Liefdefjorden, N. Spitsbergen, Svalbard, 79º39’ N, 13º22’
We end our first 24 hours on board in bright sunlight, gazing in awe at a pile of midnight-sunbathing walrus on Moffen Island, a bizarre gravel atoll at 80º N on the NW tip of Svalbard. We set sail from Longyearbyen last night, and, escorted by a squadron of racing fulmars, were soon heading out into adventure. First we had to thread our way through a maze of jagged white ice floes adrift on a black sea, like shards of broken glass. These were the remnants of the pack ice which all but blocked our entry to Isfjorden yesterday. After dinner, folks took a first turn on deck, wondering vaguely what we might see in the coming days, and if luck would favour us with the holy grail of Arctic wildlife, the polar bear. They weren’t left wondering for long. Our eagle-eyed naturalists, vision undimmed by dinner wine, were already scanning the ice. A male hooded seal appeared, swimming between floes! But within minutes this rare seal was forgotten as our ace spotter Richard had found a polar bear swimming vigorously ahead of the ship. As the call rang out “All hands on deck” the bear hauled itself up onto a large ice floe dead ahead. We could see it was carrying something. First it sprawled out on the snow and rolled over and over like a giant puppy, huge paws waving in the air. Then, like a terrier with a rat, it toyed with its prey, revealing the unmistakable black and white suit of a Brünnich’s guillemot, now stained vivid red against the white of the ice. Within minutes a gang of glaucous gulls landed on the floe and took up position like expectant vultures. When the boldest stole the fallen guillemot, a very piqued polar bear had to sprint across the floe to retrieve it. None of us have seen anything like this before: a young female bear which has managed the remarkable trick of outwitting a careless guillemot. It must have swum stealthily among the floes, dove deep, and dragged it’s victim under from below. These supreme predators have a repertoire of hunting skills that never cease to surprise us.
But this dazzling start to our Arctic adventure was trumped today. We turned into Liefdefjorden, a deep glacial inlet on the north coast, strings of little auks whirring past as they commuted out to richer offshore fishing grounds. We were passing a constellation of tiny islands which provide safe nesting sites for gulls, eiders and terns. Scanning these, we noticed two white blobs on one and seconds later, on the island to port, the telescope revealed a female bear with her two small cubs on the beach. Well, where else would you go with two boisterous kids on a still, sunny day? Leaving her in peace we returned to the white blobs which now resolved themselves into a polar bear picnic: mother with two large yearling cubs, one of which snuck off to explore while mum slept. A rare glimpse of two polar bear families at the seaside on a bank holiday Monday. After thrilling views, we reversed away quietly without spoiling their seaside idyll.
To complete an unforgettable day, we anchored beside Monaco Glacier at the head of the fjord, where some kayaked between drifting bergy bits, while the rest of us explored in Zodiacs. To our delight we found a group of beluga whales close in under the glacier face. What an unforgettable scene: sun sparkling on dark water, ivory belugas surfacing in the shadow of a turquoise and lilac ice cliff, and a swirling ballet of kittiwakes and terns dancing above the turbulence of the glacial outfall. White ice, white birds and white whales: an Arctic scene now etched indelibly on the mind like spiritual scrimshaw.
We end our first 24 hours on board in bright sunlight, gazing in awe at a pile of midnight-sunbathing walrus on Moffen Island, a bizarre gravel atoll at 80º N on the NW tip of Svalbard. We set sail from Longyearbyen last night, and, escorted by a squadron of racing fulmars, were soon heading out into adventure. First we had to thread our way through a maze of jagged white ice floes adrift on a black sea, like shards of broken glass. These were the remnants of the pack ice which all but blocked our entry to Isfjorden yesterday. After dinner, folks took a first turn on deck, wondering vaguely what we might see in the coming days, and if luck would favour us with the holy grail of Arctic wildlife, the polar bear. They weren’t left wondering for long. Our eagle-eyed naturalists, vision undimmed by dinner wine, were already scanning the ice. A male hooded seal appeared, swimming between floes! But within minutes this rare seal was forgotten as our ace spotter Richard had found a polar bear swimming vigorously ahead of the ship. As the call rang out “All hands on deck” the bear hauled itself up onto a large ice floe dead ahead. We could see it was carrying something. First it sprawled out on the snow and rolled over and over like a giant puppy, huge paws waving in the air. Then, like a terrier with a rat, it toyed with its prey, revealing the unmistakable black and white suit of a Brünnich’s guillemot, now stained vivid red against the white of the ice. Within minutes a gang of glaucous gulls landed on the floe and took up position like expectant vultures. When the boldest stole the fallen guillemot, a very piqued polar bear had to sprint across the floe to retrieve it. None of us have seen anything like this before: a young female bear which has managed the remarkable trick of outwitting a careless guillemot. It must have swum stealthily among the floes, dove deep, and dragged it’s victim under from below. These supreme predators have a repertoire of hunting skills that never cease to surprise us.
But this dazzling start to our Arctic adventure was trumped today. We turned into Liefdefjorden, a deep glacial inlet on the north coast, strings of little auks whirring past as they commuted out to richer offshore fishing grounds. We were passing a constellation of tiny islands which provide safe nesting sites for gulls, eiders and terns. Scanning these, we noticed two white blobs on one and seconds later, on the island to port, the telescope revealed a female bear with her two small cubs on the beach. Well, where else would you go with two boisterous kids on a still, sunny day? Leaving her in peace we returned to the white blobs which now resolved themselves into a polar bear picnic: mother with two large yearling cubs, one of which snuck off to explore while mum slept. A rare glimpse of two polar bear families at the seaside on a bank holiday Monday. After thrilling views, we reversed away quietly without spoiling their seaside idyll.
To complete an unforgettable day, we anchored beside Monaco Glacier at the head of the fjord, where some kayaked between drifting bergy bits, while the rest of us explored in Zodiacs. To our delight we found a group of beluga whales close in under the glacier face. What an unforgettable scene: sun sparkling on dark water, ivory belugas surfacing in the shadow of a turquoise and lilac ice cliff, and a swirling ballet of kittiwakes and terns dancing above the turbulence of the glacial outfall. White ice, white birds and white whales: an Arctic scene now etched indelibly on the mind like spiritual scrimshaw.
