HDS10-24, trip log, Around Spitsbergen - Kvitøya, In the realm of polar bear & ice

Finally, the day had come, it was time for us to board M/V Hondius, our new home for our newly starting expedition. We arrived with our cases packed full of winter clothing, but it was a beautiful warm, sunny afternoon as we arrived at the port in Longyearbyen.

The expedition team and hotel staff had helpfully brought our luggage aboard and taken it to our cabins earlier in the day. All that remained was for us to take a few photos of the ship while we made our way up the gangway.

We were warmly welcomed by all the crew and staff who assisted us in finding our cabins. With some time left, we explored the ship and enjoyed a cup of tea or coffee in the bar. Once everyone was onboard, it was time for the mandatory ship safety video and briefing. We were given all the information we needed such as moving safely around the ship, the things we could and could not do, and how to put on our emergency life jackets. Having learned this, it was then time for an abandon ship drill so after hearing the seven short and one long blast of the ship’s horn we went to our cabins, got our lifejackets, and went to our muster station. Then we were led to our lifeboats so we would know where to go in case of a real emergency.

Following the drill we headed to the bar for a welcome drink and canapes where hotel manager William and expedition leader Hans gave a welcome. After we has cast off from the pier, Cartain Remmert joined us, and we raised a glass in celebration of the voyage. It was then time for our first evening meal, a delicious buffet selection provided by Chef Baba and his galley team.

After dinner many of us headed out onto the bow to soak up the sunshine and take photos in the beautiful golden light. With the calm conditions we were able to spot many whale blows from a distance, and the Captain steered the ship so we could get close to some of them. We saw Humpback, Minke, and distant Blue whales, however Fin whales were the star of the show, with many being seen close to the ship.

After a long day of travel for most of us it was time for bed to get some rest before the first full day of our trip tomorrow.

This morning before breakfast M/V Hondius slowly entered Lilliehookfjorden under sunny skies and calm waters. The ship stopped in front of the stunning glacier, Lilliehookbreen, while we enjoyed our morning meal. What a great first morning scene to wake up to in the Arctic!

Right after breakfast we walked onto the outer decks to enjoy this marvel of nature while absorbing the warm Arctic sun. Lilliehookbreen with its 8km width is a valley glacier belonging to the icefield Isachenfonna which is located on the northwesternmost part of Spitsbergen. The glacier snout tumbles into the murky waters of the fjord creating a stark contrast between the serene azure and turquoise colour of the ice and the brownish colour of the water’s fjord filled with glacier flour transported by this massive river of ice.

After enjoying a bit more than an hour outside, we were called to the lounge for the mandatory AECO briefing, followed by briefings for zodiac operations and polar bear safety. We were now almost ready for our first landing, knowing that the only thing missing was our boots! However, we soon learned what expedition cruising means; a polar bear was spotted by our bridge team right on the eastern shore of Kapp Mitra, at the entrance of Krossfjorden. Boot fitting would have to wait!

A splendid and fit male polar bear was feeding on a carcass which it had found about fifty meters above sea level on the tundra. It was most likely a reindeer, but some of us thought it could also have been a seal. Captain Remmert brought us very close to shore despite the shallow waters; this allowed everyone to enjoy this fantastic animal not only through binoculars, scopes and cameras, but we could see it very well with our own eyes as well! Surely a scene we would not easily forget during the continuation of our trip.

Leaving the bear behind we headed down to the restaurant for lunch whilst Hondius got alongside the pier in the small settlement of Ny Ålesund, which is now a research village used for a wide variety of projects. Some of these projects require the use of very sensitive measuring equipment, so the ship and all guests were requested to turn off all Wi-Fi and Bluetooth functions to not interfere with these measurements.

We were able to freely roam the little town and take a guided walk towards Amundsen’s mast, which is certainly one of the most historical monuments of the Svalbard archipelago from where the first overflying trip to the North Pole started in 1926.

