Friday 26 th
of June 2015
and they woke us up by a message on the PA at 7 thirty. And as you understand the message started with a Good Morning. We had dropped anchor in Liefdefjorden during the night and we will check out the fjord after breakfast.
And in the English message they had the Swedish word for today “Administratörslösenord”
I passed the white board with today’s activities on my way to the restaurant and the breakfast. And it looks to be another exciting day for us.
We left m/s Quest at 9 o'clock bound for the moraine in front of the Erik glacier, the boat trip lasted for a few minutes and we drove the Zodiacs up on the beach so we could go ashore, of course we had to step in shallow water to get ashore.
And yes, I had decided to go with the slow walkers again as I was more in to the Zodiac safari to have a greater chance to see some animals and excitements.
Mountain sticking up through the clouds
Beaching the Zodiacs
Beaching the Zodiacs
Flowers
A boat in front of the Monaco glacier
An old fox trap
The Monaco glacier at the end of the Liefdefjorden
Goose and Reindeer poo. And yes, the Reindeer poo is the small one
Finally, time to leave
We walked around for way longer than expected. Our Guide in the “slow walking, almost at a full stop, Zodiac safari” group was leading the German speaking “sprinter” group today. So we hadanother girl in charge, and walking it was. I don't mind the walking as I can walk several hours per day when I'm home in Bangkok.
But here we are to see exciting animals and this is the reason for me and my new friend from America to join the “slow walking, almost at a full stop, Zodiac safari” group.
So my new American friend and I was a wee bit disappointed and when we left the beach we expected some safari. But disappointment again, we landed at an old hunters lodge, the Texas Bar. 100 years old, and we went to have a look at it. This was a hut that looked like it was built from wood found on the beach. 2 small rooms to protect from Polar Bears.
But to me it looked like a full grown Polar Bear would have run through the house without even notice that he had run through a house. Yeah, imagine living there in the middle of nowhere. Thinking about it, 100 years ago and everything was pretty much in the middle of nowhere.
And again, 100 years ago they had a different adjustment to comfort. Driving a car today comparing with a car 20 years ago. Then comparing walking with riding a horse 200 years ago. The walker was green of envy, the guy on the horse was traveling in comfort. And the guy on the horse was green of envy because there was always someone that could afford a wagon.
Texas Bar in Liefdefjorden
The wagon guy he could travel in real comfort and style. A trip between Malmö and Stockholm was pure enjoyment. Today you would have got out of the wagon after 2 minutes (or less) as you would not be able to stand it.
Then they built the railway, and this was something very comfortable, suddenly you could spend years traveling. Today, sitting on a wooden bench on a train and you would have thrown yourself in front of the steam train after a few minutes. So who knows, maybe the “Texas Bar” was a real dream come true. Polar Bears attacking or not.
Anyway, the most interesting pictures for the day, the ones from Texas Bar is gone. I ran Recuva and I was only able to recover one of the pictures. But I think you get the picture
Well, the disappointment from this morning turned in to a power nap in the afternoon as I didn't had many pictures to sort out. I woke up by the PA message just after 3 o'clock in the afternoon.We were going to launch the Zodiacs at 3 thirty. I got dressed and I joined the last Zodiac to leave m/s Quest
We were driving around some small islands and we were told there should bee plenty nesting birds on the small islets. We saw exactly foock all.
The most exciting that happened during the afternoon excursion was that we hit an underwater rock. But we were lucky to hit the rock from the right side. We hit the rock on the low end and the rock was formed like a ramp and we just tookoff with a lot of shaking and loud noise from the Zodiac. If we would have hit the rock on the high side, would not have been good.
We turned around to go back to check out the rock. The rock was actually flat like a table and our Guide went out to stand on the rock.
I managed to get a few pictures of some birds and on the way back to m/s Quest we stopped to check out the mountain side. There was some interesting rocks, almost like concrete andthe side had some caves, well, more like holes and we could drive in with the Zodiac half way.
One of the ladies suggested that we should wear mining helmets. I told her that this would protect us from the small stones only, what if the whole foocking mountain decided to come down on us.
The helmet would for sure not help very much. We had been on the tour for about 2 hours when we returned to m/s Quest. m/s Quest had moved in to the head of the fjord and it was nice to get back on board again. I was cold and bored senseless. Today have been a wasted day and today was the first time it was nice to be back on board m/s Quest, and that was for both the excursions today.
He caught a fish
Of course, you cannot expect Polar Bear action every day and we have been experience some unique stuffhere so far so expectations are kept high. Today was the first day I was freezing, as there was no action I had time to think about my comfort.
Or discomfort, both bored and freezing and there was nothing interesting to see here in Leifdefjorden. So I was cold and I heard them talking about PP that would start at 6 o'clock. PP,what theis that? Well, I was soon realising that PP was the code word for the Polar Plunge. DARN! My swimming trunks are in my lost bag!
Of course I had brought my swimming trunks as I expect to swim in the hot wells on Iceland. There are some hot wells among the ice bergs on Greenland as well. “A visit to the hot springs Uunartoq. The lakes are situated on an island approx. 50kilometer south of Qaqortoq near the settlement Alluitsup Paa. It's a great experience to enjoy the warm water surrounded by huge mountains and floating icebergs. On the 2.5 hour boat trip, there are good chances to see whales frolicking”
So yes, I have brought my swimming gear, but for sure not to use it here on Svalbard in freezingwater. This I will leave for the “Dare Devils” and that is even though they promised an instant reward and a certificate.
The people that didn't want to take the plunge in to the Polar water could watch the Dare Devils from deck 4 just abovethe gangway. For sure, I didn't expected anyone to go through with the Polar Plunge.
Of course, one of our Guides had to start and he took the first leap from the bridge. And he was followed by 9 more, and one of them did it twice.
They are stand-by to take pictures
Our Guide is first out
Our Guide is first out
Our Guide is first out
Our Guide is first out
Our Guide is first out
Looks like he is in a hurry to get out of the water
Loos like most of the Polar Plungers are in a hurry to get out of the water
The Polar Plunge came to and end and 9 passengers and our Guide took the leap from the bridge, about 10 more than I had expected. We had the meeting on the bridge at 7 o'clock where wediscussed the day. We also went through the plan for tomorrow. And tomorrow afternoon promise to be very interesting as we're going to visit the site where Andree launched his balloon to the North Pole.
This is something I'm very interested to see, then we will see a whaling station from the 17th century, or the remains of the whaling station. We will start the day on a bird island, something I'm not very interested in.
Meeting came to an end and they had a BBQ at the aft on deck 4, Polar Plunge and BBQ. Yeah,why not? It is summer! When I came back on the aft deck the BBQ was in full swing and there was another cruise ship coming in to the Leifdefjorden to check it out.
I had 2 or 3 plates of BBQ and I was full. The Waitress asked e several times if I wanted my pot of tea, but this was not a “pot of tea” situation and I had a glass of water.
It was beautiful with the BBQ in front of the Monaco glacier. Not many years ago it had been on big glacier but now the glacier had shrunk and it was 2 or 3 small glaciers. In a few years it will be gone, for sure nothing left for the next generation to see. So if you want to see a glacier you better hurry up to get here. The glaciers are both beautiful and impressive.
I'm really looking forward for tomorrow, not the island Fuglesongen but the visit to the site where they were going to take off to the North Pole 120 years ago. Well, you just need to click HERE