Community Highlights Europe Leifdefjorden, Monacobreen and Texas Bar

Leifdefjorden, Monacobreen and Texas Bar

Breakfast was a little later than yesterday, at 8.00, and I'd slept much better too, so I was more than ready for our first outing! This was a morning zodiac ride in Leifdefjorden close to two glaciers, Seligerbreen and Monacobreen.

Morning: Monacobreen

This dramatic and picturesque glacier lies at the end of Leifdefjorden (‘love fjord’). Monacobreen was named for Prince Albert I of Monaco who led expeditions mapping the glacier in 1906-1907. The full glacial face was once 5 km in width until 2015 when continual retreat brought it behind the first mountain ridge creating two separate glacier fronts, Monacobreen and Seligerbreen. At the calving fronts many Kittiwakes and Arctic Terns are attracted to the plankton brought to the surface by the upwelling from the sub-glacial melt water streams.
From the Ocean Explorer’s daily programme

We had the glacial expert Mike in our boat and Bertie as driver and guide. They had lots to tell us about the ice and rocks here. They showed us the rough point at which the glacier had once ended its journey to the sea, when Mike first started visiting this area. Global warming is very apparent here.

As we travelled slowly through the bay we could hear the popping sounds made as the bubbles in the ice chunks released their tiny burst of air, hundreds of years old, into the atmosphere of today.

We saw lots of black legged kittiwakes near the glacier as well as a bearded seal and a few glaucous gulls.

The light was lovely, with breaks in the clouds allowing the sun to shine through in places and turn the water almost silver. Bertie took the zodiac quite far into the bergy bits area and passed some beautiful icebergs. And he got permission to stay out a bit longer than the usual 90 minutes!

Afternoon: Texas Bar

Back on board we sorted our photos, then went to lunch which we had sitting with Sue and Rob. They had been out paddling and loved it, though Sue said it was tough to sit with legs straight out for so long.

While we ate the ship moved a little way out of the fjord to moor off an area called Texas Bar after the small trapper's hut there. It was constructed in 1927 by Norwegian Hilmar Nois. The afternoon shore excursion was organised the same way as yesterday, with graded walks, and again we opted for contemplative. I was glad not to have to attempt anything too challenging, and we both appreciated the extra time allowed for photography.

When we were called to the ready room we learned that it was raining so I packed my camera into the plastic bag I'd brought for that purpose. Despite that, it did get a bit wet during the walk but came to no harm.

Liefdefjorden was a popular hunting district for Norwegian trappers in the early to mid 1900s. The hunter Hilmar Nøis spend a number of years there and in 1927 he and his uncle built a hut on the northwest side of Liefdefjorden with the promising name of Texas Bar. The hut is now owned by the Sysselmesteren (Governor of Svalbard) and is occasionally used by scientists and locals from Longyearbyen.
From the Ocean Explorer’s daily programme

We landed on the pebble beach and met our guides for the day, Kris (the photographer), Nigel (the bird expert) and Mandarin speaker Jiayi, who was great at identifying plants. Setting off we walked along to see the hut. There is a real bar in there, kept stocked as anyone who takes a drink is encouraged to replace it!

We climbed the ridge behind it, stopping to photograph flowers. There were purple moss campion, white tufted saxifrage and mountain sorrel. There were also some colourful lichens.

Once we reached the top of the ridge we could see a glacier beyond and wide views of the bay. Kris asked if we were happy to climb a bit further to a large erratic boulder, and most of us were. He took a photo of the group there before we headed down in what was now quite steady rain.

Back at the hut we found that crew members had arrived in our absence and actually set up a bar there! There was wine, bubbly, various spirits and beer. I had a G&T and Chris a whisky. There was also a campfire so we could warm up after our decidedly damp walk.

After that it was time to return to the ship which I was quite ready to do. It had been a great walk despite the rain, though a bit frustrating trying to take photos with a lens spattered with drops of water!

Evening: on board the Ocean Explorer

Back on board we peeled off the wet layers and had a hot drink and a cake from the selection on offer for 'tea'.

We were just thinking about getting ready for dinner when an announcement came that the recap and briefing would start in ten minutes. As that always lasted right through to dinner I had to change and get ready in a hurry. We had a talk about the history of Svalbard, another about bearded seals and a third about some of the flowers we'd been seeing. Then tomorrow’s plans were explained, with another zodiac outing and a search for polar bears!

We were just finishing dinner when Ryan announced that large whales had been spotted ahead, species as yet unknown. By the time we’d fetched jackets and cameras they'd been identified as blue whales. Although we'd seen them in Mexico, we were of course keen to see more so we hurried to the observation deck and got some great views.

By the time the captain decided to leave the whales in peace and continue on our route I'd taken several hundred shots on burst, so once back in the cabin I had a thorough weed of them before bedtime.

This featured blog entry was written by ToonSarah from the blog Travel with me ....
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