In town we enjoyed magnificent views across Kongsfjorden of the glaciers Kongsbreen and Kronebreen, while the elegant and fierce Arctic terns flew above our heads. For those that were looking for an opportunity to do some souvenir shopping, the gift shop was open for a few hours and from what it looked like they definitely had excellent sales. The museum was also open for those interested in learning more about the coal mining and scientific history of the settlement.

After a lovely visit in town, it was time to head back to Hondius for our first daily recap followed by dinner and eventually our Muck boots were delivered to us! Tomorrow an exciting day was awaiting us with new adventures on the Seven islands!

After leaving the northernmost village Ny Ålesund, we set our course further north to an archipelago called the Seven Islands. Nothing lies between the Seven Islands and the top of the world. When we woke up it was a beautiful sunny morning and we found ourselves less than 1000 km south from the North pole.

Right after breakfast, we were able to enjoy not only the scenery, but we also observed and photographed Walruses - the kings of the Arctic. We split into two groups, with the first half of the ship going ashore hiking while the second half went for a zodiac cruise. Groups swapped, so everyone got to experience both sites. One group began the morning with a landing on an island called Parryøya (Parry island) named after the English explore William Edward Parry. We went for a 45-minute-long hike in rocky terrain and reached a small saddle to enjoy magnificent views over lakes, the ocean, and another of the seven islands called Phippsøya. We observed Kittiwakes on a lake, and an Arctic Skua was posing for us on a big rock. Later we found the skua flying right above our heads, giving us a perfect photo opportunity. We continued our hike alongside a mountain towards a polar bear carcass. This bear was found last year, and back then it looked like it had died very recently. A year later only bones, its skull, and pieces of skin were what was remaining of this once impressive arctic predator.

The second activity of the morning was a zodiac cruise to a walrus colony. Walruses are very social animals and are often seen in groups. We observed a group of them resting ashore, and some in the sea. The sight, sound, and the typical smell of a large group of walruses were quite an impressive experience.

Our plan for the afternoon was to visit Phippsøya, named after an English explorer, called Constantine John Phipps. However, we experienced a typical sudden Arctic weather shift. Blue sky was quickly replaced by thick fog. The expedition team went out to check conditions on the planned landing site hoping for the fog to lift. Unfortunately, very poor visibility on Phippsøya made it challenging to safely scout for polar bears, and therefore the landing operation had to be cancelled. Instead, we were entertained by Jakub, our Ice Man. Jakub provided us with an insightful lecture on the glaciers around Svalbard and informed us how important ice and glaciers are in relation to global warming.

After Jakub, Chloe talked about some of the smaller creatures we can find in the ocean, plankton! Chloe shared her passion with us, and she explained the importance of plankton and its key role in the oceanic food web. Chloe took some water samples during the morning zodiac cruise and showed us the normally invisible organisms found in the sea water through a microscope. A very interesting lecture for sure. At the end of the day, we had our daily recap where KJ gave us more information about Svalbard, Julian talked about the origins of Svalbard’s oldest rocks and Misha entertained us with facts and funny videos of walruses.

Time for dinner!

Good night M/V Hondius! 

Good morning everyone! Today it wasn’t Hans that woke us up, but ice as is shook us awake. We had arrived at the edge of the pack ice and our rugged ship was pushing the ice floes away. This often comes with vibration, shaking and noise when it involves larger pieces, but we wouldn’t have to be worried as our beautiful Hondius is ice strengthened and it can withstand collisions with ice of up to one meter thickness and still with an impressive speed of 6 knots. To keep things structured and organised Hans still officially woke us up and gave us the latest weather forecast and outside temperature before breakfast was announced.

The expedition team was up early today, and they entered the bridge around 06:00 AM ready and motivated to find a bear.

