This post contains photos of dead and dismembered animals.
“Svalbard is the realm of silence, ice and light.”
– Fridtjof Nansen
We awaken to the cliffs and glaciers of Alkefjellet – waves of guillemots flying through the air beneath the soaring stone cliffs and towering glacier:
Me: “Oh, wow…”
My wife: “Wow!”
Expedition Leader David: “Wowwwww…”
My wife and I both jump, then quickly realize that David had picked the perfect moment to come on over the shipwide speaker to express his admiration at the beauty that lay before us. (And was not, as I first thought, somehow hiding under our bed.)
Once our hearts settle to a normal pace, it’s time to start the day.
Today’s Daily Program:
We’re the second co-hort of zodiacs to go out, which means a slightly more leisurely morning. We head down to the Restaurant for breakfast – the first time we’ve eaten there this cruise.
It’s interesting to see that the Restaurant also has a buffet with seemingly the same items that you would find upstairs, but there is also a sit-down option.
The kids opt for pancakes:
And French toast:
While my wife gets the avocado toast:
And I get the smoked salmon bagel:
This is a rare miss on Ponant’s part – the bagel is somewhat stale – but I simply replace it with some fresh baguette, and all is forgiven. (Clearly we need some more Montrealers on board to pass on the Way of the Bagel!)
Again, service is quick, boarding on prescient. We have no issues getting the drinks or our food in a timely fashion – <5 minutes for drinks, and <10 minutes for food.
Back to the room to get ready for our zodiac cruise – and to get a quick snap of our picture window stateroom (the cabins at the very front of deck 3 have a porthole instead, something to be aware of):
As you can see, instead of having a verandah we instead have additional space in this cabin. That gives us sufficient room for a couch or a pull-out bed. Otherwise – in terms of storage, bathrooms, and other amenities – the cabins seem identical. This daybed has a full thickness, full twin size mattress and appears to be just as comfortable as the main bed.
I also manage a non-blurry photo of the shower:
It’s definitely colder out there this morning, so we opt for full parka with some extras on hand if needed. The Silversea parka is definitely much warmer – particularly with the puffer zipped in – and I’ve noticed that the Ponant parka does not seem to have particularly good air sealing around the zipper. But conditions are still mild – and it’s a sunny day – so we should be fine without an extra underlayer.
Our departure timing says 10:20 am but some of the French zodiacs have come back early, so we board closer to 10:15 am. We start with seeing many of the 120,000 Brunnich’s guillemots that inhabit these cliffs:
While Ponant only has three zodiac groups – blue, red and yellow – there are also three language groups, which helps to spread out departures.
And our guide, Jennifer, confirms that some of the chicks have been falling from the nests into the water. This is a very rare occurrence and only happens for three days out of the year.
We keep our eyes out for falling guillemots. No luck there, but we do spot some chicks out on the water:
The gulls are circling, though, looking for vulnerable chicks:
The adults are as protective as they can be against these relentless predators:
They are not always successful:
Another gull takes an even more ferocious tactic – drowning the chick:
Despite praying on the guillemots, the gulls nest right in the middle of them:
Does anyone else think he looks like a certain electric car CEO?
There are kittiwakes nesting in the area too:
The sheer number of guillemots here is difficult to comprehend:
Quarters are tight, and so fights often break out over prime nesting spots – or if a chick is threatened, even accidentally:
Jennifer mentions that some Arctic foxes were also spotted in the area, so we go out in search of them.
It’s only now that I realize that I’ve turned on the wrong focus mode on the camera. Rather than the focus continuously adjustment, I have set it instead to make a single adjustment – so it means that I’m essentially unable to focus on moving objects.
And it’s fortunate that I make this correction now, because I’m about to need all the auto-focus I can get:
The Arctic fox is amazingly well camouflaged amidst the grey rock. You struggle to spot one if it stops moving.
They are beautiful, graceful creatures:
And we feel phenomenally lucky to get this close:
We then spot a second – in its den, with a kill:
And a third one, up high amidst the grass:
Arctic fox create a large amount of scat – nutrient rich soil that allows them to effectively create their own gardens.
For this reason, they are considered to be a keystone species – a species whose disappearance would have a profound impact on its environment, like polar bears, krill and many of the marine birds. (Kudos to the expedition staff who initially said the Arctic fox was not a keystone species and then clarified later with us and in a subsequent expedition brief that it indeed is.)
Eventually, we must return to the ship.
We then head off to lunch – the buffet again, which is once more quite tasty, though marred only by the continued absence of steak from both the buffet and the permanent menu. Guess they weren’t kidding after all.
On the subject of persistent issues, we also inquire about the status of our free laundry – but head office has not yet replied. We still have a workaround, in which all laundry can be billed against my allotment – but with four people going through five items a day, it won’t take long before that too is exhausted.
