June 04 - Svalbard

 June 04 - Svalbard  

Overnight to Raudfjorden (the ‘red fjord’) and where, this morning, we went exploring around the base of one of the many glaciers there are in this part of the world.  Some of the land and seascapes we’ve seen recently have been absolutely stunning, and the views around here are no different, they are magnificent.  Birdlife abounds as well and this morning we we’re lucky enough to get a few pictures of some Arctic terns.  These amazing birds, who migrate from one end of the globe to the other, barely set foot on land so we were fortunate to see this small group on rocks. 

  This afternoon again out on the zodiacs but this time exploring along the edges of the ‘fast’ ice (‘fast’, as in stuck, i.e. alongside the coastline). We hadn’t traveled far before finding a small group of  Walruses swimming and lazing around on the ice flow. They really are huge, males can weight up to a 1000kgs, so we make an effort not to get too close, “just in case!” 🙂 

Tonight we’re heading for Alkefjellet. However, there’s quite a lot of pack ice between here and there and so there’s no guarantee we’ll reach there.  No ships so far this season have reached the northern latitudes we’ve achieved over the last couple of days due to ice. However, the crew are hopeful and we’ll just have to find out in the morning.