After breakfast a lot of us went outside to enjoy the abstract reality of being in the beautiful pack ice. From here you can basically walk towards the North Pole, although it might not be a good idea in summer as it would include quite a bit of swimming in the ice-cold water. Visibility changed rapidly today, but we managed to spot a good number of Bearded seals, Ringed seals, and groups of Harp seals in the water. Plenty of food for bears around! The ice itself looked fantastic and seeing it stretching out all towards the horizon was an image we wouldn’t soon forget.

After standing outside for some hours, the cold had slowly gotten to us. But no panic as the expedition and hotel team had anticipated this so at 11:00 AM it was time for hot chocolate with whipped cream on the bow. To add a bit of flavour Bailey’s coffee liquor was poured richly and suddenly we felt a bit warmer again. The ship continued to move and some of us were wondering if it was simply more ice being pushed by the bow or if the Baileys liquor had something to do with it!

While the team were looking all around to find wildlife, Jakub continued to share his ice expertise with us as he gave another lecture about ice. Yesterday he talked about glaciers, today he told us more about the pack ice. He delivered it with his usual passion, and he created awareness about the important role of sea ice in our eco systems.

Lunch was then served and today we had homemade hamburgers with French fries, what a nice treat!

After lunch it was time for some more fresh air or maybe a small nap. However, for those interested in wildlife photography Koen had a lecture about improving your wildlife photos. Koen gave us useful tips and illustrated them with his own photos and anecdotes.

After Koen it was Misha’s turn to tell the fascinating story of Salomon Andrée. Andrée was a Swedish explorer who in 1896 tried to reach the North Pole by using a balloon filled with helium. Unfortunately, you can’t steer very well with a balloon and Andrée and his team were far of course before the balloon eventually crashed onto the ice. However, the team survived the crash and started walking the pack ice hoping they would find land and rescue soon. They did find land, but the place they had arrived at was Kvitøya, a harsh and uninhabited island east of Nordauslandet. It is believed that Andrée and his men perished within two weeks after their arrival at Kvitøya.

Later that afternoon the weather had cleared up and visibility had improved significantly. The team and many of us continued to scout the ice for wildlife, but it seemed today wasn’t going to be our lucky day. It had been decided to find our way out of the ice and to set course towards Kvitøya. But then our luck changed, whale blows were spotted and as luck would have it, we were treated a with a very rare sighting of Bowhead whales. This whale species lives in an around the ice and they are very elusive. As they have been hunted almost to extinction their numbers are also very low and this means spotting them and having such a great sighting is very rare. What a great ending of our day in the pack ice.

Dinner was served and the dining room was buzzing with excitement.

Good night everyone!

Today we arrived at Kvitøya. One of the most remote areas of Svalbard and an area notorious for bad weather. If there is no wind, there might be fog. And if there’s no fog or wind, then there might be big swells. And even if the weather is perfect then there might be bears on land which prevents us from landing. All in all, a great place to find an adventure ;).

We arrived early and the expedition team started planning the morning taking into consideration the conditions and of course they had to scout the coastal areas for polar bears. And bears were found, so no landing this morning, but a thrilling zodiac cruise was awaiting us. There was quite a bit of wind and swell, so boarding the zodiacs at the shell door was not easy, but we all did perfectly. Time to see some bears and other wildlife.

All zodiacs made their way towards the sleeping bear which we named bear no. 1. While approaching the coastline we spotted walruses so we slowed down as walruses can become quite protective and later this morning one of the guides experienced what can happen then as his boat got punctured.

Our first bear was quite close to shore and was facing us sleeping up in a curl. It was fast asleep and as such it didn’t move much. Normally we would wait for the bear to start moving, but today we moved on as we had information that there were more bears along the coast. Following the shoreline, we saw many walruses in the water, and some were hauling out on a small island. We were also able to get great views of the glacier cap laying on top of Kvitøya. At the top it’s more than 400 meters high.

