love those cupcakes

Arctic adventures, finale

And so we headed southwards, towards Iceland.

Husavik is a town on the north east coast, according to some records the country's first permanent Norse settlement back in 874 AD.  We spent a day on a local horse farm, getting acquainted with the Icelandic horse (and a couple of its canine friends).  

The only breed of horse throughout Iceland, the law forbids the import of horses and the return of any Icelandic horse that has been exported for whatever reason (some were exported to the UK to work in coal mines).  Icelandic horses are small and have two additional gaits to the walk, trot, and canter/gallop of other breeds and we were treated to an impressive display.

Then onto the Snaefellsnes peninsula in the north west, with its backdrop of ice capped mountains, waterfalls, raging seas, black lava beaches.  And a whale or two.

Finally, Reykjavik, a flight home and a sight for sore eyes.

 

Arctic adventures, part 6

Greenland.  

The world's largest, and one of the most sparsely populated, islands.  One of the least visited places on earth.

The ice sheet, roughly 80% of Greenland, is the second largest body of ice in the world after the Antarctic ice sheet.

A land of spectacular vistas, vast swathes of wilderness, towering icebergs, mountains, tiny, low growing plants, and an isolated Innuit village situated at the entrance to Scoresby Sound on the north east coast.

And home to someone instantly recognisable.

 

Arctic adventures, part 5

The ship continued to sail northwards towards the Pole, to the edge of the Arctic ice pack, the frozen ocean, reaching much further than it had even as little as a year ago.

The Arctic has changed.  Unquestionably.  The North West passage is now easily navigated.  The sea ice is retreating.  There is ocean where once there was ice.  A recent report (September 2016)* predicts that ice-free Arctic summers are imminent.

On this trip, we were in the company of an expedition team made up of experts from around the world.  Geologists, botanists, biologists, Arctic historians, ornithologists, naturalists, marine mammal scientists and more.  All were agreed that this is catastrophic news for us all, and none more so than for polar bears, who depend on the Arctic ice for their very survival.  

Bears are returning to areas where the ice once was but is no longer, are travelling longer and longer distances in search of food, are malnourished and in some cases starving to death.

We were so lucky on this trip to spot polar bears, during the day, in the night (still visible in this land of 24 hour daylight), on the ice, in the water, bears tucking into a recent kill, solitary bears and mothers with cubs.   Eight in total, thankfully all clearly well fed and healthy.  

Sometimes the camera was left to one side and the sight of these magnificent animals was just simply enjoyed, wept over and recorded in memory.

 

 *'A Farewell To Ice' by Peter Wadhams.

 

Arctic adventures, part 4

One of the reasons for embarking on this adventure was to see wildlife, as up close as possible, in all the glory of its natural habitat.  

But we quickly realised the Arctic is very different to the Antarctic

In Antarctica, spotting wildlife, often gathered in huge groups, is more or less guaranteed.  It's just, well, sitting there and you can easily and safely (I'm fairly sure I've never heard of anyone being mauled to death by a penguin) walk amongst it.

Whilst the Arctic has a wider variety of animal life than that found at the southern pole, it's generally much more elusive. The land in the Arctic isn't particularly productive so large concentrations of animals are few and far between.  Also, predators, like polar bears, tend to have very large ranges in order to be able to find food and sustain life.    

Consequently, in the Arctic, it's more a case of being lucky (or, as is the more common experience,  unlucky) in spotting wildlife.

We were very fortunate to come across the herd of walrus in the previous post. There were also several sightings of pods of whales (humpbacks, killers, greys), some sticking close to the ship as it made its journey across Arctic waters, all proving so very hard to photograph (certainly with my limited kit and skills). 

Birds were present for much of the voyage.  White gulls, the pretty little snow bunting, puffins and the instantly recognisable Arctic tern, with its distinctive red body parts, spotted on the little island of Gyldenoyane. So elegant in flight, these small, almost swallow-like, seabirds make the longest migration in the animal kingdom, flying between breeding grounds in the Arctic and their winter home in the Antarctic every single year. With a lifespan of 30 years or more, researchers have estimated that, over its lifetime, an Arctic tern migrates about 1.5 million miles. Apparently, that equates to three trips to the moon and back.

Dense colonies of the Brünnich’s guillemot had made their home on the 100m high cliffs at Alkerfjellet, with thousands of breeding pairs seemingly occupying every precarious square inch.  Females each lay a single egg on the bare rock at about the same time, so that the hatching of chicks, and, after three weeks or so, their jumping (sometimes falling) off the narrow ledges into the sea, is highly synchronised.  A parent bird, usually dad, immediately joins the fledgling in the water and the pair will stick together for about eight weeks. 

