The biggest island of Svalbard is Spitsbergen. The island, the only one permanently populated on this large arhipeligo, is midway between the northern extreme of the Norwegian mainland and the North Pole, and was named (meaning 'pointed mountains') by the Dutch navigator Willem Barentsz in 1596 while he was looking (and failing) for a north-eastern route to China. We started making south down the east coast of Spitsbergen and in the process passed 2000 nautical miles for the expedition. We were lucky: weather contined to be sunny and calm. After after the crowds of some previous locations, we were happy to see no-one else at any of our stops or travels.
A kittywake flew conveniently close for this portrait. Kittywakes are a gull named for their shrill call, and were quite common on our travels. [7133]
Mountains of Spitsbergen and the clouds beautifully reflected in still waters. [7148]
Scouting Zodiac weaving through drift ice to check out a possible landing destination. [7161]
Passengers out in kayaks could get pretty close to the drift ice, to inspect the deep blue colorations. [7164]
Now on the west coast of Spitsbergen, a day in the 18km long fjord of Bellsund was greeted by warming conditions, 3oC but overcast skies, possibly a sign of deterioration in the weather. The barometer in our cabin seemed to agree. Bellsund was first seen and named by Willem Barents (like most things in Svalbard, it seems) in 1596 on one of his hapless voyages. He thought a nearby mountain looked like a bell. There was a Dutch whaling station here from 1615, but it was then appropriated by the English, accompanied by ongoing fighting, until 1650.
Accessing the land by Zodiac, passengers enjoyed a comfortable stroll in a demarked area on the foreshore of a long gone glacier. Underfoot, it was rocky, mossy and muddy. Lots of different wildlife was espied: reindeer, arctic skua, barnacled geese, red-throated loon, long tailed ducks, snow buntings and some pretty, tiny wildflowers, purple saxifrage.
An arctic skua. Skuas are scavengers and thieves, not known for hunting but for feeding on carrion and stealing food from other birds. They are named from the Faroese, skúgvur. [7102]
National Geographic Resolution pulled up close to the land. The four barrels are where we stored our life jackets. [7225]
Wandering around looking for wildlife and other Instagrammables. [7228]
Meandering stream across the plain of a retreating glacier. [7213]
Red throated loons. The red colour is most apparent in breeding season. [7223]
The weather turned rainy, but encouraged by Captain Martin, we went ashore again later to a beach elsewhere in Bellsund in front of a receding but impressive glacier. The mud beneath the glacier was gooey and one passenger sunk into soft mud and had to be pulled out, losing his boot in the process. We don't know if it got fished out or not.
The glacier in Bellsund is huge compared to the few of us in front of it. [7344]
Guide Anne keeping a watchful eye out for bears from a high vantage point. [7248]
Tiny clumps of purple saxifrage appeared underfoot wherever we walked. [7212]
With all land excursions off the NatGeo Resolution in Svalbard, biosecurity arrangments were strict. On returning to the ship from any outing where we touched land or ice, we washed and scrubbed our boots in a well-designed apparatus, then walked through a pool of some chemical. Prior to that, before our first arrival in Svalbard, all our external clothing (gloves, coats, pants, boots) plus back-packs and walking poles, and my tripod, were inspected, cleaned, vacuumed or scrubbed if necessary, with particular attention to Velcro and anything touching the ground, this to avoid bringing any mainland contaminants to Svalbard. We can recall similar procedures in the Antarctic.
Jackie, a vivacious Canadian, was possibly the most knowledgeable amongst the many great guides on the Resolution, here presenting in the Circle of Truth in the Resolution lounge. [7370]
Twin mountains under ominous skies as we exited Bellsund. [7376]
A beluga whale ballet thrilled and entertained us at 9:30pm that night. [7389]
Bad weather was confirmed the next day in Krossfjorden, dark, overcast and raining on and off. This fjord is named after a cross placed nearby by English explorer/whaler Jonas Poole in 1610. Krossfjorden was the northernmost point we reached on this expedition, more than 79oNorth, only about 1000km from the North Pole. We feel like intrepid explorers conveyed in luxury!
One highlight on this gloomy day was a rare sighting of a blue whale which flapped its tail at least two times for us. The longest confirmed length of a blue whale is 30m, and it can be up to 200t, making it the largest animal to have ever existed. An then we appraoched the biggest glacier we had ever seen.
Stark Svalbard landscape as seen in Krossfjorden on a brutally cold, spitting rain morning. [7434]
After the crew first spotted its flume from the bridge, patience was rewarded by a flip of the tail of a giant blue whale. [7424]
Deceptively close but we were several km away, no photo can capture the grandeur of this huge glacier at the end of Krossfjorden, wrapping around the bow of the ship with a face 18km long. [7464]
The rain mostly held off, but we made no landing in Krossfjorden. Instead, we enjoyed a pleasant Zodiac cruise amongst small ice 'bergy-bits' broken off from a more modest glacier in an arm of the fjord. Accompanied by a loud booming noise, the glacier calved while we were in a Zodiac, amply illustrating why we mustn't sail our Zodiacs too close to its face!
The blue colour of floating bergy bits indicates that it was once underwater prior to flipping over as the bottom melted and it got top heavy. [7519]
A sliver of ice rescued from the water in front of the glacier. [7575]
Stern view of the National Geographic Resolution showing its custom designed Zodiac garage at water level open at right, and the two rather decadent hot tubs and an igloo on an upper deck. [7579]
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