On our way to see more bears further down the shoreline, we spotted yet another one which we called bear no. 2. This one was also sleeping, but not as deeply and it lifted its head a few times before laying down again. The sightings were getting better! With this bear we were following a snake formation of zodiacs in front on the bear to make sure everybody had a good view without disturbing it. Sometimes we wonder what those bears must be thinking when they see us.

We continued our route along the coastline and passed by a large group of walruses relaxing on a small island. They were a bit startled with our presence, so we had to keep our distance to avoid scaring them. Then to our surprise we found 3 more sleeping bears around the corner right behind the sandy beach. These were bears no. 3, 4 and 5. 5 bears in one morning is exceptional! From a research vessel nearby, we received information that there was a whale carcass on the beach, so this explained why we were so lucky this morning. A whale carcass is the jackpot for polar bears as the carcass contains a lot of blubber, and this is what the bears are after. They need calories so whale blubber is the perfect food for them.

These bears were almost all quite close to the coast and one was sitting up like an arctic sphinx looking at us go by. Our morning was passing by quite fast since we found so much and such a diversity of wildlife. On the way back we hit the jackpot ourselves. One of the bears had gotten up and had walked straight onto the beach. Initially, we thought it was a polar bear we had seen earlier, but then we figured out that all the other bears were still sleeping in the same places where we first found them. So, this was our 6th bear of this morning. It was very close to the boats, and we got amazing views of the bear that was showing a lot of curiosity towards us. Until it turned around, dropped a few turds and walked away. A very funny moment to end an incredible and unbelievable encounter. It was also incredible how easily the bear disappeared from our view once it walked to lower land right behind the beach. This is why our expedition team scouts our landing areas before every activity.

On the way back we were all smiling from happiness and excitement of having such a close encounter. We did check to see if any of the other sleeping bears showed more activity, but they were all in dreamland and in the meantime, we had gotten quite cold. Time to head back to the ship for a hot chocolate and a warm shower. What a spectacular morning!

After lunch we were invited to a lecture from Marcel. He explained everything there is to know about the Polar Bear. This we way we could understand much better how incredible these animals are and the hardships they must endure during their life.

We also got a lecture from Misha about bird migrations. He showed us with moving maps how the birds of this planet migrate throughout the seasons and how they are under constant threats of humans and human pets’ activity.

Outside we had been able to see the Kvitoya the whole time on our port side. The sun came out quite often which made for beautiful views.

During recap we were treated to more interesting stories from the expedition team. Hana told us from personal experience about life on a scientific vessel. A weeklong trip that she had helped coordinating in the Hornsund fjord system. KJ told us more about the tracking devices that scientists use to track polar bears. There were quite a few things changing in the new technology to interfere less with the bears lives. Finally, Chloe told us about one of the smallest animals on this world, the water bear. An incredible animal that can survive in all environments that scientist have tested it in.

Enjoy your dinner and good night!

We began this day, as usual, being woken up by Hans’ sweet, velvety voice over the Tanoy. As people headed to deck 4 to gorge themselves on breakfast, one couldn’t help but notice the thick fog all around us. The fog together with strong winds meant that our morning landing at Storøya was cancelled. Instead, we were heading towards Isispynten, a new landing place for all of us. As we had plenty of time, people could relax a bit or head towards the lounge to listen to Chloé’s lecture on Svalbard’s Marine Mammals and this was followed by Jens’ lecture on weather patterns. After all this very interesting information we had worked up quite a bit of appetite. Luckily lunch was soon announced and once more it was a delicious selection and that meant eating way too much, again ;).

Weighing considerably more than before, we were ready to disembark to head towards Isispynten, a small patch of land very close to Austfonna, the third largest icecap in the world. Weather conditions were interesting and challenging though. Thick fog came in and out, the big swells around the ship made it impossible to disembark people safely at first, so we had to wait for the weather to improve. Luckily for us it did improve soon after and suddenly we could see the ice cap in its full glory.

