Party cloudy and 47 degrees- a heat wave!  The expedition leader has instructed the captain to head up the west side of Spitsbergen as far north as the ice will allow. We might have a chance to reach 80 degrees North. We had just sat down for breakfast at 8AM when we got the world that bowhead whales were sighted, a rare event in this area. We abandoned our freshly poured coffee and headed for the bridge. The good news we were able to spot one off the bow. The bad news is they were a long way off and I had to take the word of the staff that it was a bowhead whale.  Photography with my camera was impossible but luckily Julie was able to capture a few shots of a fluke as it dove.  Bowhead whales live year round on the edge of the sea ice, moving south in the winter as the ice grows, then moving north as it recedes in the summer. Kasper said they were once abundant in the region but were hunted for their blubber which can be 18 inches thick. For a long time they were rarely seen here but they may be making a comeback. The captain said there were at least 4 or 5 feeding here right now.

We stayed stationary in the area to allow viewing,  then the expedition leader decided to move and continue our attempt to reach 80 degrees. We almost made it but the solid wall of sea ice stopped us at 79 degrees, 56 minutes. So close!  Even so we are only 608 nautical miles from the North Pole.  Reluctantly the captain had to turn the ship southward and work our way back the west side of Spitsbergen with an intention to stop along the way for one last shore excursion.

To fill time Peter scheduled yet another naturalist briefing. Stefano Pozzi, who hails from Milan, Italy gave a short talk about the polar bear population in Svalbard and his own personal first “confrontation” with a polar bear. There are currently an estimated 3,000 polar bears in area. They are a protected species but an average of 3.1 bears/year are killed to protect humans. Only five people have been killed by polar bears in the last 50 years; the last one in 2011.

Steffano’s bear encounter occurred while he was taking the university Arctic guide course in 2014. They were out on an 8 day camping exercise when a polar bear invaded their camp for food and would not leave. Steffano showed us slides of the “encounter” and how they eventually had to call in a government helicopter to scare the bear off. He was a persistent fellow! Campers use trip wire explosive alarms near camp sites to deter bears. Dogs are also good bear deterrents. I was amazed to learn that polar bears have tremendous sense of smell; they can smell a seal up to 20 miles away!

During lunch the ship moved to a proposed site to take a walk but as the scouting team ventured out they learned that the wind had picked up and it would be too difficult for loading and unloading the Zodiacs because of the wind. We had to move to another, more sheltered, location nearby and because the new area had more snow near the water we would be taking Zodiac rides rather than hikes. As it turned out, it ultimately worked to our benefit.

The bay selected is called Magdalene. It is not large but is surrounded by not one, but seven glaciers, making it a stunning site. It was the intent of the drivers to simply show us some of the terminus of the glaciers and swing by some lounging walrus. Trivia for the day: one walrus is spelled “walrus”; the plural of walrus is “walrus”. Also there is no term for a group of walrus, like herd, or covey, etc.

Once off the boat we wandered over to where the walrus were and sure enough there were the usual “lumps” sleeping on the beach. What was new, however, was that there were 4-6 walrus frolicking in the water. We did not know if they were feeding or simply playing.  Although they are cumbersome on land they seem extremely agile in the water. There was even a bit of aggressiveness shown between several of the walrus with raised heads, pushing, shoving and bellowing. It was activity I had never seen before. We sat nearby watching the activity when a big male starting swimming toward us and our driver decided to carefully back us away, not knowing if he was simply curious or in the mood for a fight.

As we were watching the walrus we received a call from Peter that a mother polar bear and two cubs was nearby and so you suddenly saw a parade of 12 Zodiacs converging on the area where they were spotted. Luckily they were bedded down in an area of dark rocks so they were relatively easy to spot. They were  not super close but close enough to get some reasonable photos. This is the closet encounter with polar bears we have had the entire trip and the fact it included a mother and cubs made it a fitting and special end to our water excursions.

Tonight was the Captain’s farewell cocktail hour complete with champagne. When the trip began he introduced his senior staff. Tonight he took the time to introduce many of the people who work behind the scenes, like the laundry, the engine room, the servers and some room attendants. I think they especially enjoyed the little bit of fame as we all gave them hearty applause for their efforts.

After a final delightful dinner we returned to our cabins as they asked we have our luggage out in the hallway by 9 PM so it could be off-loaded the first thing in the morning.

Our  journey on the National Geographic Explorer was coming to an end.