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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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.