27.06.2011 – 27.06.2011  1 °C

Awesome start to the morning with us getting a wakeup call to go see Polar Bears!! By this time I’ve worked out that when you get your first signal from the bridge you’ve got a good 15min before they are in close enough range to see them well with binoculars and sort of see them by eye, so I decided to stay in the room and have my shower!

By the time I made it out on deck the polar bear was still well within range and I could see it quite clearly with the naked eye (although my photos only really show a white blob on a background of grey!) The bear moved away so we all had brekky.

Straight after brekky we again boarded the zodiacs and took off to go ashore to see some old graves of whalers and trappers. The boat was parked in this amazing fjord. We were fortunate that there was very little wind (although it was very overcast) and so the reflections off the sea were amazing! The fjord was surrounded by huge craggy mountains, with two glaciers at the end of the fjord. The graves themselves were cairns of rock surrounded by pools of melted ice! Really very picturesque.

The graves were guarded by a “Sicilman’s Hut”. The Sicilman is the police and park rangers who abide here on Spitsbergen to protect the national parks and ensure tourists are abiding by Norwegian Laws. Spitsbergen is unique in that it is a part of Norway, and the Norwegian government have quite tight controls on tourism in the area. For example, tourists are unable to approach the wildlife (ie if we see a polar bear we are not able to get close to it in a zodiac or something), we are unable to remove anything from Spitsbergen (rocks, plants, bones etc).

Point in fact occurred just after we returned back to the boat for lunch. We were back on the boat and we had the call that there was a large polar bear off the port side. We all ran outside and saw the bear. The boat started to cruise alongside the bear. About 20min later the expedition leader called off the “chase”. This was because the captain was unable to get us any closer in the boat (rocks etc in the way). Many people on the boat questioned why we wouldn’t deploy the zodiacs to go and have a look at the bear (it was on shore with a cub and would have been quite easy to get to via zodiac). Before the expedition leader addressed us all, I had assumed that we did not go in zodiacs because of our own safety (in regards to the bear— get too close and it might eat us) but actually it was because we are unable to chase polar bears by Norwegian law. We are allowed to let them approach us but we are not able to go and chase them or lure them in any way. It made for interesting lunch and “bar time” discussion that day. Many people on the ship weren’t happy about the stance that the expedition leader and the ship’s captain had taken. Most people (myself included) assumed that when we see a polar bear we will do everything possible to get up as close as we can to have a good look at them. Every other bear we have sited has been in a location where it is clear we are unable to get close (too much ice between us and the bear). But this particular bear and cub were right on the shore line with no ice barring our way to the shore, so we, the passengers, all assumed that we would all jump in the zodiacs and zoom out to the bear and her cub to get a close look.. Not so! Let me tell you, there were some very unhappy passengers on the ship! Some were very vocal with the expedition leader telling him exactly what they thought of his policies!! I would have hated to have been in his shoes!

The afternoon’s activity was a zodiac cruise on another glacier. Unfortunately, I had contracted a migraine headache (it had been building for a day or so) so I spent the afternoon sleeping in the cabin. From all accounts it was another trip out to a beautiful glacier that resulted in most of the passengers being completely drenched and cold (because the weather had turned ugly during the day). Sounds like I didn’t miss a thing!

Finished off the evening (albeit early) with a soft drink in the polar bear bar (no alcohol for this little sore headed duck!)