A journey to Svalbard or Spitsbergen Day 5

We woke up on the southeast side of Prins Karls Forland on a slightly overcast day. Temperature was 5 – 9 degrees celsius. The morning temperature was extremely high for this latitude (78'09”N 12'03”E).

In the morning we landed with our zodiacs on a small beach in a place called Steinpyntvika on a very scenic rocky coastline. We devided into three groups and enjoyed a beatifull walk in tundra landscape.

I started noticing in this quiet land how much noise humans make by just moving around.

We spotted many birds, Red Throated Diver (I missed that one), Purple Sandpiper, Greater Black Backed Gull, Skuas and several Grey Phalarope.

When crossing the tundra we encountered high densities of nesting Pink-footed Geese and a lot of curious Reindeer. The Reindeer seemed to be following us.

During the walk the weather improved and the wind settled and every now and then the sun popped out. Making the scenery look even more beautiful. We had a spectacular view of the metamorphic rock formations, which form many small islands with many nesting Barnacle Geese.

On the ground we found small rocks being pushed upwards.

Already from a large distance staff members confirmed the presence of Walrus on the beach of Poolepynten. But to get there we had to get back to our zodiacs and cruise towards Poolepynten.

We were instructed by our guides how to behave in the presence of these big balls of blubber and we all lined up and inched closer. We were lucky, a herd of Walruses were hauled up on the beach and we stealthily approached the herd of Walruses. We stopped at intervals to get them accustomed to our presence.

Some were in the water, swimming, hanging around. This was our chance to capture images of one of the biggest seals on the planet, only to be found in the Arctic. We could almost touch and most certainly smell them as some of the brave youngsters among them curiously approached us from the water up the beach until only ten meters or so remained between us!

It almost seemed like the Walrus were doing the exact same thing as we were doing. They enjoyed our company and were checking us out.

All too soon it was time to return to the mother ship and we began our preperations for departure.

During the night we headed further south on our way to the eastern side of Svalbard / Spitsbergen.

More comping up!

Check out previous posts:

Day 1: https://steemit.com/travel/@icgoodthings/a-journey-to-svalbard-or-spitsbergen

Day 2: https://steemit.com/arctic/@icgoodthings/a-journey-to-svalbard-or-spitsbergen-day-2

Day 3: https://steemit.com/arctic/@icgoodthings/a-journey-to-svalbard-or-spitsbergen-day-2

Day3-2 : https://steemit.com/travel/@icgoodthings/a-journey-to-svalbard-or-spitsbergen-day-3-part-ii

Day 4-1: https://steemit.com/travel/@icgoodthings/a-journey-to-svalbard-or-spitsbergen-day-4-part-i

Day4-2: https://steemit.com/travel/@icgoodthings/a-journey-to-svalbard-or-spitsbergen-day-4-part-ii