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.

Thursday 6th August - Ny London - Lillehoekbreen Glacier

I managed to get internet access at 6.30am, the first time for six days, and then it failed!

The weather is still very calm, though now quite cloudy, but not at all cold. We had breakfast and went on the Zodiacs to see the marble mine at Ny London. Will guided us and gave us some of the history of this failed venture. It was set up on an island in Kongsfjorden by a Briton, Ernest Mansfield, in 1911 as a mining community for the extraction of marble.  The site was made up of a few derelict houses and old rusting machinery. We spent about an hour there and then returned to the boat.

Walking from the Zodiacs to the centre of the marble mine

The remains of the railway steam engine

A mobile crane used to lift the marble slabs, made by Taylor and Hubbard of Leicester

One of the marble quarries

The quayside crane, about to fall into the sea!

We had three polar bear guards posted around the site, each with a rifle to warn off any bears that might approach.

Chris Srigley on guard against the bears

On the opposite side of the fjord was Ny Alesund, the research establishment we visited in 2010, consisting of an international group of different countries conducting scientific studies of the climate, atmosphere and the seas.

This afternoon two walks were planned. The first at 2.30pm on the 14th July Glacier and the second along some bird cliffs. We think we did both of these in 2010.

We had lunch with Bruce and Luisa and Peter and Sher from Woldingham. As we were eating, Kit announced a bear sighting near Ny Alesund and said they would be lowering the Zodiacs for a trip to the shore to see a mother and her cub.  We were first off with Luke driving the Zodiac and had a good viewing of the mother (with radio collar) and cub.  They were lying on a ridge above the beach where there was a dead walrus that they could feed from. We went quite close in and cut the engines and were very careful to be quiet and still. We took lots of photos and video.

When we were back on board, it was announced the afternoon walks would not now take place and instead we would do a ship's cruise along the Lillehoekbreen Glacier, before setting sale for Greenland.

The glacier was about twenty miles up the fjord and took a couple of hours sailing. As we approached our destination, the temperature fell as the cold air swept down from the ice sheet. Twelve glaciers converged and formed an ice face over five kilometres wide. It was very impressive.

The ship turned about 500 yards from the ice face and we cruised along it for about an hour. Unlike the Monacobreen Glacier, there was no carving taking place.

We then set sail for Greenland, over 850 miles away. We went to the dining room for dinner and joined Eugene and Jurate, known as Judy. We had a most enjoyable time with them.

I managed to get on the Internet and pick up our emails, including one from Mavis Mills saying her husband Bob had just died after a short illness. We emailed our condolences. On a brighter note, we learned that Stuart Broad had taken 8 for 15, bowling Australia out for 60, in ninety minutes!!

We went to sleep about midnight on lovely calm seas. Hoping it stays that way to Scoresby Sund, which we should reach early on Sunday morning.