Awakening to an unusually sunny day for such high latitudes, National Geographic Orion began its exploration of Spitsbergen’s West Coast. Arriving at our first landing, our guests ventured to shore to walk amongst the snow-covered mountains for views of Arctic fox and caribou. Before lunch could be served, our bridge received an emergency call from a stranded sail boat that had gone high and dry upon some inshore rocks. Jumping to action the National Geographic Orion crew and staff combined to aid the sailors in need, and after some clever assessment and hard pulls, were able to free the sailboat from its perch. This left us the afternoon to explore, and in doing so, we came upon a fine haul out of walrus sunning themselves upon the beach.
8/23/2024
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National Geographic Explorer
Reykjavík, Iceland
After a cracking morning out at sea with some truly impressive waves, we were called up to the lounge by Expedition Leader Leah Eaton, who briefed us on a volcanic eruption that had just started on the Reykjanes peninsula. As the briefing concluded, we could already see the volcanic plume through which we would later sail on our way around the Reykjanes peninsula. We finally reached Reykjavík in the afternoon, where we had our final lounge briefing with our guest slideshow, a presentation on our final volcano plan, and a farewell speech from Captain Peik Aalto. After an early dinner, we mounted a trio of busses that carried us out onto the Reykjanes peninsula to an abandoned airstrip. From there we could already see the spectacular eruption very clearly, but to get a better look, we made our way onto some of the old storage bunkers which lined the airstrip. This gave us a view of the eruption in all its glory, with smoke billowing into the sky from the two-kilometer-long fissure, and also a number of smaller fires. It was a truly wonderous ending to an already incredible expedition.
