A journey to Svalbard or Spitsbergen Day 8

Day 8 Andreetangen pack ice

No wind, high clouds, some blue sky and 5 degrees celsius.

We woke up of the Eastern Svalbard, ahead of us was the south eastern part of Edgeoya, an area not often visited and especially not this time due to extreme ice conditions.

Already before anchoring we saw a few Walruses hanging out on the pack ice.

After enjoying our breakfast we went on for a long zodiac cruise along the Ziegler group of islands. Our first stop was by an ice floe checking out a huge Walrus, we managed to get very close without disturbing him.

We continued cruising through the pack ice looking for Polar Bears because this area is infamous for its many bears. No luck sofar. We passed the small island Delichtoya and landed on Adreetangen. The weather improved further and the view was beautiful.

Hardly any vegetation, mostly Moss Campion and some different grasses and weed. We diveded into two groups and strolled around the area, watching Reindeer, Walrus, birds and some small plants.

We headed back to the zodiac and went of towards Delichtoya, where the best preserved blubber oven of Svalbard is. The oven was still covered with snow. We passed by some Ringed Seals hauled out n the ice. This species of seal is difficult to approach and is easily disturbed, so we let them be and returned to the ship for some lunch.

The afternoon we spent cruisng the pack ice in the search of Polar Bear.

We had to cruise quite a distance towards Hornsund, so we were mostly on deck just watching the scenery and looking out for wildlife.

Finally, late in the evening one of us spotted a Polar Bear, the bear was swimming which makes them vulnerable and hard to approach, still we had a good look at the bear. The crew did not want to disturb the bear so we left it alone.

Day 9 is coming up!