Edgeoya

Trip Start Jun 30, 2008
1
17
21
Trip End Jul 21, 2008


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Where I stayed
Vavilov
(Oslo hotels)

Flag of Norway  ,
Wednesday, July 16, 2008

The wake up call came at 5:30am as promised. An advanced scouting party had found walrus at a haul out at Dolerittneset on Edgeoya. I was in the first zodiac with Woody as the driver. We motored toward the haul out, but spotted 2 walrus on a piece of ice off to the right. So the boats formed a line and circled around them for a while. I used my 18-200mm and 70-300mm lenses. The 18-200mm is VR stabilized and takes wonderful pictures almost all the time. The 70-300mm is an older lens and is not stabilized. It is harder to shoot because of the fact that there is no stabilization, it has a longer focal length, and the focus system is the old Nikon type that has the motor in the camera body. Anyway, I ended up getting a lot of nice shots even though I had to throw out many that I took with the 70-300mm.

After the 2 walrus on the ice, we motored to the 40-50 walrus that were hauled out on shore. Again, I switched back and forth between the two lenses. We didn't circle very many times before the walrus started to get spooked. Some went into the water, but the large majority stayed on the beach. The expedition staff decided to scout a beach landing. They cleared it (no polar bears) and we got out. This was the first time since Ny Alesund that I had been on dry land.

We climbed a small ridge and had a great view of the walrus both on the beach and swimming. These were all male walrus (the females are far away on a different island group). They were making barking and grunting noises. Every now and then you could catch a whiff of them...they smelled terrible. They all laid together in a big group. They were constantly shifting and rolling around. If one rolled or moved onto another, they might start scuffling or grunting at each other. I found a rock to steady my camera on and got some clear shots with the 70-300mm.

After about a half an hour viewing the walrus, we loaded back on the zodiacs and drove back to the ship. On board, we had a late breakfast (I was really hungry) and it was announced that we couldn't do the second landing of the day because of ice. So, the plan was to steam back across to Spitsbergen and see Bellsund.

Along the way, off a point of Edgeoya, a polar bear was spotted on some broken up ice. The captain carefully manuevered the ship into great viewing position. The bear, which had been laying while we approached, rolled around on the ice and then calmly walked further into the ice field. It provided some great picture taking opportunities, though.

Lunch came and went. I sorted through the photos from Dolerittneset and the polar bear from today. Around 3:30pm, John (an expedition staff member) gave a talk entitled "4500 years of Arctic History". He started with why people bothered to explore (for pure scientific benefit to commercial reasons), went through the "discoverers" of Svalbard, to the hunting and trapping days, to the race to the North Pole, and ended with a overview of what is happening now.

Dinner was good. I had the veal, which was done with polenta. John (expedition staff) sat next to me and he told some good stories of when he was arrested in Vietnam for photographing a landmark of national and stategic importance. He also told the story of how longitudinal navigation was conceived (it was done by an Englishman with clocks). At the bar talk following dinner, the videographer showed a preview of the DVD that will be for sale at the end of the voyage. It wasn't too bad. I made it in a few times, mostly because I was on the boat he was on a lot.
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