Isn’t it part of human nature to grasp anything we perceive as a last chance? This week the Lens Artists team offer us a last chance, namely the opportunity to share some photos taken this year but not (yet) used.
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On the final day of our expedition cruise we enjoyed enjoy a final walk on Spitsbergen and, as on every day of this trip, some special wildlife sightings. Our last full day on board started well, with a sighting of a large pod of beluga whales off the port bow.
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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.
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On an expedition cruise not everything that is planned can work out quite as expected. We had already seen yesterday how fog could create a change of plan, as we’d been unable to land at Andréeneset on Kvitøya. Today another force of nature was to have a similar impact; not weather but bears!
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A more low-key day today, after the excitement of yesterday's polar bear encounter. But there were no dull days on this trip and today’s highlight was ticking off another of my Arctic wish-list animals, walruses. The ship travelled south-east during the night to the small island of Kvitoya, the easternmost one in the Svalbard archipelago.
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When we decided on August for our Svalbard visit I wasn’t sure whether we would see any pack ice. As the summer progresses the ice retreats northwards, beyond the area our itinerary was scheduled to cover. But on an expedition cruise the planned itinerary can often be abandoned because of weather conditions, wildlife viewing opportunities or other factors.
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Anyone who thinks of the Arctic as a bleak and desolate place, devoid of life, needs only to visit the bird cliffs of Alkefjellet to dispel that illusion. I have never seen so much activity, so much life, concentrated in one small area.
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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.
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Christiane Ritter spent a winter in the harshest conditions that Svalbard can offer. Living in a tiny hut with her husband and another trapper, but sometimes left alone there for many days. Constant darkness, cut off from the world by snow and ice; her Arctic was not my Arctic. But I think editing some of my photos in black and white has helped to emphasise what sense of bleakness I did find in this stunning environment.
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We were to experience a sense of peace on every day of this trip, the silence often only broken by the noise of the kittiwakes and other birds. Surprisingly today we were also to experience warm sunshine; not something I expected to find in Svalbard.
