Bråasvellbreenbook

In the night, when it did not get dark, we returned from the ice edge to the islands of Svalbard. Specifically we arrived on the southern side of Chermsideøya. A rough little island that is only visited occasionally. Diane opted to stay near the landing site. I followed the flags across some rocks and a patch of snow to look at some geoglyphs. The walk was interesting, the geoglyphs less so. To me, they looked like some kids had been laying out rocks to spell their names. However, I was assured that these were historic markings from Arctic expeditions back to the 19^th century thus making them historic artifacts. Walking back, I went the wrong way round a boulder and got told off by one of the expedition team whose job was to make sure irresponsible tourists did not stray from the marked path. Fortunately, nothing bad happened and I survived unscathed.

In the afternoon we landed at Isflakbukta on the island of of Phippsøya. I cannot remember any of these names, in fact I cannot even pronounce most of them, but I can copy them from the expedition journal. I hope you are impressed. The weather had come in a bit. A low, sullen cloud settled damply on the hills around us. Here we were shown the most northerly cabin in Svalbard although we were not allowed anywhere near it. We were also encouraged to pick up rubbish. There was a lot of debris washed up on the beach. As far as I could tell it was bits of broken fishing gear – ropes, nets, floats, plastic sacs. I suggested to one of the expedition team that maybe the fishermen should be encouraged to clean up their own rubbish but she was not impressed with this idea. In all, some 90 kg of flotsam was collected and added to the Hx environmental credentials.

Next morning, near the island of Kvitøya, we spotted polar bears. Several of them wandering along the shore. The Svalbard Environmental Protection Act prohibits unnecessary disturbance, attraction, or pursuit of polar bears. It also specifies that ships should keep a minimum distance of 500 m. Even for something as enormous as a polar bear, this is still quite a distance for photography. Pictures tend to end up being a white dot in a grey landscape. There is however, apparently, a glorious exception to the distance rule. This is when a bear swims out to look at your ship. I would guess they are attracted by the smell of food. I am also guessing that manoeuvring a vessel with a bear in close proximity potentially endangers it. So, we just sit there, bobbing around, while the bear comes and inspects us. From the safety of the gunwale I can lean over with my big, news lens and look the bear in its eye. Brilliant. I took a lot of pictures. Here are just a few of them.

We continued sailing down the east coast of Nordaustlandet until, in the evening, we encountered the Bråsvellbreen. This is a massive glacier with about 45 km of ice cliffs calving into the sea. Reminded me of Antarctica and the Brunt ice shelf. I mentioned this to one of the crew but they disagreed. I realised later that their experience of Antarctica was limited to the norther tip of the peninsular. This is as far as most tourist ships ever get. So they had never seen an ice shelf. Whatever, it was all quite spectacular and we spent a very pleasant evening taking in the views, taking and few photographs and taking the occasional glass of wine.

Next day there was another ugly of walruses.  A great big blubbery pile of them on the beach. We could get a bit closer this time. We landed at Kapp Lee on the northeastern tip of Edgeøya island. There are some old trappers huts here and we had an excellent walk up a small hill to look at birds. There were a few reindeer around that were keeping their distance. There was also a fox. I did not see it but someone showed me a picture later. Arriving at the ugly of walruses, we kept a respectful distance, aided by a line of barrier flags that had been set up. Occasionally one would lift its head, snort and dribble snot. Very briefly we spotted a couple of walruses having some sort of disagreement in the water. I do like walruses but I cannot help thinking that the save the walrus campaign might be more successful if they smartened themselves up a bit.