Sorgfjorden
We spent a truly memorable day in the northern region of Spitsbergen Island. The morning found us in a beautiful region known as Sorgfjorden (Grief Fjord), so named because of an old graveyard for Russian fur hunters that overlooks the area. Most everyone went ashore on the extensive lowlands for some hiking and the lush tundra flora duly impressed us. Of course, everything is in miniature here, and ‘lush’ is a relative term. What really stood out were the scattered cushion-like growths of pink-colored moss campions. It gave us a chance to really stretch our legs and we ‘long hikers’ covered a considerable distance as we hiked the tundra, followed numerous reindeer, crossed shallow rivers, sneaked up on various birds, and beach-combed. The accompanying photo shows both the medium-hike group and short-hike group off in the distance.
Later in the day, the M.S. Endeavour sailed into the mouth of Hinlopen Strait, a waterway which separates Spitsbergen from Nordaustlandet (Northeast Land), but in recent weeks has been choked with pack ice…we didn’t get very far. However, it is always exciting to push into pack ice…the shudders and sounds are unforgettable. For most on board it was a first-time experience and elicited many whoops and hollers as Captain Skog punched us through. Pack ice is a very good habitat in which to find polar bears and we were not disappointed. Everyone carefully scanned the ice floes for bears, but after a half hour of searching we decided to move on to a different region…suddenly a polar bear magically appeared on an ice floe almost right beside the ship! No one had noticed him swimming between the floes, so it was a real shock when he climbed out of the water. He continued walking and quickly jumped back into the water heading straight for the shore, swimming some, then climbing over any ice floe in his way, then plunging back into the water, etc. He seemed to be a bear with a mission. A little while later we sighted another swimming bear within the ice floes. Perhaps the ice was simply too thin and broken up for the bears to walk around on it.
After dinner, we sailed up to Moffen Island, a walrus preserve. As expected, numerous large animals (probably all of them males) had hauled out on the long gravel beach, forming three distinct groups. It’s sad to think these marvelous beasts were nearly hunted to extinction last century, but total protection has them to make a comeback in numbers and today there are perhaps 1,500 to 2,000 walruses in the northeast Atlantic.
We spent a truly memorable day in the northern region of Spitsbergen Island. The morning found us in a beautiful region known as Sorgfjorden (Grief Fjord), so named because of an old graveyard for Russian fur hunters that overlooks the area. Most everyone went ashore on the extensive lowlands for some hiking and the lush tundra flora duly impressed us. Of course, everything is in miniature here, and ‘lush’ is a relative term. What really stood out were the scattered cushion-like growths of pink-colored moss campions. It gave us a chance to really stretch our legs and we ‘long hikers’ covered a considerable distance as we hiked the tundra, followed numerous reindeer, crossed shallow rivers, sneaked up on various birds, and beach-combed. The accompanying photo shows both the medium-hike group and short-hike group off in the distance.
Later in the day, the M.S. Endeavour sailed into the mouth of Hinlopen Strait, a waterway which separates Spitsbergen from Nordaustlandet (Northeast Land), but in recent weeks has been choked with pack ice…we didn’t get very far. However, it is always exciting to push into pack ice…the shudders and sounds are unforgettable. For most on board it was a first-time experience and elicited many whoops and hollers as Captain Skog punched us through. Pack ice is a very good habitat in which to find polar bears and we were not disappointed. Everyone carefully scanned the ice floes for bears, but after a half hour of searching we decided to move on to a different region…suddenly a polar bear magically appeared on an ice floe almost right beside the ship! No one had noticed him swimming between the floes, so it was a real shock when he climbed out of the water. He continued walking and quickly jumped back into the water heading straight for the shore, swimming some, then climbing over any ice floe in his way, then plunging back into the water, etc. He seemed to be a bear with a mission. A little while later we sighted another swimming bear within the ice floes. Perhaps the ice was simply too thin and broken up for the bears to walk around on it.
After dinner, we sailed up to Moffen Island, a walrus preserve. As expected, numerous large animals (probably all of them males) had hauled out on the long gravel beach, forming three distinct groups. It’s sad to think these marvelous beasts were nearly hunted to extinction last century, but total protection has them to make a comeback in numbers and today there are perhaps 1,500 to 2,000 walruses in the northeast Atlantic.