Thanks to the bridge team being able to provide enough shelter from the swells, we could disembark passengers on the port side via the gangway and head off to land. On land, there were vast numbers of different bird species, ranging from Arctic Terns to Red-throated Divers, Geese, and others. These birds were all using this tiny patch of rock to breed in relative safety. Arctic Tern chicks were seen running around, and the view over the glacier, spanning the horizon, was spectacular. On the zodiac cruise, you could get closer to the face of the glacier. Some guides put their zodiacs into the brash ice which was a fun experience with the swell moving us up and down at regular intervals.

The weather improved even further with the sun coming out and visibility extended finally all around. With the sun standing quite low on the horizon the light was spectacular which was perfect for a few more photos. All in all, it was a truly special place to land and discover, Isispynten definitely made up for the cancellation of the morning.

After our true expedition afternoon, we came back onboard. As the expedition team maximized our afternoon there was no recap today and we went straight to dinner. Our officers on the bridge in the meantime had started to head towards the Southeast along Austfonna, to get to our next destination in the morning. Another absolutely beautiful day in the Arctic, experiencing all the weather that can be found in these parts.

Today would be another eventful day for us. Early in the morning, we were awakened by the sound of birds. However, this time it wasn't a rooster or the usual garden songbirds. No, this time it was the sound of hundreds of Brünnich's guillemots flying over and close to our ship.

Overnight, we passed along the ice edge of the Bråsvellbreen en route to the Hinlopen Strait. Now, we were facing massive basalt cliffs, inhabited by hundreds of thousands of birds. We were in beautiful Alkefjellet.

After breakfast, we boarded the zodiacs and set out for our cruise. It was raining, but that didn't prevent us from witnessing this amazing spectacle of nature. We approached the cliffs while groups of birds were flying around us. We first admired the waterfalls cascading down the steep rocks. Even without the large numbers of birds, the cliffs were impressive. The rock masses, consisting of basalt and sandstone, plunged steeply downwards. In some spots, even white marble could be seen.

Soon, we spotted the first birds on the cliffs. These animals, resembling penguins in colour, were Brünnich's guillemots. A seabird commonly found in Svalbard, with about 120,000 individuals in this spectacular colony. The guillemots were lined up tightly on the bare rock, making it difficult to spot the chicks behind the parent birds. The Brünnich's guillemot doesn’t build a nest, they simply incubate their egg on the rocks. They prefer very steep cliffs with small edges as this protects them better from potential predators such as foxes and glaucous gulls. In some places it resembles a big city centre with high rise buildings and many people living in small apartments.

As we continued along the cliffs, we observed other nesting birds, such as the kittiwake. Unlike the guillemots, these birds build proper nests in which they lay two to three eggs. They are easily recognizable by their black wingtips.

The Glaucous gull also nests here, the largest gull species in Svalbard often found at the top or bottom of bird colonies. It is one of the most dangerous predators for birds in the colonies, preying on eggs, chicks, or weak birds. We observed their chicks, which were brown compared to the grey-white adult birds, making their first attempts at flying.

Once we reached the best breeding locations on the steepest cliffs, thousands of birds were flying over our heads. The colony was bustling with activity, making it difficult to focus on individual animals or moments. It was an incredible sighting to witness and a highlight of this trip for many of us. Alkefjellet has been documented in many nature documentaries and that tells you how special this place is. To top it off, a minke whale bid us farewell, passing right by our zodiacs.

In the afternoon we reached our next destination, Torrelneset. Seeing only a few walruses on the beach and not wanting to disturb them, we opted to visit the nearby glacier which is part of the Glitnefonna ice cap.

We decided to do a split landing. The red group would go on land first while the blue group was invited to a lecture about Svalbard’s arctic birdlife by Marcel. After the changeover the red group had the opportunity to listen to a similar lecture by Rao.

Once on land, we explored the new territory as it was our first-time setting foot on Nordaustlandet. While we had navigated around the island in the past days and visited nearby islands, the mainland had been unexplored until today.

