Monday 12th June 2023

I was awake at five, and could not get back to sleep, so got up to go to the lounge to have a coffee and found several packs of digestive biscuits out to dunk.

Outside, we were bobbing around ready to go back into the pack ice, but a change of plan meant we went down a fjord were there was the strong possibility of bears.

It is very hard to judge distance up here, what seemed like a mile must have been several more, and at the far end were four other ships, looking like toys as they were dwarfed by the mountains and glaciers around the bay.

We edged through the ice filling the bay, followed by a flock of Kittiwakes, who were waiting for the flows to be pushed aside and codling be left in the open, then they would swoop.

It took nearly two hours to make our way to the end of the bay, and in the lea of a large rock boulder, a mother Polar Bear was looking after her cub. And despite weighing three quarters of a ton, they two bears were never more than a few pixels in the viewfinder.

We drifted for an hour, maybe more, just watching the bears, a pod of Beluga Whales came by, all round the edge of the pack ice, surfacing with a short pout of water, they went back and forth for an hour too, never for than an inch or so out of the water, but that didn’t stop me taking dozens, possibly hundreds of shots.

Just before lunch, news came that we would be going out in the zodiacs for the afternoon, wrap up warm, we were warned.

After lunch we barded all the zodiacs, and we slowly made our way in large “s” bends nearer and nearer the cliff edge, where at the bottom as polar bear was sleeping off its lunch of walrus carcass. We tried to be quiet, but occasionally it looked up to see what was disturbing his post-lunch slumber.

We didn’t get too close, so he wasn’t spooked, and after each time looking up at us, he would stretch back down in the cool snow, yawn and go to sleep again. I guess we were 100m from him, and was amazing to see something that big and rare, so lucky we were.

After that, we cruised along the edge of bay, passed 5 glaciers what were silently flowing to the fjord. All around were birds, the same Kittiwakes, arctic turns, eiders, but best of all, the weather had calmed down so there was no wind, and we were treated to perfect reflections in the water as the sun came out.

One last visit to the bear and we made our way back to the ship, to be all back on board ready for dinner. Only two more bears were spotted about, about a mile off the port side, mating. Just as well they appeared as dots in my viewfinder. To add to the excitement, another pod of belugas appeared and then an arctic fox was seen in front of the ship, on the ice. And finally, a juvenile bear was spotted, running over the ice, jumping, hoping to find the breathing hole of a seal.

Phew.

After dinner, we sat in the lounge, looking at the sun high over the ice flows, a quarter to ten and still broad daylight, and would be all “night”, of course.

We sat in the lounge, me sipping a wee dram of Shackleton Whisky, named after the famed polar explorer, it seemed fitting. IN front of us, through the large windows was the bay and out to see, al full of pack ice, glinting in the late evening sunshine. It seemed other-worldly, but yet, here we are, and we had been out in the boats in it too, so it was of this world, but so out of our experiences, like something out of a David Attenborough documentary.

In front of the boat, an artic fox had been spotted, and behind another pod of beluga, while we watched a ring seal diving from one area of ice-free water to another. This must be an every day scene up here, but for us, it was magical.

So magical, that when the juvenile polar bear was spotted earlier, rather than run for my camera, I chose to stay and watch it through my eyes alone. It was distant, and others too shots aplenty, but it was this bear, running, jumping, swimming, all on the lookout for a late snack before the artic summer really kicks in. Because for the bear, summer is the lean times, when they overheat easily, and their usual hunting grounds on the ice have melted. So they sleep. For months.

You might have noticed that Kieran, who featured heavily in the first two days posts, has not been mentioned since Saturday. There is much I could say, and much that I can’t. Kieran was medevacked off a beach near to where we had moored on Saturday, to be taken to the main hospital for assessment. We all felt sad, as for Kieran seeing a polar bear was is only wish, and he would not see one now, just two days short, probably. So, if Kieran is reading this, you were missed mate, and we all thought of you when we saw that first bear.

IN the end, we saw at least seven polar bears on Monday, I said to Jools it would have made a fine climax to the trip, so to have on the last day, as the bears is what most of us wanted to see on the trip. But there is so much more, I guess what I will remember is the grand landscapes, the towering cliffs of granite, carved by ice and time, now home to tens of thousands of kittiwakes. And on days when there was no wind, the ice covered cliffs reflected in the icy waters, which were lined with ice flows. Birds wheel around, Fulmars follow the ship in hope of a free meal, and Kittiwakes swarm round the disturbed ice in the hope of grabbing a codling or two.