From Juliette in Svalbard:
This afternoon, a small group of us went out with an inflatable to the end of the glacier. I found out how deceiving the clean air was. We can see the end so well from here and I thought it'd be a matter of five or ten minutes to get there. In reality, it took us about an hour. By then, our ship, the Arctic sunrise, was a dot on the horizon. As we got closer to the front of the glacier, I found out just how huge it was. It's one of those things that make you understand just how small you are next to the size of this planet. The crew around me, who have seen glaciers for the past three months, looked unimpressed though - compared to what they've seen since the beginning of the Arctic Meltdown Expedition, this was a small and cute one.
The colors are also incredible. From dirt black to electric blue to pure white - a glacier is anything but uniform.
We couldn't approach it completely - in case it calved and a wave made our inflatable topple over.
The air is as cold as I have ever felt. I had three layers of thermal clothes and two pairs of socks and gloves - but by the end of the first hour I was shivering and probably turning blue. The others around me (except Dima from Russia and Rosa from Finland) didn't look too good either. The water was starting to freeze.
As we approached the glacier, we found more and more pancake ice. Yet, the show around us was so amazing that no one was in a hurry to go back to the Arctic Sunrise.
Many people tend to believe the polar regions are complete desert, wastelands. Nothing is further from the truth. In such a quiet, cold place, I'm amazed that there is still so much wildlife around. Seals kept popping out of the water, falcons were flying around. Last night, someone swore they saw a polar fox lurking on the beach. And of course, thhere is invisible wildlife, plankton, fish etc.
Along the coast of the fjord, every few hundred metres, stand small wooden cabins. No one seemed to know why they were here for sure (if someone reading this knows, please say so in a comment!). Our best guesses were protection from polar bears, or refuge for hikers too far from town for the night. Considering how cold I was after two and a half hours outside, I can see why someone would want to be sheltered just a little.
There are mountains everywhere. I grew up near the Alps in France, and it felt like I was back there - only with even more snow, and more water around. When the archipelago was discovered by Willem Barents over 400 years ago, he named it Spitsbergen - 'needle mountains' in Dutch. It's a fitting name. The Norwegians re-named it Svalbard - 'cold shores' in Norwegian. I found both names to be quite correct today.
We're going to be staying at least one more night. That's just as well. I'm not in a hurry to leave such beauty.
More later,
Juliette