Sunday 13th of May 2018

It's a remarkable and mighty feeling to wake up in one of the world's most remote places, right in the middle och the Arctic Ocean. Water, sky and snow covered mountains spread out in every direction, as far as the eye can see. The glaciers are magnificent, glorious as a Disney-castle and when the sun breaks through it's almost difficult to breath hence the beauty. The air I breath as I stand out on deck is crisp and clear. Without any doubt the most crisp and clear air I've ever inhaled, and the sun never sets - this is spring in the Arctic.

A good morning without any reception

We have sailed all the way from the port of Longyearbyen to the narrow strait Sørgattet, located in the north-west corner Svalbard, during the night. Our Expedition Leader Elke says good morning through the speakers and tell us that we are close to the passage of Danskøya, where the Swedish engineer André started his ill-fated expedition in 1897. His aim was to reach the North Pole with a hydrogen balloon, but the three expedition members crashed on the sea ice and were found dead on Kvitøya 33 years later.

The reception disappeared already during dinner the night before, dot by dot, and from now on we find ourselves in an analog no-man's-land. There is no wifi, not even a reliable satelite signal, something quite exotic these days. Here, in the Arctic wilderness we are finally able to focus on now, be completely present and really feel the experiences, even with every tiny cell in our bodies. 

Dressed and ready for an adventure

After breakfast we line up at deck two. All participants has signed a list with their names on it, are fully dressed with three to four layers, weather proof jackets, trousers, beanies and gloves, warm rubber boots and life vests on top of it. None of us have had this much clothes on since kindergarden. No one really knows what to expect, but we all know one thing - it's time for some adventure!  And it is - a open door on the side of the ship leads us to the gangway where the guides receive us and help us into the Zodiacs.

Encounters with harbour seals and walrus

Already during the first Zodiac cruise we get to experience encounters with wild animals. Close to the site where Andrée built the shed where he stored his balloon, on the smooth rocks, six harbour seals are resting. 20 minutes later we step ashore on the old whaler's island, Smeerenburg, and suddenly we are face to face with a whole family of walrus. They lie in a pile, on top, under and beside each other, snorting and breathing heavy as if they just had been working out. But of course moving your 1500 kg body all the way down to the water require some efforts. 

Polar bear in sight

After lunch it's time for today's second Zodiac cruise, and despite that many of us still are a bit cold after the last cruise it's impossible to skip this one. Elke has just told us through the speakers that the guides have spotted a big animal on the other side of the fjord, and this can be this expedition's first and last chance to see a polar bear.

It's completely silent as we ride in the Zodiac, and there's excitement in the air. When we get closer to the site where the bears were seen we can't see anything but mountains, rocks and snow. Mountains, rocks and snow. Then, on a mountain slope, approximately 50 meters above the beach a female polar bear is walking followed by her two cubs. It feels like time is freezing. All I can hear is the waves gently hitting the Zodiac, then the shore, and the sound of a camera focusing on the object. I'm sure someone said something, changed their position in the Zodiac, maybe said "I can't see..", but I can't hear any of it. In this moment it's just me and the bears, nothing else. 

On the terms of the animals

We stay at a distance large enough to make sure we don't stress the little family. We're guests in their realm and all encounters has to be done on their terms and conditions, not ours. Now the mother stops, sit down on her bum and start to feed both her cubs. It seems like she's looking straight at me through the camera lens. I feel like the experience is close to a religious one - the number of persons in the world who has seen this can't be very many. Her natural and relaxed behaviour shows that out presence, that now consists of another three Zodiacs that gently and smooth have stopped next to us, doesn't bother her at all.

The first day of the expedition hasn't even ended yet, but we've already met the Queen of the Arctic. Amazing! Before we returned to Sea Endurance we also got to see bearded seal, Brünnich's guillemots, kittiwakes, puffins, great skuas and three Svalbard reindeers. And I haven't missed my phone or recpetion at all, not even once.                

