Our last morning of arctic excursions started with the anticipated welcoming 7:30 am a wakeup call from Expedition leader Ali. We had now fully circumnavigated the Svalbard archipelago and we arrived at Poolepynten. Good news came over the ships address system that the walrus that we had been looking forward to seeing were home at their expected location on the beach.
This point of land is a favored site for these marine mammals as it is easily accessible and the location provides a plentiful supply of nearby food, soft sand and relative shelter. We split into two groups for the landing. This allowed for premium viewing in smaller numbers, as well as not to overwhelm the walrus with our presence.
Once ashore we walked with our guides to the animals, at a certain distance beyond the minimum 30 meters we were instructed to form a line and slowly walked in unison towards the herd, stopping periodically to observe and appreciate these giants of the Arctic without disturbing them. At one point a few of these giant animals took a swim and came up on the beach right next to us so we had to quickly move back to keep the 30 meters distance.
As our visit on land was coming to a close, a Humpback whale appeared and passed by, very close to shore. Day 9 and it’s the first whale we had sighted.