I raise the matter with the Hotel Director, and I’m pleased to hear that he’s aware of the issue. He asks that we please give them until tonight to resolve it. I don’t even ask as to whether we can get some wine to have in our room – maybe another day.
All of these irritations will be forgiven, however, if we get to see polar bears.
And on that subject, this afternoon we’ll be doing a ship’s cruise around Whalbergoya with the hope of spotting some l’ours polaire.
We wrapped lunch early so that we might grab some seats up in the Observation Lounge during the ship’s cruise, but then we check the program – and it seems like the expedition staff will be in the 3rd floor Main Lounge at the lower stern as opposed to up in the Observation Lounge. But we don’t spot any expedition staff in the lower level either.
No one seems to really know where the expedition staff will be located, so we ping-pong back and forth between Observation and the Main Lounge as we try to figure out how this is likely to be unfold. But in the meantime, I have gotten as ready as I can – I have put on my 600 mm lens with a 1.4x teleconverter (effectively turning it into a 840 mm lens), and mounted it to a tripod.
This is where one of the main limitations of Lyrial is felt -the ship does not have a walking track or otherwise straightforward path that lets you move quickly between bow and stern on the outside of the vessel.
But then – from the lower level – our daughter spots something from well over a kilometer away: a polar bear on the shore.
The announcement comes over the speaker just a few moments later. Well, by announcement I mean that David growls into the microphone. But yes – it is indeed a polar bear.
I am, thankfully, ready to go – but it proves an extremely difficult shot to get. We are close to a kilometre away and the bear is backlit:
The tripod proves crucial to getting a solid shot. Eventually I put on the lens hood, and the quality of my shots improves:
We carry on further, and spot another bear:
And another:
And we get just a little bit closer:
We are spoiled indeed.
The first bear climbs onto a snow patch:
And we wonder if it might have a run-in with the other bear:
But they seem uninterested in one another:
Back to the room – and we get another call for polar bears:
But it’s time for the expedition briefing, and the expedition briefing is not delayed for any reason – even polar bears.
I arrive midway through, but we have a rough plan for tomorrow. We hope to land at Sundneset that’s known for tundra flora and wildlife – including reindeer – and Kapp Lee where we can potentially approach a walrus herd on foot. However, there is a risk of us encountering polar bears at either site, so the plan is subject to change as always.
There are a series of expedition briefings, including one on Atlantification.
From Nature.com:
“Climate change impinges on the Arctic Ocean, leading to sea-ice loss and potentially drastic cascading ecosystem changes. A recent process is atlantification, the growing influence of warm and salty waters from the Atlantic on the Arctic with increasing ocean volume transport from the Nordic Seas to the Barents Sea playing a key role. Despite its importance and a multitude of hypotheses that have been tested, this trend remains mainly unexplained.”
There are also further briefings regarding the Guillemots and Arctic foxes – I’ve woven several of those facts into other parts of my posts.
Time for dinner! Up to the Grill again, where we order off the Permanent Menu. But before our meals arrive. We get another call – for bowhead whales!
Bowhead whales are among the rarest whales in Svalbard, with only 200 in the area – and four of them have surfaced all around us.
They are also the longest living mammal, with some examples believed to be older than 200 years old. That means that the entirety of whaling in Svalbard – from the 1600s to the late 1700s – was shorter than a single Bowhead whale’s natural lifespan.
Unlike humpbacks, they do not raise their tail above the water when they are about to go for a deep dive – but it’s no less impressive a spectacle.
They use their broad heads to break through the ice – which is also the reason as to why they do not have a dorsal fin.
Their songs also evolve from one year to the next, unlike many other species like humpback whales. This makes their songs more like improvisational jazz than a Top 40 hit.
This is the first time many of the guides have encountered bowhead whales in the wild.
What a treat.
Eventually it’s time to head back for dinner. My son and I have the chicken sandwich, while my wife has the soft shell crab sandwich:
The chicken seems a little bit overdone, but the waitstaff was also kind enough to hold back our meals for around 20 min while we were watching the bowhead whales. So it’s hard to find fault with that!
Back down to our staterooms to do a little bit reading / writing / relaxing. Ordinarily we would all be starting to head towards bed, but Ponant has a special treat planned for us this evening – we are heading to the Bråsvellbreen glacier, which covers more than half of the Nordaustlandet island. The ice cliff is roughly 180 km long and 24 m high, with numerous waterfalls running along it.
We start to see some brash ice and icebergs:
And then the glacier itself:
With waterfalls running off of it:
And then we get the announcement – guests are invited to the pool deck for a celebration.
Ponant serves up champagne, hot chocolate, and some pumping tunes, including live saxophone and flute:
My focus is on the glacier:
I duck out of there once they start to get everyone together for a group photo.
No offence to Ponant – I enjoyed the party, but these are the kinds of group photos that interest me
Apparently someone ends up in the pool later that evening – but not me, as it’s most definitely time for bed.
