July 20
Overnight we sailed from the east side of Spitsbergen to the west and headed into Burgerbukta, a bay inside Hornsund. Hornsund is the southernmost fjord in Spitsbergen with eight large glaciers along its shores. Heading into the area, we spotted several humpback whales. Then we disembarked to a lovely bay where we were able to explore within a guarded perimeter. There was a seal, some beluga whales and beautiful scenery. As our first good sighting of beluga, it was very special!
After lunch we visited Gnaladden where we had another opportunity to explore on our own with a guarded perimeter. There is an old trappers cabin there and we were able to go inside. We also saw a fox and a lot of birds. On the way from the ship to the site, we had to manuever around a significant number of Beluga Whales and we were able to get some decent photographs as we zodiaced along.
In the evening, one of the Expedition Team members, Tara, told us about her adventures kayaking around the whole of Svalbard with two friends. It was the first successful circumnavigation of the archipelago and took about two months. For the whole trip, they camped on the shores and in the occasional cabin. They saw at least 30 Polar Bears and with some very close and scary encounters.
July 21
We sailed further up the west coast of Spitsbergen overnight and into another fjord in Bellsund - Midterhuken. While our group was supposed to head out first for a zodiac cruise, we decided to hang back and go with the third group as we have become good friends with three of the people in that group and we really wanted to be in the same zodiac with them. There was some interesting geological formations as well as many birds nesting on the cliffs.
As we had headed out fairly early for the zodiac cruise, we had extra time in the middle of the day as the ship moved to a different area. In that time, the Expedition Team did another couple of presentations.
Our afternoon excursion was to Camp Millar in Varsolbukta where we had guided hikes. Camp Miller was where the Northern Exploration Company of England searched unsuccessfully for gold. There are two huts there and one was being rented by a documentary film crew. There were also many reindeer carcasses. We hiked up the hill a bit and sat to watch Little Auks fly to and from the cliff faces.
In the evening, Ian and some of the other Team members presented on the history of Sea Shanties. They got everyone singing along with some shanties!
July 22
Today was our last full day on the ship and once again our plans for the morning had to be changed due to thick fog that made landing unsafe. Instead, we travelled down to Pyramiden where there is an abandoned Russian coal mining operation. We viewed the site from the ship and Karl, the historian, provided some information over the loudspeakers. One of the buildings has been converted into a hotel, but other than there isn't too much going on at the site.
While travelling, Stephen, the trip photographer gave an impromptu presentation on editing photographs and after that we were given all the information we would need to know for our disembarkation day tomorrow.
After lunch, we went out for our final zodiac cruise in Adolfbukta and had the opportunity to do a polar plunge. Although Philippa did the polar plunge in Antarctica, she decided not to do it again this time around.
During dinner, the hotel staff all came out so that we could give them a huge thank you for cleaning our rooms, feeding us and making us feel so welcomed throughout the trip. After dinner, we watched a 25 minute video recap of our trip – it included photos and video from both the trip photographer and from passengers. It was amazing how much ground we covered and all the things we saw.
July 23
Today was disembarkation day. We got up early so that our bags were packed and outside our room before breakfast. Shortly after breakfast, we loaded into buses for a two hour tour of Longyearbyen and one of the local museums. We were then set free in the town to shop and wait for our 4 pm bus to the airport. We thought this time was going to feel like so long (the town is small!), but in the end between shopping and having a nice lunch with our new friends, it passed by quickly. The charter flight back to Helsinki was smooth and even arrived early which was nice as it was close to midnight before we checked into the hotel to try to get a bit of sleep before our 4 am wake up time to return to the airport for our flights back to Calgary.
July 24-25
As anyone who has travelled knows, things don’t always go to plan. We awoke to find out that our flight to Amsterdam had been cancelled and we were told to wait for an update to our flight arrangements. As we were staying in an airport hotel, Philippa headed over to the KLM desk to find out what was going on and Bayne stayed in the room so that we didn't have to check out if we didn't need to. The news was not good – we had been rebooked on flights tomorrow via Paris rather than Amsterdam. It looks like we may get a significant amount of compensation, but that really doesn't make up for a full day delay. KLM booked us into a different airport hotel, so we moved to that one and checked in to get a few more hours of sleep.
To fill in the time, we headed back to Helsinki's city centre and took the ferry over to Suomenlinna which is a large historical fortressed island. We didn't spend much time learning about the history as we were both really tired still, but it was nice to walk around and enjoy an ice cream (while keeping it safe from the gulls).
We went to bed early to try to get as much sleep as possible before getting up at 4 am again. We are currently in Charles de Gaulle airport awaiting the final leg of our trip home. The plane is on schedule to arrive in about half an hour and barring any unexpected issues, we should be home later today! As much as we love to travel, there is still nothing like your own bed, shower and cats!
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