Polar Bear Hunt 2015 - Day 9

Expedition Day 4: Negribreen and Agardhbukta

What was planned

What actually happened

We were woken at 7am to see a huge expanse of ice outside our portholes. Plans had changed as the sea ice had blocked our passage north. So for the morning at least, we drifted slowly along the face of the Negribreen Glacier, before turning west.

Negribreen Glacier

The Negribreen is a large glacier that extends out into the sea. It looks like thick sea ice but the base of the ice is grounded on the sea floor. We slowly drifted along the face of the ice. lloking for seals and polar bears, but there was not much life to be found.

Definitely a walrus.
		.
This is bear territory so we all kept a lookout.	Bear tracks in the snow - we are getting closer.	Keep looking!
Look harder...	And you will find a bear - See??.	Definitely a bear.
	Three bears actually.	And father bear has all the food.
		I spy visitors - think I will play "dead"...
Then it was time to amble away.
	Leaving the scraps for the birds.	And so the bear wandered off into the sunset...
Wait a minute - this is the North Pole, no sunsets at this time of year.	Everybody kept looking, just in case.	But all they found were more bear tracks.

Video of the ice margin

Here is a short video taken as we drifted along the margin of the ice.

Agardhbukta and a zodiac cruise

After lunch, a rest (well a snooze really) and a lecture, we dropped anchor close to shore at the moth of an estuary. Here large numbers of birds were usually to be found in the shallow water. Into our polar outfits, gumboots and lifejackets and off in the Zodiacs for a short tour. There were plenty of birds, but they resented our arrival so they soon took to the skies.

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Last updated: 08/11/2015