June 03 - Svalbard

 June 03 - Svalbard 

Wow, what a day for wildlife!  Walrus, Harbour Seals and then the ultimate, Polar Bears, and then a whole raft of birds as well, today was just fantastic!


This morning started off with a visit to Smeerenberg, or Blubbertown in English, and what used to be a whaling station. There’s not a lot remaining, only a few remnants of buildings where the blubber from walruses and whales was rendered for oil. 

Also here was a group of about 25 walruses, looking like they were sleeping off a long lunch!  However, there was one exception to the group, and he looked like he was bathing his wounds after a blue. These animals are enormous, and it’s fantastic to see them close up, but with those enormous tusks I wouldn’t want to get too close!  

On leaving ‘blubbertown’, we took off in the zodiacs to explore a local bay.  Here we discovered a small group of harbour seals, so very much smaller than the walruses but still interesting to see.   

This afternoon’s adventure was out on a zodiac with a guide, Tara, who we know from our trip to the Antarctic. Tara, who has previously Kayaked around Svalbard, had been my guide when kayaking and it was her who had talked us into coming on this trip originally.  We headed out to a small island where we found a huge colony of Little Auks. These birds, very similar in shape and size to Puffins but without their bright orange beak, were swarming around the rocks where they nest.  

Unfortunately though we didn’t get any photos as they were just too quick.  


After receiving a radio message from another zodiac we headed off to another island where somebody had spotted a Polar Bear. However, by the time we arrived another 2 had appeared, this was just fantastic news!  Apparently these three had been attracted to a dead whale that had been washed up on the rocks and,  already eaten before we got there (they can eat up to 60kg before stopping), they were just lazing in the sun and snow. It was a fantastic experience and by all accounts really quite unusual to see more than two together, how lucky were we?  






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