After one nights cruising from Hamiltonbukta we finally reached Moffen, a flat island of sand lockated just above the 80th parallel north. The sun was shining and the wind was strong, and shortly after we had arrived we spotted something brown close to the shore, a walrus colony. As we got closer we could distinguish them from one an another. 

With open waters one one side of the ship and snow covered mountains on the other, we steered towards Lågøya. When we reached the island we stepped into the Zodiacs for a cruise. We saw another colony of walrus on the island which was surrounded by high edges of ice and made it difficult to step ashore, but finally our guides found a spot where it was possible. Carefully we approached the pile of animals who weren't concerned about our prescence at all. We also visited some old graves, probably from the whaling period, and on our way back to the Zodiacs we spotted four Svalbard reindeers and one Arctic fox. Once we were back at the ship the crew served us hot chocolate - a very pleasant surprise and a nice ending of this adventurous day!   

Longyearbyen welcomed us with snow covered mountains and a clear blue sky from which the sun shone high up in the sky. Before we were about to embark our expedition ship Sea Endurance, we started our Arctic experince by spending our first night in the wilderness at Camp Barent, where we were served a good dinner. After a short bus ride framed by sparkling snow and wild svalbard reindeers that were wandering around, we were welcomed by Camp Barentz' hosts. Inside the cabin a big fire burned and the food which was cooked over it smelled lovely. We sat down on reindeer fell and were served akvavit, and got to learned more about Svalbard's history. Then we ate a soup with reindeer meat and coffee with chocolate cake was served as desert while we listened to an exciting talk about the king of the Arctic - the polar bear. Full and satisfied, the bus drove us back to the hotel, and I think we all were even more excited for tomorrow's departure and our nine-day adventure on board Sea Endurance.

Monday 30^th April 2018 - Sula Sgeir and Rona, Scotland

On this sparkling morning our Zodiac took us on a circumnavigation of Sula Sgeir's cliffs, in and out of its dramatic sea-caves and tunnels, and brought us face to face with the guillemots and gannets that nest crammed on ledges here by the thousand, while grey seals noted our passage intently from every rocky niche. A remarkable tradition, dating back many hundreds of years, is still practised here in the annual ‘guga’ hunt, when intrepid Hebridean men catch a quota of young gannets, a famous local delicacy.

Another forgotten island beckoned to us from the horizon. Rona was occupied by farming families until the late 1600s, and the remains of their settlement amid a field system once golden with barley made an extraordinary sight in the open ocean. And at its centre, an ancient Celtic chapel, built long before the Vikings, and dedicated to St Ronan, who was said to have found his way to the island of the back of a great whale. Now the shores and skies were filled with gannets, guillemots, razorbills, puffins, eider ducks, shags, purple sandpipers and more, all gathering at this faraway undisturbed oasis of peace to breed. This is wild Scotland at its most wonderful.

Wednesday 25th of April 2018 - Hebrides, Scotland

Think of a Scottish castle set on a Hebridean rock, inhabited for 700 years by the same family, surrounded by wild and beautiful gardens, and you have an idea of Dunvegan Castle on the Isle of Skye, which we visited this morning. M/S Stockholm pulled up close to its battlements just like the galleys of centuries ago, and we came ashore beneath its lofty stone tower flying the ancestral clan flag of the Macleods. Inside the castle, elegant 19^th century rooms led through thick ancient walls to medieval chambers and even dungeons where many a prisoner was incarcerated in turbulent times.

Then, sailing northwards and westwards, we came upon the Shiant Islands, a lonely group of small, steep basaltic islands, once inhabited and farmed, but now the home only of seabirds and seals. A Zodiac cruise took us into their realm of cliffs and magical caves: razorbills and guillemots flew overhead or formed groups in the water, rock pipits filled the air with their song, fulmars nested on ledges, puffins started to come in to land, and everywhere the watchful seals thronged the rocks and sea around us. In the distance little fishing boats from the Outer Hebrides ploughed the waves while, high above, a pair of white-tailed sea eagles soared. A truly Hebridean day of history and nature, land and sea.