SVALBARD RE-LOADED

Halfway between the northern tip of Norway and the North Pole, at around 78°N lies the archipelago of Svalbard. It’s most famous and well known island is probably Spitzbergen, that’s where we started our tour.

We did this trip before, but crazy us, we wanted more ice, so this time we decided to go earlier, the middle of April. As we arrive in Longyearbjen there is definitely more snow and ice, and it is bloody cold. Temperatures are at -15°C and there is a strong wind blowing, chill factor double plus. That’s what you get ! 

Mon 15.4.24: ALL ABOARD

We start our tour from Longyearbjen on Spitzbergen. A trip with Wildphoto Travel (click on link to see all their trips), 10 days on a boat called the VIRGO with 12 photographers, 10 crew and 2 guides Eirik and Jonas, in search of polar bears. Boarding is at 4pm, can’t wait to go. The cabins are great, ours is about 4x4m, which is more than double the size of the one we had years ago, luxury trip it is ! We get the security briefing, are introduced to the crew, then the hilarious part. We now have to get into the survival suits, they are huge, heavy and very yellow, exactly my color. Once in you have to squat down to press all the air out, then put the boots, which are 2-3 sizes bigger than your normal shoes, on, I get a size 46, it is enormous. Well it sure gets you warm ! 

Dinner is at 18:30, always, and you better be on time, which, of course, we are. We only missed dinner once and that was because of a bear on a kill, so that was a very good excuse. The food is excellent and plenty, and just about at the end of dinner we reach the first ice belt, so very exiting ! So we all rush out to photograph the ice. Bugger, the weather, which was bright and sunny when we left has changed, it is blowing medium hard, snowing and is totally overcast, just grey in grey. I shoot ice patterns because that is all there is, ice as far as the eye can see, lovely anyway.

Tue 16.4.24 : BEAR Nr 1&2

Now the bad news, our guides tell us the April trips are usually more the landscape trips, with lovely warm light and beautiful sunrises and sunsets over ice formations that last for 4 hours or more. That is true, we are so far north the sun sort of rises in the north-east, never rises very high over the horizon, and sets in the north-west, close to a full circle, it is very special.  

That may be very cool, but we want polar bears, and since it is snowing and overcast all the time the sunrise-sunset thing will probably not happen either, oh boy, now what ?

Breakfast is at 7:30, always, but it is buffet so no rush. We sit and chat after breakfast and suddenly the guides show up, walrus ahead ! Quickly put on the boots, all our warm stuff, take the cameras and out we go. Wildlife after all, and there would be plenty more. In fact the guides later told us this was the best trip they had done in years ! There are 3 walrus, 2 adults and a baby, right beside the boat. After a while they slip into the water and disappear, and we go back in. It is much windier and colder than yesterday. Glad to be back inside. 

There are ice bands all along the way which slow us down considerably. So instead of after breakfast, it is after lunch until we get to the Hornsund Fjord on the SW coast of Spitzbergen. We park in the ice at the furthest point we can go, called Brepollen. Going into the fast ice (that is the ice attached to land) is not allowed since this is where the seals will have their pups. Barely there the guides tell us there is a bear ahead. Okay it was extremely far out, even with a 400mm lens it is just a tiny dot in the photo. Eirik knew it was there, the boat we just passed were researchers, they had just tranquilized the bear and weighed him, taken blood samples etc. The poor bear was just waking up and still very drowsy, he’s not doing much. He actually didn’t do anything but sleep until the next morning, and then disappeared.

But then… right after dinner Jonas runs in, bear, bear, on the other side of the boat, another one ! We all rush out. This bear lies down for a while and hides, then starts moving towards us in the best evening light. He stops, jumps in, and swims across, too bad we were hoping he would come all the way up and walk right past our boat. Well you can’t have it all. Then he continues on away from us but in doing so passing beautiful ice, a glacier, and snowy mountains in the background. He is too far away for any close ups shots, but we get great bear in the landscape shots, this is amazing ! We watch until he is out of sight, he moves way from bear Nr.1 which is still sleeping. The light is gorgeous, Jürg goes out to fly his drone, we try to capture the sunset, okay that is only after 11pm, but there are nice clouds and the light is warm and golden. So at least one sunset with light !

Wed 17.4.24: BIRDS

The morning is still clear but it starts snowing again when we leave for a cruise of the fjord. There is lovely landscape to see, but not much else. We shoot ice patterns when we glide across, the wind is picking up and it is getting colder and colder. Yesterday it was -15°C and it is probably the same today but the wind makes it much colder. We all flee to the inside, it is so very cold.

Lacking anything else I do birds. At some point I have the brilliant idea to do a fulmar flying over the ice patterns. Good plan but hard to do. When I am in front the birds are in the back, when I’m in the back, you’ve guessed it, they are in the front. When I give up they fly right by the window and look me in the eye, buggers. So I go again, and this time I succeed. Turns out to be my favorite photo of the day.

