Wednesday 5th August - Ytre Norskoya - Smeerenburg

We had decided not to do the three hour hike this morning, but the shorter one which was leaving at 10am. It was another beautiful morning, sunny with no wind.  I can't believe how lucky we have been with the weather. It can't last, can it?

On another topic for a moment, we have had no internet since the hotel in Longyearbyen. The boat had contact for the first couple of days, and we were given the onboard daily newspaper but, since then, we haven't even had that. Totally out of contact! I've just had to get used to it.

We had breakfast with two Australian couples, Ros and Andy from Adelaide and Darian and Maria from Brisbane. Then we went up to the theatre for a lecture on the History of Mankind on Svalbard by the historian, Elizabeth.

We left the Explorer at 10am for the short Zodiac ride to our landing site. We had decided to take the shorter of the two hikes.

On land at Ytre Norksoya

We had to be careful not to go too close to the nesting Arctic Terns, who lay their eggs directly on the ground. They flew menacingly above us, occasionally dipping down to warn us away! We also saw Little Auks up on the cliffside, making monkey-like sounds.

Arctic Tern

We walked past a couple of exposed graves, with the skeletons of whalers visible inside them!

The whaler's skull just visible in the remains of the wooden coffin

Our expedition guide, Danny, explaing the history fo the graves

 More Arctic flowers.

We walked for a while with Will, who pointed out 2 purple sandpipers on a rock by the shore. After about ninety minutes, we decided to cut the walk short and return to the ship, where Wendy snapped a couple of photos of our Expedition suite. We discovered the Expedition Video channel was showing the DVD of our Cape to Cape cruise in 2013. It was fun to watch.

We went up to the aft deck for lunch. Lori, a public health nurse from New York, joined us. The weather has been mainly cloudy but, at 7 degrees C, much warmer than yesterday, with occasional sprinkles of rain.

It was a short sail to our next stop at Smeerenburg, a whaling site that we visited last time we were in Svalbard. When we reached the fjord, there was a Hapag Lloyd expedition ship at anchor. Kit came on the loudspeaker and said we would be visiting another historical site instead before dinner, as passengers from 2 ships couldn't land at the same time. After dinner, we would visit our original destination, Smeerenburg, where there were walrus.

The historical site was Virgohamna, the place from where balloon and airship attempts were made to reach the North Pole at the end of the 19th century and the early part of the 20th century. It was from here that the American, Wellman, attempted to get to the Pole by balloon. Sadly, he failed.

The cairn and plaque commemorating the Andree expedition of 1897.

We spent half an hour there and returned to the ship for dinner.

For dinner, we were joined by Bruce and Luisa from Belgium. He is English while she is from Spain. Bruce is an interesting man who told us he sold an international petrochemical company. Later, we were also joined by Peter and Jackie from Brisbane. He is a psychiatrist, and she a nurse, originally from England.

At 9pm, we boarded the Zodiacs again for the short trip to Smeerenburg to see a group of walrus. The location was next to the ruins of whaling blubber ovens that we visited in 2009.

When we landed, most of the walrus were hauled up on the beach, with three in the water. They put on a fine display, playing very close to us. We were able to take some very good photos of them with a glacier in the background. A great half an hour and a very special moment.

Back on the ship, we set sail for Ny Alesund, where we will take a walk at the site of a failed English marble mining venture from the beginning of the 20th century.