Puffins and Polar Bears

I will start with saying that all anxieties I had about being on a cruise have vanished. This is not a cruise but a work out! When we aren’t eating (fantastic food - yet again this does not look like a weight loss holiday) we are putting on the multiple layers of clothing required to step onto a zodiac for 1.5hours in sub zero temperatures.

Today we had two such excursions. The first in a fjiord with the biggest glacier on Spitsbergen in an area named Lillihöökfjorden. The glacier is currently 14km wide. Prince Albert 1 of Monaco visited it in 1906 and his grandson revisited it in 2006 and documented its significant retreat in that time. Currently it’s breaking down at a rate of about 50m a year. It was a privilege to be in its ancient presence. The sun came out and it was quite transporting with the towering glacial cliffs and glowing blue ice bergs. There were a few Harbour Seals and lots of birds. Grant was more adventurous and went out in a kayak and managed not to overturn.

I will try to post a few pics with this blog but we are reliant on Elon Musk’s internet and it’s patchy in the extreme- understandably in this wilderness.

The second adventure was further north in an area called Fjortende Julibukta which means Fourteenth of July, the French National holiday. Also named by the Prince of Monaco. It’s in a side bay of Krossfjorden and is a puffin habitat so we were excited. The weather deteriorated a bit so it was choppy and overcast but we didn’t pay this crazy money to sit on a boat so we donned the layers and climbed aboard. What a treat! Not only did we see puffins in their breeding colors in their nesting crags, but a whole spectrum of other sea birds which use Svalbard as their breeding ground: Brünnichs Guillemots, Kittiwakes, Glaucous Gulls…it goes on. Also some fat seals.

Earlier in the day there was a polar bear sighting and we’d identified them as reindeer from the comfort of our room! Next time we will go and join the experts up the front of the ship.

As I write the ship is rocking and rolling and we are in a snow blizzard. A nice young man is about to give us a talk on photography and I’m hoping my tequila will combine successfully with a sea sickness tablet.

My mind is very much focused on my friends and family in Port Macquarie and Wauchope which is now flooding after a crazy week of rain. What an extraordinary planet.Read more