How does one even begin to share the incredible experience that is Svalbard?
As I stood on the deck watching the first sunset of the year and the sunrise five minutes later, I felt a mix of elation and a sadness – already missing a place that has become entrenched in my heart. The awesome grandeur of the area, the freedom, beauty, starkness, and sheer wonder of Svalbard that grips you and never lets go.
It all began when our group met on the 18th of August in the picturesque settlement of Longyearbyen, The base from which all Svalbard adventures begin. There was an electric atmosphere and excitement was mounting, as we knew we were about to embark on one of the last ever polar bear photographic tours of this kind. We had picked one of the last voyages of the season with good light in mind and we were rewarded for our choices.
From 2025 one will no longer be able to approach closer than 300 to 500m (season dependent) from these magnificent creatures, rather than the closer proximity that we would enjoy on this trip.
We boarded the Sjøveien the next day, our home for the next 10 days. Here we met our expedition team and boat crew and after a safety debriefing we started to head Northward, enjoying a delicious dinner on the way.
Our expedition team was made up of two Dutch polar guides, Miriam Vermeij & Piet Van Den Bemb, an incredibly professional, fun and knowledgeable team as were to find out over the coming days.
Day 2 was the start of our search for polar bears. There was so much to see and photograph on the way. We arrived at Smeerenburg an old whaling station and settlement from the 17th century – which is now a historical site. Miriam took us on a an interesting tour of the settlement – pointing out remnants of an era gone by.
We were delighted to find that not only have walruses made this site their home, they are extra friendly and very curious.
Picture this: an amazing glacier landscape and a group of walruses peering at us from the water, wondering what kind of creatures we were. Walruses may not be beautiful but wow, they are so stately and have an air of importance and dominance about them.
We travelled north east from there and across the ocean to reach almost to the 81st parallel.
Now, I have thousands of photographs of polar bears, but here I had the finest, most rewarding encounter of my life. A polar bear mother and her cub were spotted and we quickly clambered into the zodiacs to approach the duo. They were unfazed by our presence and in fact the little cub was so curious that he would have loved to be able come to the zodiac to explore who and what we were. Cameras clicked non-stop for hours.
Then suddenly the mother noticed something on the mainland. She gathered her cub and the two swam the 2 1/2 km to the mainland. We accompanied them of course, and watched as mom constantly ensured that the little one was coping well. As they jumped out of the water the mother shook herself vigorously, enveloping herself in a massive cloud of spray. Once again our cameras were clicking away. Another magical moment preserved forever on cameras and in our memories. Then the cub copied mum and gave a huge shake follow by a roll on the ground to get dry.
We were warned of a Weather system moving in and therefore headed south to take cover in Lomfjorden, where we heard of bears being spotted in the area.
Success, we found another bear. And although we were very interested in a polar bear that we spotted, he ignored us preferring to doze and not bothering to move much at all. We decided to stick around in case he became more active.
Out came our fishing rods and we spent the evening catching Arctic cod on rod and handline, keeping an eye on the polar bear in the midnight sun … all with a really grand glacier as a backdrop.
The next morning our bear was still fast asleep – so we made the call to embark on a 9 hour voyage to Bråsvellbreen – one of the biggest glaciers in the world, with dozens of rivers flowing down and cascading and plummeting into the ocean. This place was impressive and we were so pleased with our decision – each of our photographs was better and better than the ones before. We enjoyed a few drinks, just absorbing the magnificence of our surroundings. On our return to Lomfjorden we encountered two more polar bears close together but they were also very sleepy and not too keen to move around.
The next day was spent with another walrus colony at Ardneset, they seemed even bigger in body size than the last group. After a few hours we took a short walk around enjoying the landscape as Miriam pointed out special flowers endemic to the area. That evening we passed by the Bird cliffs of Alkjefellet, photographing from a higher vantage point. The next day we planned to head there on zodiacs.
The bird cliffs are a sensory explosion!! Can you imagine about 60,000 pairs of Brünnich’s Guillemots with their chicks, plus Glacous gulls and Kittiwakes – the sights & sounds were incredible.
The females had left by now, leaving the youngsters with their fathers who would lead them on their long journey to Greenland, a massive undertaking for such a small bird. It all starts with a leap (sometimes a push) into the ocean from these high cliffs – that’s when the tough part starts as there are various predators waiting to catch these unsuspecting little birds.
It was fascinating to watch, and we couldn’t help feeling a little sad when predatory gulls swooped in to grab youngsters for their next meal.
In many ways the weather pushed us around, searching for cover from massive weather systems moving in from all directions. The positive however, was that we were forced to sail all the way around the Island. What a special and unique experience to see all of the different landscapes around Spitsbergen.
Other highlights included hiking to photograph puffins in a truly spectacular landscape; cruising the zodiacs in the most perfect afternoon light at Edgeøya scouting for bears. I could go on and on about each and every day, experience and photograph but let’s end with our last evening.
We decided to celebrate the ending of an incredible trip with a polar plunge. It took moments to change into bathing costumes and we leapt into that arctic water, spurred on by the chants of our friends and the melodies of AC/DC Thunderstruck, which certainly fuelled the fire. We followed that with a celebration in the jacuzzi. Need I say more?!
After that we partied together, knowing that we had made lifelong friends, shared incredible experiences and we also knew that it would be very difficult to part ways the next day.
Our Expedition had been beyond description and we owe a huge thanks to our expedition leaders. They were simply amazing. The group of people on board just came together so well and each of them were an absolute pleasure for both Jacks and I to spend time with. This one will go down in the books as a highlight of note.