Coast & seascapes,  Monday walks,  Svalbard

Arctic diary nine: Hornsund, Burgerbukta and Mühlbacherbreen

October 10, 2025 / 49 Comments

To dine with a glacier on a sunny day is a glorious thing and makes feasts of meat and wine ridiculous. The glacier eats hills and drinks sunbeams.

John Muir, quoted in the Ocean Explorer’s daily programme

Overnight the Ocean Explorer had left the smaller islands of Edgeøya and Barentsøya and returned to the main one in the archipelago, Spitsbergen. We rounded its southern tip to moor in the fjord of Hornsund. The landscapes were particularly stunning but for me our arrival here was tinged with a little sadness as it felt as if we were on the home strait back to Longyearbyen.

Burgerbukta
Burgerbukta
Viewing Burgerbukta from the ship

Today provided another demonstration of the flexibility built into planning our programmes on board the Ocean Explorer. The daily programme proposed a landing at Vinkelvika in the morning and a cruise in Burgerbukta in the afternoon. But when Ryan saw the weather, he switched these activities so that we could take advantage of what sun there was lighting the colourful cliffs of the latter.

Burgerbukta

Hornsund is one of the most spectacular scenic corners of the west coast of Spitsbergen. The northernmost bay deep in Hornsund is called Burgerbukta and was named after Wilhelm Burger (1844 – 1920), an Austrian court photographer and a member of Count Wilczek’s expedition in 1872. At the back of the western bay of Burgerbukta (bukta=bay) is the dramatic glacier, Paierlbreen. It is surrounded by steep sided mountains that provide a habitat for nesting seabirds.

From the Ocean Explorer’s daily programme

We were in the last zodiac to leave the ship for this morning’s zodiac cruise. We had Ryan as our driver, as well as guides Mike and Jen on board. Soon after leaving the ship we spotted a black guillemot chick in the water.

Black guillemot chick

The cliffs were streaked with rust-coloured deposits from the iron rich waterfalls that tumbled down them. And there were patches of snow and small icebergs (known as ‘bergy bits’) dotted around in the deep green water. The other zodiac boat included in one of my photos below should give you a sense of scale in this awesome landscape.

Our reward for waiting to leave the ship was a fantastic one! Ours was one of just three zodiacs that had an exciting encounter with a lone beluga whale. He seemed very curious about us and the boats, trailing us for a while and getting so close to the engine that Ryan was concerned that the propeller might hurt him. Unfortunately Chris and I were sitting at the front of the boat, furthest from the action, so it was quite hard to get photos, but we enjoyed the thrill of being so close to this wild creature who had taken such an interest in us.

Luckily there were no too-close encounters between whale and zodiac engine. After a while we left him and travelled further up the western arm of the bay towards the large glacier of Paierbreen.

Paierbreen
Paierbreen

We had close views of several waterfalls, some of which were flowing straight out of the rock face.

Eventually Ryan turned back towards to the ship and headed back at speed as, because of the whale, we’d stayed out a little longer than the 90 minutes programmed. Back on board we went to the library for hot drinks, and I started to sort through the many less than successful beluga photos I’d taken (I had the camera set on burst).  

Watching the polar plunge

The polar plunge is a tradition on all of Quark’s expeditions, I believe. Anyone who wants to and is brave enough is invited to ‘leap into the frigid Arctic waters of the far north’, as the daily programme put it. Believe it or not I did seriously consider taking part but decided that at my age discretion was the better part of valour, as they say. Not for nothing do they have Dr Andy standing by with a defibrillator! And Chris, not an enthusiastic swimmer at any time, didn’t even consider it for a moment!

Instead we joined all the other non-plungers on the aft deck to watch. I was impressed by the number who were up for it! It was very well, and safely, organised, with every participant having a harness so they could be quickly pulled back to the ship if necessary. The expedition team were on hand to offer encouragement, including suggesting that people adopt a fun pose as they jumped, which many did!

Vinkelvika

As we ate lunch the ship moved to a different part of Burgerbukta, its eastern arm. After the meal we went ashore at Vinkelvika near Mühlbacherbreen, a two kilometre wide glacier.

Mühlbacherbreen is located in the eastern arm of Burgerbukta and is a dramatic glacier that is 2 km long. The glacier is known for its stunning ice formations and its role in the region’s dynamic glacial environment. We hope to land at Vinkelvika and get a view of this beautiful glacier that provides valuable insights into Arctic glaciology and the effects of climate change, as many of the glaciers in the region are retreating due to climate change.

From the Ocean Explorer’s daily programme

On the way to the landing spot we passed a bearded seal sitting on a small piece of ice who posed nicely for us.

Bearded seal
Bearded seal

This was a different sort of walk from the guided ones we had elsewhere. Once we’d landed and had the usual polar bear safety briefing, we were free to roam as we chose within an area marked out by the expedition team. They were stationed in various places along the zone’s perimeter, armed with rifles as a precaution against bears.

Expedition team members Hongwei and Mike on watch

Chris and I spent some time exploring near the shore, photographing some reindeer bones and tiny flowers.

  • Reindeer vertebrae and ribs
  • Reindeer jawbone
  • Reindeer vertebra
  • Tufted saxifrage
  • Tufted saxifrage

We also saw a pair of arctic terns.

We then started to walk in the other direction with great views of the glacier. Some people had already made their way right to the front of it.

Mühlbacherbreen

It wasn’t easy walking on the rough stony ground and the glacier was still some distance away. So I suggested Chris went over there by himself. While he was gone I took a few photos. I then found a surprisingly comfortable rock to sit on and soak up the awe-inspiring view of the glacier.

Mühlbacherbreen (panorama created from two shots stitched together)
Chris making his way towards the glacier
One of the ship’s kayaks

When Chris got back, after about 40 minutes, we walked back along the rocky shore to the landing area and took the next zodiac back to the boat.

Activities on board

As usual we went to the late afternoon recap and briefing, which today included an interesting talk by Bertie about various women associated with Svalbard history. I was pleased that he mentioned Christine Ritter, author of A Woman in the Polar Night, which I’d read and been fascinated by (thanks to a recommendation by Margaret of From Pyrenees to Pennines).

Christine Ritter and her husband Herman, from a postcard bought in the Svalbard Museum in Longyearbyen

We saw more of Kris’s fabulous photos too, as always. I’ve picked out a few that show some aspects of the day that I wasn’t able to capture. I should mention again that I chatted with Kris and asked permission to use his photos in this blog, which he graciously agreed to. He didn’t even stipulate that I should credit him but of course I was never going to omit doing that.

Zodiac and bearded seal @kristopherandres
Mühlbacherbreen @kristopherandres
Ivory gull @kristopherandres
Ivory gull @kristopherandres

Ryan ran through the plans for tomorrow as always, with hopefully a walk in the morning and possibly a last zodiac ride in the afternoon. And there was some excitement when a polar bear was spotted swimming in the bay. He was too far off for me to photograph, but again Kris was able to fill the gap.

Polar bear swimming @kristopherandres
Polar bear, Mühlbacherbreen @kristopherandres

Later, after dinner, there was a presentation from Ian about sea shanties which was good fun as he got everyone singing along with the choruses. After that I took a few photos from our cabin as we sailed back down the fjord to continue further north overnight.

Burgerbukta, late evening

I visited Svalbard in August 2025; this is an account of our adventures on Tuesday, August 12th

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