A face only a mother could love

I realise that the juxtaposition of my title and the picture I’ve selected may be unfortunate but stick with me and all will be revealed.

It’s interesting how time is such a fluid thing. It feels like weeks yet we’ve only been in this journey for three days. I don’t know how the crew keep up their level of enthusiasm and energy for the months they do this journey as I’m totally overwhelmed by the experiences of just this time.

The day opened with blue skies and low winds, so, perfect. Overnight we cruised back to the northern tip of Spitsbergen (the biggest island in Svalbard) and we woke in Bjørnfjorden, the bear fjord. Luckily no bears, so we launched into a wonderland of sea ice, glaciers, towering mountains and bearded seals.

Each time I’ve gone out on a zodiac I’ve had a different driver. They are all fascinating people, often experts in a field such as geology or ornithology. My favorite three have been kiwi women. Today we had Tara who was probably in her thirties but already a ten year veteran of Quark expeditions. She was a dare devil and loved the pack ice, and particularly liked launching our zodiac right at it and then seeing what would happen. She broke her way through into the centre of a beautiful region where we had the pleasure of seeing three bearded seals. These are big! Double the size of the seals we see around Australia with long, dense whiskers. Dark brown with a slightly paler face and just chilling out on a floating piece of ice.

This was the prettiest area we’ve been to I think. The mountains are still snow covered with just narrow black bands of rock beginning to show through. The glaciers were smaller here, but still awesome with their age and power and this was the first fast ice we had explored. Fast ice holds fast to the land and is frozen sea as opposed to glacier ice.

After the cruise around the fjord we beached and had a chance to stretch our legs on shore (always with armed guards in case of polar bears). It was so majestic it was quite emotional and there were many people surprised by tears.

Back on board and it was time for Polar Plunges. Bear in mind this was 100m from the ice we’d just been riding through. I feel delighted that I’m now at an age I can just say, no I don’t want to, but Grant was of course totally in to it and leaped in to applause and brain freeze. It was so cold he has no memory of it - just the pain afterwards. I have no regrets but a grudging admiration for those who did it.

It felt like no time at all that we were called again to the loading dock, still digesting lunch, as there were walrus to be seen! In the same fjord there was a congregation of about 20 of them on a flat beach area. The crew had a well rehearsed drill. Two boat loads of us were discreetly deposited on the far side of the beach behind a rise. We then sneaked in single file across the squeaky snow trying to be as quiet as possible until we were the legal closest distance of 50m. We then got 30mins to stand in silence and observe some of the strangest creatures I’ve ever seen.

Walruses are bigger than I expected- particularly the males. The size of a decent cow without the legs :) Males have much longer tusks than females (extended canines) and the tusks are apparently for sexual appeal rather than any particular practical use. They need all the help they can get as they truly are an ugly lot. Pink eyes, blubbery bodies and bristles on their faces that can rise and change direction (touch being one of their strongest senses). A face only a mother could love. They mostly lay on a pile on top of each other until one got restless, skewered another with a tusk provoking a momentary outburst of hostilities and then back to sleep. It was very cool indeed to see this in the flesh and I had to suppress a David Attenborough commentary in my brain.

We are just back from a post dinner talk by a Polish scientist who is one of our guides whose specialty is elephant seals. Did you know they can dive to 2 km and stay under water for 2 hours? Honestly, nature is just one long astonishment. I’m now inspired to go to Antarctica. Particularly South Georgia.

Sadly tomorrow is our last day of adventures. The plan is a hike in the morning but we will see what the day brings.

As I can’t post photos with this blog at the moment I’m putting them up on instagram and facebook so you’ll be able to see them there if you want more. If you have a chance to do this adventure sometime in your life I could not recommend it more highly.

Speak to you tomorrow.Read more