first HQ of the North East Greenland Sledge patrol during the war is present. It consists of one main building and the foundations of two others. Two fortifications made of old fuel drums filled with rocks and sand are placed in the vicinity, littered with .50 caliber cartridges. The station was built in 1943 but was moved to Daneborg in 1944.

Today we saw two saw 2 polar foxes at Dødemandsbugten.

At the moment we are sailing south in the pack-ice, trying to reach Nordfjord tonight...

Sailing in the ice we saw many polar-bear tracks on the ice, but now bears. Suddenly during dinner we heard „polar-bear“ on the speaker, so everyone ran away from dinner and desert. The disapointment was big as we could not find the bear again, but a few of the passengers saw it.
Half an hour later the loudspeaker roamed again "Big polar-bear on the pack-ice" everybody ran out again and there it was! Not only one but two, three and four. It was a mother with 3 large cubs, which is very un-normal. Usually a mother bear only get 1-2 cubs and if she get 3, usually they get skinny and die. What a GREAT evening!
still water in the river, unfortunately it was to late for us to fish since it is late autumn now.

Science and Dogs

Today we visited the scientific station of Zackenberg. The station is beautifully situated amongst high mountains and the fjord. They even have one of the best salmon fishing rivers in Greenland!
We did a walk up to the station, where we were greated by the logistical people running the station and some 20 scientists. The scientists are making different research, as biology, geography, glaciology etc.

The logistical personell  and some of the scientists gave us a tour on the station, showing us their different fields of research.
All day long the weather was beautiful, with cool, crisp air.
On the landing site the guides and guests had huge problems with falling water due to the tide. This meant getting wet! Eventually after 1 1/2 hours of delay the expedition team had managed to get everyone out to the ship.
During lunch FRAM sailed over to Daneborg, HQ of the Sirius patrol only 22 km away from Zackenberg. Anchour was dropped at 1600 hrs and after a quick lunch and some dry clothes we were all ready to go ashore again.
The patrol only numbered four men now, while the others are on Ella Ø taking part in a search and rescue exercise.
Our guests were divided into five groups and the patrol members and Bjarki took each one group and gave a guided tour around on the station and even visited the dogs of the patrol. After the SIRIUS patrol were invited on board for dinner and a tour on the ship. 
Late in the evening we said good bye and wished  the patrol a good winter...

A mosquito bay in the middle of the ice...

All our hope was focused on this day. Today we expected our first landing in the North East Greenland National Park after cruising along the ice edge for a longer time. And our dream came true. In the early morning we managed to land in “Myggbugta” (Mosquito bay), a very, very special historical place in the National Park.

As Greenland plays a significant role in the movement of global air masses in the Arctic and the North Atlantic, the Norwegian meteorologist have been interested in climate dates from Green since the beginning of the 20^th century. So it does not wonder that the “Geofysiske Institutt” in Tromso asked Johan A Olsen, who planned a trapper expedition to North East Greenland 1922, to send meteorological dates from Greenland during this time.  Olsen got the equipment for the data measurement and 3.500 Norwegian kroner for the whole experiment. 

Olsen found a good place for his trapper expedition in the low lands on the north side of the Mackenzie Bay. As the place was pestered with mosquitoes, he called the place Myggbugta, that means in nothing else than Mosquito Bay. At the 1^st of October 1922 Olsen sent his first dates to the “Geofysiske Institutt” in Tromso. These dates became the first wireless communication between Greenland and the rest of the world. In 1931 the place became famous again, as five trappers from the “Arctic Commercial Enterprise” claimed this area for the Norwegian king and hissed the Norwegian flag in Muggbugta at the 27^th of June. This fact caused a strong discussion between Norway and Denmark, which had the sovereignty over Greenland. The problem ended up at the Permanent Court of International Justice at The Hague. At the end North East Greenland stayed with Denmark and the Norwegian dream of getting at least the East coast of Greenland came to an end. 

For us it was not only a historical landing. For us it was the first step into the North East Greenland National Park. We enjoyed the tundra, we saw musk ox fighting against each other and of course we enjoyed the landscape.
The afternoon we spent in the dense sea ice. As it was so sunny and we had no wind it was wonderful to stand on the open decks to watch the ice and to hear how FRAM made her way through the ice. It was an unforgettable afternoon.

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...