As we pulled into our anchorage this morning, a blue whale surfaced just ahead of the ship. But we will come back to that later.
Our destination for the morning was Poolepynten. This is a prominent point on Prince Karls Forland Island and a place where walrus like to hang out. And it was good for us, as they were indeed hanging out. Male walrus gather in “safe” places to haul out and rest and we had a group of at least twenty-five walrus lying in a pile. Occasionally they would move around and tussle with each other a bit. At times it could be quite noisy and smelly, and certainly impressive. Two animals were also rolling around in the shallow water, and putting on quite a show. As we were watching the walrus, the blue whale resurfaced just off the point behind the walrus. It was so incredible to be watching a pile of walrus interact and have the largest animal ever to have lived join the mix.
The conditions were so fine that we had a deck barbecue lunch. While enjoying our ribs, burgers, and fries, we watched the blue whale. Soon we were enjoying three blue whales and a humpback whale. They were feasting while we were feasting. We were able to approach and get great views of these whales, probably reaching about eighty feet long. One of the blues repeatedly lifted its tail high for a dive, showing off its flukes with a width of around fifteen feet.
Sadly, today was our last full day onboard. We joined long ago, and far away, in Bergen. We enjoyed the stunning fjords of coastal Norway, and then made our way up to Bear Island and Svalbard. Our day in the ice was pure magic, we were blown away by the massive waterfalls off the ice cap, but our finale today of walrus and blue whales was very special indeed!