Thu 18.4.24: BEAR Nr 3-4-5

It snowed heavily all night and visibility is at times less than 10m, you can’t see that there are 1400m high mountains right across the bay. They say there is a bear with 2 cubs near the mountain. Even with a binocular it is just 3 tiny dots in the landscape.That is only half a bear, to me it only counts if you can see a bear with your bare eyes. Just after breakfast Jonas comes into the dining space, we’d better get outside the bears are coming closer. So we all rush to our rooms put on another layer or two, grab the long lenses and rush out on deck. They are now 3 dots to be seen with the bare eye. It is actually quite nice to shoot tiny bears in the pristine, clean, virgin white, snowy landscape. 

But it gets better ! They come closer and closer, the small dots get to be big dots and they keep coming. They take the same route the 2nd bear did yesterday, all the way around, then swim across, walk in front of the glacier and slowly move out of sight. It is so great to watch, and lucky us, just now the sun comes out just a little bit, but enough to shed beautiful light on the mountains and light up the scene.

After lunch we start to head northwards, 4-6 hrs they say. We sit and chat, have tea, coffee and drinks, everybody is glued to their laptops looking at this mornings photos. We go outside to shoot ice patterns or birds, then back inside again to warm up. At dinner at 18:30 Eirik tells us we are getting there… but not exactly at top speed, it will take a bit longer because of all the ice. Finally at almost midnight we reach Bellsund Fjord and park in the ice at Fridtjothavna. That’s 12 hrs instead of 4-6, but I just love the ice belts we travel through, they are so spectacular.

Fr.19.4.24 : BEAR Nr.6- 3x over

From today on the sun will not set anymore. Not that we will notice, we haven’t had one nice sunrise or sunset, or any kind of colored sky so far, just snowstorms. There are walrus across the frozen bay and a few reindeer are on the hill behind it, dots as usual. At breakfast Eirik, with his usual „information session“, tells us we are going to walk up to the walrus, cool, some action at last. We put all our clothes on, put the life jacket over it, big lens and off we go. We walk across the fast ice which is covered in snow. No clue how thick it is, but if it can hold a 500 kilo polar bear, I guess I’ll be okay. Jonas is in the lead, in a survival suit, in case the ice breaks and he lands in the water. The suit will keep you alive and reasonably warm for 6 hrs, that should give us time to pull him out. Eirik is in the back, both have a gun in case the polar bear shows up. We had the briefing how to react when a bear shows up, and I believe secretly we all hope one will show up. Well, it didn’t happen. 

But we got real close to the walrus, there were 3 of them, flat out on an ice shelf, a 4th one joined a bit later, a big grumpy one that first cuddled up, then moved to the other side again. As he moved so did we. From there we walked another mile to where we had before seen the reindeer, they had moved quite a bit, but were still there. They were very relaxed and we moved closer and closer and got lovely shots, with snow blowing around them, rather close and always with a background of the whole amazing white scenery. Then the long walk back.

 

After lunch we did a sightseeing tour of the Bellsund Fjord and Van Keulen fjord. The wind is picking up again for tonight we are warned there will be a storm with winds of 30m/s, which is minimally short of a hurricane. We have to get to a safe anchorage for tonight, so it will probably be the same one we were before. Let’s hope the weather is better tomorrow and we can move further north, we’ve seen polar bears, reindeer and walrus, now all we would like is a fluffy white arctic fox. 

Suddenly a call: polar bear ! I don’t know how these guys see them, it takes 10 of us with binoculars to find them, even after they show us where. The bear is walking along a ridge, then goes down (binoculars only), he’s made a kill (still binoculars only). We are told to wait, we will get closer and they will tell us when to go out. Eirik comes to us after a while, we are going out in the Zodiacs ! In this weather, with a storm coming, and pretty choppy waves, wow. The chef will not be happy, the sighting was at 17:30 and dinner is always at 18:30, we will never make it. 

Well now get into the wrecked survival suits, they are so heavy and hard to get into, and once in you almost die of heat suffocation. We wait on deck until the zodiacs are out, boat 1 goes, we are in boat 2 and reach the shoreline shortly after the other zodiac. The bear has gracefully pulled his kill from the soft snow in the valley onto the ridge, so we can see it very well. He keeps lifting his head and checking us out. We drift in front of the kill site, the motor stops again and again, it is totally dead now and we drift in between the little icebergs until Jonas’ zodiac comes to pull us out. They have to pull us all the way back to the Virgo which has anchored just around the corner and finally reach it around 8pm. That’s the good thing of having no nights, we can photograph at any time ! 

The bear fell asleep beside his kill, noses almost touching, kiss of death you could say.

Jonas runs by after dinner, the bear from the kill is back, he is on the move. So we rush out once again. There’s our bear, walking at steady pace along the shoreline, suddenly he runs towards the water. Eirik says they can smell a seal, even when it is under water, don’t know if there are any seals, he’s probably smelling us right now ! The bear just stays there, looks at the water, looks at us, and moves on, this time right at the waters edge. The edge is about a meter high and of lovely ever-changing structure. He, no later we learn it is a she, keeps moving, nose in the wind, in the greatest blizzard, the forecast is 30 m/s which is rather close to a hurricane. We could hardly keep our lenses still, hide from the wind where ever we can, and our fingers are slowly but surely freezing off, or freezing onto the camera. At times we don’t even see the bear, it is blowing and snowing so hard. When she moves away from the edge and more land inwards we move back inside to warm up. As one of the crew said, we are lucky it is only around 0°C today or this would have been a deep freeze experience, it was one to us anyway ! 