Our short trip involved crossing several small rivers, with fast currents posing a fun challenge for some of us. Despite the effort, reaching the glacier edge was very much worth the efforts. Along the way, we came across polar bear skeletons, reindeer antlers, and even some fossils like petrified shells or fern leaves dating back hundreds of millions of years.

At the end of the hike, some of us braved the icy waters for a Polar Plunge, an unforgettable experience despite the chilly conditions. Some of us walked in as if they were walking into tropical waters while others expressed a more common reaction with loud screams and accelerated breathing.

Back on the ship, it was time to celebrate our so far very successful expedition. We had planned a nice barbeque dinner outside, but unfortunately it was still raining and with strong winds this wasn’t the setting we were hoping for. But that couldn’t spoil the program, the barbeque meat was still grilled outside, and it was simply brought to our warm and cosy restaurant. Although we had stretched our legs already quite a bit during the day, it was now time to move a bit more and dance in the observation lounge! y

Another wonderful day, good night everyone!

We began the day very early with Hondius entering Freemansundet, the channel between Barentsøya and Edgeøya Island. The channel is a common route for bears to travel through, so the staff got up early to scan the coastline, not an easy task through the patchy fog. We passed through within 2 hours where we looked at Kapp Lee on Edgeøya and managed to see some reindeer.

We kept sailing further south through the Storfjorden towards the location of our intended afternoon activities. On our way south, we had two lectures from our expedition team.

Misha gave the first lecture with his favourite talk about marine mammal acoustics. The sounds made below the surface are sometimes very strange and created in unexpected ways. However, most of these sounds can travel long distances underwater which enables marine mammals to communicate and hear each other from far away.

The second lecture was given by Jens, where he talked about Umberto Nobile and his expedition to the North Pole. An adventurous story where many people were involved in preparing for the expedition, but also during the dramatic aftermath when people went looking for them. History is written and its stories are sometimes somewhat unbelievable. Luckily as humans progress, we learn from our mistakes, and we keep on advancing in how to succeed.

After lunch we arrived at our afternoon destination where we had hoped to do proper hiking and see unique dinosaur footprints. However, nobody but the GPS could verify this as the ship was covered in thick fog and visibility at times was less than 100m. We waited for an hour to see if the mist would lift, but sadly this didn’t happen. So, the anchor was lifted, and we started heading towards the west side of Spitsbergen for our last activity day.

As we left earlier the expedition team planned for two activities instead of one, very welcoming for most of us as we all been eating all the delicious food and snacks onboard without doing much exercise. While travelling to the most southern point of Spitsbergen, Erik gave a lecture about his climbs around the world. He has worked for National Geographic and explained what is necessary to climb some of the highest peaks in the Himalayas and Alps.

Later in the afternoon, with a happy hour at the bar, Koen H and Eric hosted a quiz. It was a chance for us all to recall what we have listened to in the lectures and recaps. It was not an easy quiz, and it was particularly difficult identifying members of the expedition team and crew from their baby pictures! 15 teams joined-in and the quiz was won by the Chinese Team Polar Bear. Congratulations!

At recap Hans explained the change of plan for tomorrow, which was to skip the Hornsund fjord where strong winds were forecasted. It was decided to travel further to the more sheltered fjord system of Bellsund. Hotel manager William let us know about the disembarkation and Koen J talked about the Flora of Svalbard and their adaptations hoping that all of us would be able to recognize the flowers during the landing the following day. Last, but not least Hana showed us what a winter in Longyearbyen looks like: a long dark winter where the only natural lights you’ll see are from the moon, the stars, and the amazing Northern Lights. Even without light from the sun your surroundings can be very colourful and beautiful.

Hopefully tomorrow gives us a lot of warm sunlight to observe all the beauty of the Northern Summer.