But every visitor to the Arctic has their fingers crossed for a sighting of a polar bear.

 

Arctic adventures, part 3

A calm, sunny day and a zodiac landing on the stony beach at Fjortende Julibreen (14th July) Bay, at the base of a steep mountain ridge that rises from sea level to a height of almost 1000m, with views of the similarly named glacier (79°N).  

There was a tricky climb to the top of the ridge, and an even trickier descent, but all the slipping and sliding and hanging onto rocks for dear life was worth it. 

The following day, another zodiac landing.  Phippsoya island (80°N), the northernmost island in the Seven Islands Archipelago, the northernmost point of Svalbard.  

Uninhabited by humans, of course, and little in the way of vegetation but, on the beach, bleached tree trunks from Siberia, washed up during stormy weather, and evidence of the plastic pollution that is threatening the Arctic's fragile ecosystem.

Then, which from a distance appeared to be a pile of rocks, the welcoming committee, one of whom bore a remarkably close resemblance to Aunty M's one-time neighbour.

 

Arctic adventures, part 2

 A three hour or so flight from Oslo to the Svalbard Archipelago, specifically Spitsbergen, the largest island, and a nosey round the township of Longyearbyen (78°N) before boarding a ship heading further northwards to Ny Alesund (78°55'N).  

Some facts:

• The islands making up Svalbard are situated in the Arctic Ocean and range from 74° to 81° N latitude.
• As much as 60 % of the landmass is covered in ice and glaciers, and less than ten percent has any vegetation.
• The sun doesn't appear at all during the winter but shines continually (yes, 24 hours of daylight) during the summer.
• Far north of the Arctic Circle, the area has an Arctic climate, with average summer temperatures ranging from 4 to 6°C and average winter temperatures ranging from −12 to −16 °C.
• There are no trees or shrubs and plants which are found here are very low growing.
• Environmental legislation throughout Svalbard is strict. All wildlife is protected and disturbing animals and birds and picking flowers is prohibited.
• Fishing, hunting and mining have largely disappeared, with research and now some tourism as the main industries.
• This is polar bear country.
• Polar bears are at the top of the food chain.
• Everyone owns a rifle.
• It is illegal to hunt a polar bear and if one is shot in self-defence (absolutely the last resort, with flares and other devices carried to discourage approaching bears), it must be reported immediately to Svalbard’s Governor.

 

• Longyearbyen was established in 1906 because of coal mining.
• About 2,100 people live in the town.
• There is an alcohol quota for residents who must present an alcohol card when making purchases.
• No-one is born here.  If you're pregnant, you're shipped off to the mainland well before your due date.
• No-one is allowed to die here.  Permafrost preserves bodies rather too well.  Even live samples of the virus that caused the catastrophic Spanish Flu pandemic of 1918 were recently extracted from some of the bodies buried here.
• This is the home of the Global Seed Vault, the world's largest secure seed storage facility built into the mountainside and holding seeds from more than 4000 important plant species, a repository as insurance against some future global disaster.

 

• Ny Alesund is the northernmost permanent settlement in the world.
• It is half the distance from the North Pole as the distance from Oslo to Ny Alesund.
• This proximity has made it the point of departure for many North Pole expeditions, including those undertaken by seaplane and airship by Roald Amundsen.  (The mast to which the airship, Norge, was secured is still there, just a short walk from the statue erected in his honour.)
• Residents (about 30 in winter, 130 in summer) are connected to research and environmental monitoring projects.
• Eleven institutions from ten countries around the world have established research stations here, three of which are permanently staffed.

 

 

Arctic adventures, part 1

First stop (not counting an overnight at Heathrow), Oslo, the Norwegian capital, sometime home to Munch, Ibsen, Jo Nesbo and Mariella Frostrup.  And current home to the Nobel Peace Prize, of course.

Because of flight delays, time here was even more limited than planned but we tried to make the most of a brief stay, opting on the second day for a faster paced guided walk around the city to gain an overview.  

The weather was perfect for a spot of sightseeing, with sun and blue skies, though perhaps becoming a tad too hot for all that walking.

Oslo is a mix of old and new, with plenty of green spaces, a regenerated waterfront, museums and galleries, an impressive opera house that you can walk all over, statues everywhere, a stitched version of a famous scream, coffee shops and restaurants lining the route to the palace and much more.

As expensive as it's rumoured to be?  Possibly.  We simply didn't bother to do the currency conversions.

Next:  heading northwards.

 

 

 

Signing off

I've travelled as far south as I could get.

I've been as high as I could get.

Now it's time to head here.

Well, as near as I can get.

Back soon-ish.