We are now at the VanKeulenfjorden, about 1/3 in because from here on it is frozen, so we park in the ice which is lovely and quiet and no rocking during the night. We’re happy to get away from the storm which is raging outside, in the fjords you are usually well sheltered. 

We’re not inside for very long when the call comes a 3rd time, she is back  again! So out we go. She walks along the ice edge, at the same pace as before and just keeps going, this bear has endurance. She makes a big circle around our boat, then disappears in the distance. It is by now very dark and grey and stormy, not the best photo weather, but the sighting is still totally amazing. By now it is 11pm so we all plan to go to bed. Oh no, not after a glass of champagne which Camilla, the hostess, surprisingly shows up with after our 3rd sighting. Today was so amazing, it is time to celebrate. How lucky we are. Good karma in this group !

Sat 20.04.24: NOTHING

Nothing. Today we do nothing and see nothing, well, it is not Sunday every day. At least we have time to edit all yesterdays great photos, love the bear in the blizzard. The wind should die down by late afternoon and then we will leave the fjord and move on north to Isfjorden, the fjord where Longyearbjen is. Only about 4-5 hrs to get there they said, depending on ice… yes we know about that ! Way after dinner Eirik shows up, bear sighting. It was again one with their super binoculars, so I didn’t even get to see a moving dot with my bare eyes. Doesn’t count ! They hope it will come this way, I don’t think so and go to bed. Wise decision, it didn’t get any closer.

Sun 21.04.24: FOXES

We wake in the night because we are almost rolling out of bed and stuff is coming down from the desk. Bad swell and we are going very slow. I peek outside and there are massive chunks of ice all around. I quickly get out and do a photo at 3am then back to bed. At 7am we have to get ready for breakfast, but we are still rolling around in our beds. I take a seasickness pill as a precaution, but soon after we are in cover of land the rolling stops. We are cruising along exploring the inner parts of Isfjorden, hoping to find something.

At Kap Thordsen we stop, great, another outing in the zodiacs ! We are already much better at getting into the immersion suits, but boy once you’re in you don’t want to stay inside, rather wait outside in some fresh air. We are so fast we have to wait for the zodiacs to be lowered down. Lilla’s wish comes true, there are arctic foxes at a carcass, (leftovers of a reindeer kill). There were 4 foxes, but by the time we get there, there is one left, it comes from the beach, circles around us, checks us out, and then starts eating, tugging at the meat with utmost motivation. We don’t seem to be bothering him, so we go 20m closer, and after that even closer, he keeps on eating. A second fox arrives and chases Nr 1 away. This one is still beautifully white, the first was a little scruffy starting to change to his brown summer fur. As the first one did, Nr 2 climbs all over the carcass, tugs at it like mad, and is always looking back at us, and checking in the distance, which is great, we need head up shots. 

After an hour with the foxes we return to the zodiacs, and to the Virgo. This calls for a drink, so we meet in the lounge for our, now daily G&T. Camilla already knows and has stocked up the fridge with tonic, a bowl of lemon slices is ready. Cheers, to the foxes ! We park in the ice once again at Skansbuta at the entrance of the frozen Billefjorden. After dinner everybody is eager to download and from every corner you hear, ohhh, ahh, so cute, so adorable, they really were. After dinner Jürg finally gets his 2nd drone session in the ice (little wind here, thank God).

Mon 22.04.24: FULMARS

Our last day here. I wake up with terrible itching on my stomach, I believe the arctic fleas got me, big red flares and crazy itching. I can now understand the poor little foxes which get it and scratch until they bleed, I desperately try not to. After breakfast we sit in the lounge and wait once again. Something will happen, at some point, we are now good at the waiting game and everybody has enough shots to look at, cull, develop, edit. 

We have been so lucky on this trip ! Bear with cubs, bear in front of a glacier, bear kill, bear in blizzard, reindeer in a snowstorm, walrus and foxes at close range, such incredibly cool sightings. We leave the ice and as soon as we are in the open water the fulmar join us, not dozens, no hundreds of them. We are told later that it is their breeding site on the cliffs here, no wonder there are so many. They fly along and surf beside the ship, they are so close, if you stretch out you could touch them. So in short time everybody is out on the deck shooting fulmar, even me, and I definitely am not a birder ! Typical the first and last day in the harbor the weather is brilliant, in between we get -15°C snowstorms and blizzards. No worries, we got such spectacular ever changing sightings, even the guides admitted this was one of the best winter trips ever.  We pack, enjoy a last evening with all our old and new friends, and tomorrow we fly home.

For our favorite photos : Go to gallery

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