(from 22nd August)
After sailing all night, we made it into Konigsfjord, and past the scientific research station of Ny Alasund just before breakfast. The sky was clearing. Well, quite a bit of it was blue, and that gave everything a sunny aspect. The mountains, glaciers and the fjord itself were beautiful. We motored a bit further, over breakfast, to the other side of the fjord, where there are some bird cliffs. Anchored quite close to those. Then at ten we boarded the zodiacs again to see what we could see of the bird cliffs and then around the point to the fjord face.
Saw a couple of reindeer, quite a way off. It was decided that those were binocular, statistical reindeer. Not photo reindeer.
Someone had seen a fox by the water earlier, but it was not to be seen as we scoured the bird cliffs, so we headed off to see the glacier.
The glacier was big and beautiful. Blues and whites. Lots of small bergs floating in the water around it made approach by zodiac slow, but we got pretty close. Nice photos. Saw splashes of two carvings, one really big, but weren’t quick enough to see the carvings themselves. One big, blue, floating berg had an almost perfectly circular hole in the side, forming an ice cave. Spectacular.
On the way back we saw a fox up near the bird cliffs. After following it for a while, another was spotted. And then another, this time with a radio collar (a “wifi fox” in the local venacular). A little later there was another wifi fox, and then some time after that a smaller, no-radio fox. All up six foxes. Two of them played on the beach (a bit too far away for a good shot). Some of them were nearly white, so their winter coats were coming through.
Straight after lunch we went out for another zodiac trip, looking for reindeer on an island, and to see another glacier. The Origo motored over to meet us, rather than us having to go back to it.
After dinner we went out again, to see puffins on the water and on some cliffs, and also reindeer. Got back after ten, and by the time I got the photos backed up, and things squared away it was half past eleven. Late night, by previous history.
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