August 29, 2008

This morning we landed at Blomsterbugten. I went ashore and did the “poodle” hike with Hannah. It was lovely to go slow and identify the flowers. The plants are so incredibly tiny that if you do not look down, you will step on them and crush the delicate flowers. The berries are out at this time of year, so I did a little snacking along the way. On the hike we also saw some Musk Ox and some Arctic Hare.

On shore, there was also a hut that is used by the Sirius Sled Patrol during the winter. We were able to go into the hut and sign our ship name in the book. It was very interesting to look inside the hut. It is all set up for someone to go into, complete with toilet paper, fuel for the stove, and matches. One thing I noticed about the matches is that the boxes are left with a few matches hanging out of the closed box. This is so that when you get to the hut and your hands are cold, you do not have to fiddle with the matches – all you have to do is pull and strike.

This afternoon we landed at Ella Island, only to abort the landing about 5 minutes later. When we landed there were two tourists there waiting to be picked up by a plane. We went to talk to them and they told us that they had seen a Polar Bear at the beach just a half an hour before. So we promptly called off the landing. We then spent a few hours looking for the bear (and watching the plane come and go), but did not see it.

However, after dinner, as we were moving the ship around the corner, what did we see….yes, our friend the Polar Bear. It was cool to see it, and I’m glad we had some inside scoop before we went off on our hike.


View from Ella Island