Arctic Travels

A polar journey in summer

NORWAY | Sunday, 23 November 2014 | Views [278] | View Larger Image

There is no guarantee of seeing a polar bear on a trip to the arctic. With a little luck and great timing though a tiny white spot in the horizon becomes an extraordinary creature up close. Whilst visiting this glacial bay, this young male stopped his afternoon swim to climb on an iceberg to bask in the sunlight and allow us to come and have a closer look.

Sailing the Svalbard archipelago past vast open seas, unique geological landscape, and scores of ice can seem lonely. There are plenty of animals to keep you company, like this unexpected walrus haul out found on a tiny sandy island in one of the bays.

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A few years back you couldn't see these mountains. In bays such as this, where carvings are so frequent the sound is deafening and the glacial wall is blue from all the new chunks of ice breaking free that it becomes easy to see how small they are getting. Slowly moving along, with the pop and crackle of ice around us, the ruts in the hill side speak of how much height and length has been lost from the glacier.

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Arctic Travels

A polar journey in summer

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