So our Expedition of Svalbad began with great excitement. Svalbard is a peninsular above the arctic circle and controlled by Norway. It is a protected territory and no hunting is allowed. Also ships visiting have very strict rules to adhere too.
Our first stop was Bear Island ( top photo ). It was named in 1596 after a dutch exploration ship that stopped at the island and found a stray polar bear that had probably swum to the island. The explorers killed it and no further bears have ever been found on the island but it is now a colony for thousands of migratory sea birds nesting on sheer cliff ledges. An amazing and very noisy sight. Because of the very high and steep cliffs we could not land and had to watch all the activites from the zodiacs. Some people got to wear a wet medal from the birds flying above us. Richard managed to get a slight smattering down his back but missed the bulk of it. Phew!!
Kittiwakes nesting on the ledges.
Guillemots, which look a little like a miniature penguin when seen standing on the cliff ledges below.
Not sure what variety of arctic birds egg this is but they are all shaped like this so that they do not roll off the ledges where they nest. Nature takes care of everything!! but that doesn't stop the arctic foxes from eating them.
Guillemots, a male and female with their young chick. Its at this stage that they fly from the high nest with the adult male, down into the sea and ending with a very undignified landing ( if they are lucky ) Many don't make it and end up on the rocks below badly injured or stunned only to be eaten by one of the large predatory gulls that are always looking for an easy meal.
Alkhornet at the northern entrance of Isfjorden is a striking landmark. The lushness of the land from the bird life provides good grazing for arctic reindeer while foxes patrol for birds and their eggs.
We did a two hour hike in this area in warmish and sunny conditions. Didn't see any wildlife this day but the higher we got the views were spectacular.
In the afternoon we did some scenic sailing past several glaciers.
Then in the afternoon we took advantage of the zodiac ride to get up close to one of the glaciers.
The seabirds love to sit in the sun on the icebergs.
Back on the ship there were more glaciers to be viewed over the next few days.
This was most exciting as one of the expedition leaders was certain that part of this glacier was going to calve off fairly soon. After about ten minutes of not taking our eyes of it, it obliged and the hugest piece of ice dropped followed by an even bigger collapse. The noise was deafening and sounded like a huge clap of thunder or bomb explosion. Incredible. Exciting though it was its a real concern to see the glaciers destructing like this. Every year the glaciers in this arctic region are receding by 15%.
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