When we hear the stories of the great explorers, those who ventured out into the unknown, far from certainty and ever closer to peril, the tales often finish in glory. This glory might be a story of survival after an encounter with a brutal and newly discovered land, or even some heroism where a man gave his life for another. What is too frequently left out are the details of the days, moments where the entire crew sits in silence with the sea as the moisture hanging in the fog painted their faces. In a similar mood, after a night travelling north from Svalbard, a place already well above the Arctic Circle, National Geographic Orion breached into new territory in search of the white bear.
Expectations were high, as they are for all who come to these lands to see what is arguably the most touted carnivore on our planet, but as with the explorers of old, we encountered a wall of fog. This did not dissuade our captain. In fact, it rather inspired him to take our fair vessel into waters not yet travelled. Journeying to 82 degrees17.5 N, further than National Geographic Orion had previously dared to go, we found ourselves less than five hundred nautical miles from the North Pole. To state this does little justice to the experience of being, by all accounts, in the middle of nowhere—a feeling hard earned on an ever growing planet.
We who explore like to find what we seek, but nature comes with no guarantees. Doing all we could to search, including going deep into the ice, no bears were sighted, but life still thrives. Our ship was guarded by a regiment of kittiwakes in the air, while a number of seals were spotted by those with diligent eyes on the water. Our search is not over. The Svalbard archipelago still holds encounters ahead, but in this moment, we breathe in the rare air around us, while pondering our changing world.
