In the July 2010, we traveled to Svalbard which is in the Arctic Ocean well north of Norway. We have been to Svalbard before, in 2004. On that trip we saw many things, but only two Polar Bears. We returned in the hope of finding more bears, and we did.
Our trip began in Oslo with a visit to Vigeland Park, home to many sculptures by Gustav Vigeland.
After an overnight stay in Oslo, we proceeded on to Longyearbyen for a tour of the town and to board our ship. In the evening we headed out for a first look at the ice and birds.
Overnight we sailed south down the west coast of Spitsbergen and awoke to whales before heading into Hornsund. In Hornsund we had a good look at a the glaciers and ice and went for a hike.
The we spent our second day in south east Svalbard where we saw a wildlife on the ice, photographed birds from a Zodiac near Bolscheøya, and saw a Bear on a kill.
Overnight we traveled to Freemansudet but were blocked by ice. Which was probably good because the next day we traveled up Storfjorden and encountered many bears including at least three mothers with young. We stopped at Kapp Lee for a hike on the way there, and got chased off by a bear. We ended the day by heading through Heleysundet and turning north where we encountered more Bears.
We started our forth day with a hike in Sorgfjorden. We moved on to Kapp Fanshawe for a spectacular view of huge numbers of birds nesting on the cliff face. From there we moved on to Palanderbukta and finally to Wahlenbergfjorden where we had our best bear encounter. It was a long day.
The next day was longer. We started the day with kayaking in Liefdefjorden then hiking in Woodfjorden. We headed north to just north of 80º to Moffen to see Walrus and ended the day early the next day at a Fin Whale carcass near Nordvestøyane that had attracted many bears.
We finished our circumnavigation of Spitzbergen Island with a relaxing day. We started with a kayak in Krossfjorden and cruise down the coast when we were lucky enough to see Blue Whales, the largest animals to ever live on Earth.
When we arrived back at Longyearbyen we had several hours to walk around the town before heading to the airport for our flight back to Oslo.