Birds,  Coast & seascapes,  Svalbard

Arctic diary four: Leifdefjorden, Monacobreen and Texas Bar

September 13, 2025 / 45 Comments

There it was, the land under 80 degrees, a land of stern magnificence, where icebergs rear up almost to the very mountaintops, and mountain rises above mountain; there it was, inviolate, alive to the raucous voice of millions of birds, the continuous staccato bark of foxes, the castanet click as the hoofs of great herds of deer fell in a swinging trot; there it was, surrounded by waters whose surface was slashed and sprayed by schools of walrus and whales that had swum there before ever man was born.

Jeannette Mirsky, To the Arctic!

Yes, ‘stern magnificence’ indeed. And we were to see Svalbard at its most dramatic and bleak today. Yesterday’s weather had been surprisingly (unnaturally) warm, but today, though still milder than we had anticipated, was much more mixed. But rain or shine, this landscape is unrivalled in its beauty.

Leifdefjorden

This is another instalment in my day by day accounts of the places we visited and sights we saw on our expedition cruise on Quark’s Ocean Explorer, and describes our third full day at sea. If you missed the first two days you can catch up here and here.

Monacobreen

Our first outing was a morning zodiac ride in Leifdefjorden close to two glaciers, Seligerbreen and Monacobreen.

Our boat, steered by Bertie; I am in the middle with my back to the camera

Taken by our ship’s photographer Kris, and used with permission (@kristopherandres)

This dramatic and picturesque glacier lies at the end of Leifdefjorden (‘love fjord’). Monacobreen was named for Prince Albert I of Monaco who led expeditions mapping the glacier in 1906-1907. The full glacial face was once 5 km in width until 2015 when continual retreat brought it behind the first mountain ridge creating two separate glacier fronts, Monacobreen and Seligerbreen. At the calving fronts many Kittiwakes and Arctic Terns are attracted to the plankton brought to the surface by the upwelling from the sub-glacial melt water streams.

From the Ocean Explorer’s daily programme

We had the glacial expert Mike in our boat and Bertie as driver and guide. They had lots to tell us about the ice and rocks here. They showed us the rough point at which the glacier had once ended its journey to the sea, when Mike first started visiting this area. Global warming is very apparent here.

  • Monacobreen
  • Monacobreen
  • Monacobreen
  • Monacobreen
  • Monacobreen with glaucous gull
  • Seligerbreen

As we travelled slowly through the bay we could hear the popping sounds made as the bubbles in the ice chunks released their tiny burst of air, hundreds of years old, into the atmosphere of today.

Zodiac ride in Leifdefjorden

We saw lots of black legged kittiwakes near the glacier as well as a bearded seal and a few glaucous gulls.

  • Black-legged Kittiwakes
  • Black-legged Kittiwake
  • Bearded seal
  • Black-legged Kittiwake
  • Black-legged Kittiwakes

The light was lovely, with breaks in the clouds allowing the sun to shine through in places and turn the water almost silver. Bertie took the zodiac quite far into the bergy bits area and past some beautiful icebergs. And he got permission to stay out a bit longer than the usual 90 minutes!

Seligerbreen

Texas Bar

Back on board we had lunch while the ship moved a little way out of the fjord to moor off an area called Texas Bar after the small trapper’s hut there. The afternoon shore excursion was organised the same way as yesterday, with graded walks, and again we opted for contemplative. I was glad not to have to attempt anything too challenging, and we both appreciated the extra time allowed for photography.

When we were called to the ready room we learned that it was raining so I packed my camera into the plastic bag I’d brought for that purpose. Despite that, it did get a bit wet during the walk but came to no harm.

Liefdefjorden was a popular hunting district for Norwegian trappers in the early to mid 1900s. The hunter Hilmar Nøis spend a number of years there and in 1927 he and his uncle built a hut on the northwest side of Liefdefjorden with the promising name of Texas Bar. The hut is now owned by the Sysselmesteren (Governor of Svalbard) and is occasionally used by scientists and locals from Longyearbyen.

From the Ocean Explorer’s daily programme

We landed on the pebble beach and met our guides for the afternoon: Kris (the photographer), Nigel (the bird expert) and Mandarin speaker Jiayi, who was great at identifying plants. Setting off we walked along to see the hut. There is a real bar in there, kept stocked as anyone who takes a drink is encouraged to replace it!

The hut at Texas Bar

We climbed the ridge behind it, stopping to photograph flowers. August is the best month to see these delicate Arctic beauties. We found purple moss campion, white tufted saxifrage and mountain sorrel. There were also some colourful lichens.

  • Purple moss campion
  • Purple moss campion
  • White tufted saxifrage
  • Mountain sorrel
  • Lichen

Once we reached the top of the ridge, we could see a glacier beyond and wide views of the bay. Kris asked if we were happy to climb a bit further to a large glacial erratic boulder, and most of us were.

The glacial erratic and the view down to the hut

Kris took a photo of the group there before we headed down in what was now quite steady rain.

Group of ‘contemplatives’ by the glacial erratic, @kristopherandres

Back at the hut we found that crew members had arrived in our absence and actually set up a bar there! There was wine, bubbly, various spirits and beer. There was also a campfire so we could warm up after our decidedly damp walk.

The bar is open, @kristopherandres

Back on board the Ocean Explorer

Later that afternoon we had a talk about the history of Svalbard, another about bearded seals and a third about some of the flowers we’d been seeing. Then Ryan outlined tomorrow’s plans, including another zodiac outing and a search for polar bears!

In the evening we were just finishing dinner, when Ryan announced that large whales had been spotted ahead, species as yet unknown. By the time we’d fetch jackets and cameras they’d been identified as blue whales. Although we’d seen them in Mexico we were of course keen to see more so we hurried to the observation deck and got some great views.

By the time the captain decided to leave the whales in peace and continue on our route, I’d taken several hundred shots on burst. So that took care of any further plans for the evening as I weeded them down to a sensible number!

  • Blue whales
  • Blue whale
  • Blue whale
  • Blue whale
  • Blue whale

Blue whales

I visited Svalbard in August 2025; this is an account of our adventures on Thursday, August 7th

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