Our First Landing on Spitsbergen
Our First Landing on Spitsbergen
By Blog.Admin
Day 2 (July 18, 2010) – Today’s morning inspiration – “Beautiful indeed, and highly characteristic, is the scene of entering Isfjord, with the fine mountains on either hand, the great glacier coming down from the north, and the strange table-hills stretching away to the south” – Martin Conway. OK I have to admit I wasn’t that excited as some people, but once we landed at Alkhornet at the entrance of Trygghamma, Isfjord, I was hooked. We saw Arctic foxes, Reindeer and numerous species of birds and flora and fauna. After a briefing by Mariano, our Expedition Leader, on the do’s and don’ts of our tundra walk we split into two groups, those that wanted a more relaxed walk and those that wanted a hike to the base of this enormous mountain, which was the home to what seemed to be, every Arctic Tern ever on the planet.
I decided to take the relaxed route today and explored with my fellow passengers and our guide Theresa Svancara, who explained to us the various species of flora we came across on the tundra floor. Then it happened. “FOX!” screamed one of the passengers. We all immediately, in a timely, almost choreographed fashion, picked up our cameras and started zooming in to see where it maybe.
Once spotted, we all started our picture taking and then just stood there in complete silence, watching this female fox run through the rocks, stopping every now and then to ensure she knew where we were located. Our walk continued over a hill and as soon as we crested the hill, reindeer where sited. Males and females with their young littered the slope.
The second landing of the day was at Poolepynten on Prins Karls Forland off the west coast. Walrus was all the talk of today as our expedition team explained rules and signs used for approaching these mammoth creatures. The shore was also home to the nesting grounds of the Arctic Tern. Did I mention they are everywhere?
As we proceeded in an orderly fashion, single file towards the sleeping group of 8 walrus down the beach, the silence was only broken by our rubber boots stirring up sand and drift wood on the beach. This was a highlight for me as this was one of the many wildlife I wanted to see. What luck that they were not at sea, but fast asleep on the beach, one on top of the other.
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