Overnight we cruised from south-eastern to south-western Spitsbergen to Van Keulenfjorden in the Bellsund fjord system. From the early morning the weather was non-optimal, with fog and low clouds covering mountains. However, during breakfast around 7:30 AM we anchored next to Bamsebu – a small cabin on the southern coast of the fjord where hundreds of beluga whale bones are stacked in piles right next to it. The cabin is surrounded by beautiful mountains with spectacular deformed rock layers and a tundra, which we were eager to see after days spent much further north in polar desert environment. Fortunately for us, the fog lifted, and we got green light from expedition leader Hans and the bridge to proceed with operations!

Our expedition team and the crew dropped a few zodiacs and went out to scout the area. As they cruised and hiked across the area of Bamsebu they spotted beluga whales. After the team made sure the area was clear from polar bears, the first group landed and went hiking while the other group cruised in zodiacs along the beaches, rocky peninsulas and small islands in search for belugas. And they found them! To our amusement, a few whales fed in a bay playfully displaying their snow-white backs.

On land, we were divided into shorter and longer walkers. Both groups strolled around the landing spot and photographed literally everything, while our expedition team introduced us to everything they were spotting – from stones to plants and reindeers that grazed at the foot of a nearby mountain! With the fog continuously breaking up and the sun shining, the entire area displayed a truly beautiful picture. Once again Svalbard surprised us with its diversity.

Our second goal for this day was a landing site near a glacier margin just some miles west from Bamsebu. The morning fog, however, did not leave this place until early afternoon, so our captain and expedition team decided to abandon this landing. The ship sailed further east, to the head of Van Keulenfjorden, home to the mighty glacier system Nathorstbreen. This part of the fjord is rarely visited by people and in fact it was the first time our brave “Hondius” went there. Nathorstbreen is a very interesting glacier because some years ago it advanced by more than 10 kilometres due to a glacier surge. A surge is a kind of dynamic instability of a glacier, common in Svalbard, which exhibits a quasi-cyclic glacier speed ups by 10-100 times their normal speed. The surge of Nathorstbreen occurred between 2009 and 2013 and was one of the largest ever observed.

Plan B worked out great! We cruised in zodiacs along the glacier, which was very different from any other ice cliff we had seen so far. It was relatively low, sediment-rich, and smoothed by melting. It had many deformed ice layers and seemingly little activity in terms of iceberg production.

The shores of the fjord adjacent to the margin, fresh glacier moraines, consisted of a chaotic architecture of bizarre muddy towers with steep walls, all underlain by melting ice left behind by the retreating glacier. All of this created an impression of an out-of-this-world landscape.

During the cruise we observed more beluga whales, but also harbour and bearded seals, and the holy grail of the birders’ community - the ivory gull! This purely white gull is indeed a rare view since its favorite habitat is pack ice covering the Arctic Ocean and its global population is estimated not to exceed more than 14 thousand pairs.

By 5 pm we returned to the ship from our last activity of this unforgettable voyage. Not long afterwards we met in the observation lounge for the captain’s farewell cocktail where we enjoyed a beautiful slideshow prepared by our guide Marco. He put in dozens of memorable photographs and videos taken during our Arctic expedition. Immediately after the show we made our way to the dining room for our last dinner onboard MS Hondius.

Slowly but steadily Hondius made her way into Svalbard’s largest fjord, Isfjord and pulled gracefully alongside the quay without even a bump. Sadly, time had come to conclude our amazing trip around this remote Arctic archipelago.

We had a fantastic week in the frigid waters of the Arctic and the barren tundra of Svalbard, with some amazing wildlife encounters, hikes, zodiac cruises along the fjords and around the glaciers and navigation through the sea ice. Most importantly we found new friends with whom to share future travels and memories. Once alongside Longyearbyen’s coal jetty, we walked down the gangway, waved goodbye and hugged with the Expedition Team, before boarding to buses to take us to our hotels in Longyearbyen.