Views along the coast

August 2:nd

I didn't bother waking up "in the middle of the night" just in order to get some champagne and celebrate our reaching 80 deg N and see the island Moffen, but preferred to sleep instead.

After breakfast, we watched a walrus video (there hadn't been any at Moffen this time).

[Coastal view] [Coastal view]

After lunch, we watched a slide show, and then we arrived at:

14:e juli breen (14:th of July glacier)

[Mountain from afar] Around lunch time, we arrive at the 14:th of July Glacier, or rather the bird mountain close by. Most of Svalbard is very barren, not only as a result of the cold, but mainly because the lack of fertilizers.

[People landing from dinghy] This bird mountain was the greenest place I saw during the whole two weeks I was on Svalbard.

For this section of the trip, we were accompanied by "cruise passengers". Those live on the ship, and don't stay as long as we "walkers" did. But if your interest is to see only those places close to the landings, then that's not at all a bad way to see Svalbard.

[Mountainside from below] The birds are very much both visible and audible from down below, and it's very interesting to see how different the cliff side looks in the places under the birds' nesting places and elsewhere. [Me, with Kungsfjorden behind]

I'm also quite intrigued by the different nesting places chosen by the different types of birds. Some live close together, others live a apart, and highest up lives the predators, overlooking their prey, but not at all far away like could be expected.

The weather was very nice during the hour or so we spent there, and I didn't even need any gloves all the time.

On to Ny-Ålesund

My vacation on Svalbard
Last modified 1995 Dec 22 by Urban Fredriksson
griffon@canit.se