Upon waking up our lovely geology location and mountains were covered with low lying clouds and the blue skies were no longer visible. It was 0C and we hoped that the cloud would lift before our later landing so we could see some more of the scenery .
I joined the long walk group an we made our way up to and along the Ridgeline. Jeff was way up high , with rifle, as our sentry. Howard lead the way with his rifle and stopped and went ahead a few time to check for polar bears in small valleys.
As we climbed up the scree and through some streams and across peat we saw many tiny flowers , lichens and mosses. You need to get down low to see all the details but it’s worth it!
As we got up the Ridgeline we could see the length of the beach but not much more as the fog was coming in again.
Got back on-board and someone had spotted a minke whale but it didn’t come up for air again when I was outside and many of us didn’t see it. Had lunch and the sailed around north up the Hinloppen Strait to try and find whales … but alas…
We were going in for a landing at Andreneset to see the research buildings, when someone on the bridge spotted a polar bear a few islands over. So the plan changed slightly to zodiac around the island, check out the bear and then zodiac in to see the research buildings built in 1957.
The only problem was that now the bear was no where to be seen ! After much searching by a scout boat we abandoned that mission and zodiac-ed all the way to the research station.
We only had 20min and were guided by a rifled Ulyana. The station was only used for 1 year and then called a cultural heritage site, left intact but not open to visitors. Some more research done 50 years later for the anniversary. Otherwise it’s abandoned.
