Expect the unexpected

Today is our last day of activities on our Arctic expedition and I feel sad already.

We woke to sunshine and a new fjord in the Northern Isfjord National Park. Across from us was the rocky peak of Alkhor I net or ‘auk-horn’, named both for its huge auk population and its horn-like shape. We were shipped across there in zodiacs and had a wonderful couple of hours wandering the tundra. Grant went off with the kayak crew.

The place was lousy with reindeer. The Svalbard reindeer are smaller than their Norwegian cousins, a creamy white and look like short legged small cattle. Both sexes have antlers, but the males have larger ones. The tundra they were grazing on was mostly mosses and lichen with some short grasses. It’s a particularly lush area due to all the nesting birds in the rocky cliff faces above. Their poo starts the fertilization of the soil, growing grasses and mosses, which in turn attracts reindeer and foxes, whose poo adds to the soil and more rich tundra. Another amazing nature thing which we never seem to learn to leave well alone or learn from.

The other common sighting and poo provider was the Barnacle Goose. It’s a cool looking bird with funky black and white markings. A medieval myth which lead to their name is that they hatched from barnacles on trees or the wood of old ships. This myth was further augmented over time to a belief that the Barnacle Goose was therefore a fish not a bird and it was acceptable to eat them over lent when meat was prohibited. It resulted in Pope Innocent III having to make a decree in 1215 that it was actually a bird not a fish and was not to be eaten at lent. The original myth was probably due to the Goose nesting in such remote northerly regions that no one had seen their nests or young. Got to give points for trying re the lent avoidance though.

While I was getting excited about my reindeer, geese and a couple of cute arctic foxes, Grant and his fellow kayakers were having a remarkable adventure. Across the bay just a 100m away they suddenly saw a polar bear! They stopped and watched, and extraordinarily, witnessed it chase and kill a reindeer! Amazing! Polar Bears seem to be adapting to the loss of sea ice and therefore access to seals with a new ability to hunt on land.

My compensation was 100 beluga whales cruising past the peninsula we were walking along. Moments like that I wish I had a proper camera but I could get an excellent view with my binoculars- just can’t share it with you sorry. They stretched along hundreds of meters in a long line, their cream backs (with no fin) breaking the water with fine sprays as they breathed. Every now and then some would change direction for no apparent reason and cause consternation amongst the forward flowing peers, but it all seemed to sort itself out. I’ve never seen so many wales and certainly none in such orderly lines, so it was quite an experience.

In the afternoon we headed out again in zodiacs and kayaks a little further up the Isfjord to Yoldiabukta, home of the Wahlenbergbreen glacier. It was a perfect afternoon with bright sunshine and we used the opportunity to take it slowly and just absorb the beauty of our surroundings . There were several groups of walrus spread along the fast ice and some gorgeous icebergs to finish things off. It was very hard to return to the ship for the last time.

As expected the Quark people gave us a memorable final evening with a film of our five days, gorgeous dinner and party. It’s now midnight and the sun is bright in the sky. We are moored at Longyearbyen and fly to Helsinki later today. Manchester the day after, so I will be out of contact until we reach Prestatyn in Wales at the start of the next adventure. I hope you’ll join me again then.
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