Last day lucky
After 30 windless days in the field, 26 of those under low clouds and/or dense fog, we now have a wrap on the German geological project, GBR Case 22. We are on the dock in Longyearbyen
Although the conditions were not unpleasant, the fact that it was calm on most days in this ‘polar desert’ allowed the researchers to be onshore every single day and we have 1.5 tonnes of rocks to show for our efforts. These will be delivered in VOA’s forepeak to KM Yachts in Makkum and picked up and delivered to the institute in Hannover where they will be ground up, sliced into film thin strips and analysed over the following years for composition and origin – more parts to a geological puzzle of infinite pieces.
I have to say compared to the far south the wildlife up in these parts is thin on the ground at best. I am trying to imagine keeping a boatload of tourist clients occupied and interested as we saw very little of anything other than sea birds and a few small groups (herds would be stretching the use of that word) of reindeer. One day a small pod of beluga whales cruised by the boat. Walrus were only seen en masse when sailing (one of the few times we were under sail) close in to Moffen Island which is a restricted walrus breeding ground. It is ‘pot luck’ on Svalbard for big animals.
Polar bears are always the fascination for visitors and cruise ship marketing campaigns have lately refrained from guaranteeing any sightings and only advertise ‘possibilities.’
We carry half-loaded pump action shotguns with slugs for self defense and flare pistols with reporting shot for deterrence. But slinging a gun over your shoulder every time you set foot on shore with never a polar bear in site, does lend itself for complacence.
We had a wake up call though, on the last day of the trip, while in Kross Fjord, not far from Longyearbyen. Jose, Guillermo and I went ashore to a small headland of glacial moraine to change one of Tom Hart’s camera traps. Tom, a ‘penguinolgist’ from Oxford University is a pioneer of placing these cameras in front of penguin colonies to record activities and weather conditions throughout the year. He added five to Svalbard in the last few years in front of kittiwake and guillemot colonies which are always on steep cliff faces. The camera sits atop a tripod embedded in the ground. The batteries will last a year so they have to be changed annually and the old memory chip removed and a new one (or a whole new camera in our case) inserted.
It was no problem finding the camera placement with a GPS position to four decimal places of a degree. It was spotted from VOA, but when the three of us landed with the Bombard dinghy we could not see the camera, only the tripod. After a ten minute walk up the moraine, we found the camera on the ground, swiped off its mount and the bracket bent 90 degrees. We surmised with no other proof than what was obvious that this must have been a bear.
Guillermo and Jose went back on board to get more tools and a drill to fashion an in situ mounting, leaving me onshore with the shotgun. We made a quick job of it and before returning to VOA we had a look at a dilapidated hut not more than 50 meters away, but out of site from the tripod. Nothing of interest there and it was open to the weather.
Back on board the Bombard was slung back on the foredeck and off we went on our way, but not one minute later a big bear surfaced right next to the boat on the port side. This caused a pandemonium on deck and below with all hands trying to get a glimpse of him swimming in the direction we had just come from with the dinghy.
Keeping our distance we stopped the boat and watched with binoculars (all pairs in play) as this giant who revealed himself as a big male, swam ashore, easily climbed a steep scree slope up on to the moraine and then went straight for the hut. He had a good sniff around there and then ambled on to the tripod as we watched incredulous. I thought another camera was about to bite the dust but he gave it a miss and dropped back down the beach and straight to our landing spot, obviously on our scent.
As observers, this turned out to be a passive experience but one cannot help thinking what would have happened had we still been there fooling around at the tripod. There would have been little time to react if he had made an appearance due to the complicated terrain.
Although this was the last day and it was a memorable one, a lesson had been learned. Assume nothing and stay on your guard continually with the ‘gun’ always on the lookout doing nothing else.
Skip Novak. Expedition leader
15th August 2021
