Spitsbergen

Luckily for us, as we did head north we had great weather for the first two days. Even on a foggy day we saw a mother polar bear and her cub (from a distance) as they devoured a beluga whale carcass. We couldn’t go too close 300 metres is the limit to try to protect these beautiful animals.

To our surprise, the polar bear isn’t white, not at this time of year – they are a yellow colour so that they blend in the with rocks, visible during the summer months. In winter of course their fur is white to match their snowy environment.

There are very strict limits here to try to protect the bears. We had several lands and zodiac trips cancelled because there was bear in there. They can smell up to 30km away so if a bear is on beach where we want to land or we can see him jump in the water, that’s in, it’s no-go zone.

There are fewer places where you can land in this part of the Arctic. Sometimes it’s because of the pack ice or the glaciers and access, others it’s because the Norwegian are trying to protect a place where warming is making a bigger impact than anywhere else in the world. It’s a sobering fact.Baca lagi