How glorious to see the sunrise reflected off a glacier! We were to be at sea much of the day because we were tackling the long journey southeast and then north around the bottom of Spitzbergen to eventually reach Longyearbyen. Sea days are fine with me because there is always plenty to see and do, but today we had a delightful zodiac cruise along the 15km face of glacier. Our zodiac driver, Leonie, was determined to show us as much of the glacial front as safely possible. We traced corners and strange sculptures created by calvings. Leonie is (on other cruise expeditions) coordinator of citizen science projects so she has a real appreciation for what it means to some passengers to understand the environment they are in. She made it an excellent cruise.
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| The birds hang around waiting for the glacier to calve because then loads of fish surface |
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| The scene was spectacular but the reflections were even more breathtaking |
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| There is nothing that can quite explain the beauty of being out on the water |
But then it got just a little bit more special. Leonie said that we were going to do some citizen science which of course we were quite thrilled about. So she and another zodiac nosed in close to the glacier before revealing the experiment – it was to determine if champagne tasted better on the water than on board! Cheeky thing – we all had a great laugh. From a box, which we thought was some sort equipment, she produced a magnum of champers and glasses and we toasted ourselves and the stunning environment and life in general.
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| The magic box! we thought we were going to measure plankton density - haha |
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| Cheers |
Then it was back to the ship to continue our journey towards the west coast of Spitzbergen.
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| Like strawberry meringue |
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