Fram Strait 2024 – returning to Svalbard

This article is part of the series “2024-08: Fram Strait cruise KPH”.

26 August 2024

It is the 14th day of our Fram Strait cruise. We are on our way back to Longyearbyen on Svalbard. After many grey and foggy days we finally have got nicer weather since yesterday and so I am standing on the “heli deck” looking for animals to take pictures of. I cannot see any whales and the few puffins that I spot are too fast and too far away. So I take photos of the seagulls that effortlessly accompany the ship.

Since today it is possible to see land again in the distance. Not Greenland like a week ago but Prins Karls Forland, an elongated island which is the westernmost island of  the Svalbard archipelago.

I have gone inside again until I see a message popping on our WhatsApp group:

Dolphins just in front of the ship now

I grab my photo bag, hurry to the heli deck again and see a school of dolphins on the starboard side. Most of them swim underwater but again and again a group of these beautiful sea mammals come out of the water. With my big telephoto lens I try to take pictures of the dolphins. The result: a lot of pictures of sea water. They are just too fast for me and my lens. But I’m lucky. Once I manage to guess correctly and get a photo of two dolphins (and a third one immersed).

27 August 2024

Originally we wanted to reach Svalbard one day later but a lot of things have been done faster without the presence of sea ice. Mooring recoveries are simpler, CTD casts are easier and so is the ship’s navigation – no search for leads needed. Therefore we will arrive one day earlier, which is today. While I’m having breakfast we are already in the fjord Isfjorden. At 9 o’clock we have arrived in the city port of Longyearbyen.

After lunch I leave the ship and stand on land again. I walk into town and go to Svalbardbutikken, the local supermarket. We still live on board and get our meals there, but I want to have chocolate! And I get it.

28 August 2024

We all have stayed on board overnight as well. The cabins are free (and paid) and so there is no need to find some expensive last-minute accommodation in Longyearbyen.

My plane to Tromsø will depart at 14:40. I interrupt my work and leave the ship once more to take some pictures. It is sunny again but Svalbard looks pretty brown and dirty in summer.

Then it was time to say good bye to the crew and the other participants. Car to the airport – checking in the baggage – security. And some hours later I sat in the airplane to Tromsø now leaving also Svalbard and the research ice breaker Kronprins Haakon behind.

When shall we three meet again?
In thunder, lightning, or in rain?
When the data work is done,
When the budget’s lost or won …

Spåret

After two weeks on the sea between Svalbard and Greenland I took the plane from Longyearbyen back to Tromsø and two days later the bus to Narvik and the train to Umeå. Since Sunday morning I have been in the familiar surroundings of my real home (“home home”) in Obbola again.

Two days ago I walked Spåret, a four kilometre promenade through the forests near us. It was warm and summery but also visible that Autumn has begun in parallel. What a contrast the forests are to the open ocean in the Fram Strait, the ice sheet near Greenland or the treeless valleys of Svalbard.

Norddeich/Norden

Annika and I were in Norddeich, the coastal district of Norden (“north”) in East Friesland, Germany the last days. The word “Norden” definitely qualifies that place for getting an article in my blog way-up-north.

Many streets of Norddeich have the theme “north” in their names. Am Nordkap (At the North Cape), Nordlandstraße (Northland street), Nordlichtstraße (Northern Light Street). Guess what, I like the names! Partly from my Scandinavian point of view, partly because I am from Northern Germany and therefore a “Nordlicht” (a nickname for people from Northern Germany) by myself.

Some photos from Tuesday, 10 September, the day of our arrival:

Yesterday on Wednesday, 11 September Annika and I rented e-bikes and took a cycle tour to Greetsiel. The weather was quite nasty for early September: strong gusty winds, hailstorms, cloudbursts and even a thunderstorm. And all that at temperatures around 10–11 °C. Kudos for the e-bikes! Without electrical motor support we wouldn’t have managed it against the wind.

It’s a long way to travel to Norden from our places. Round about 2800 km from Tromsø, my “work home” and still 1900 km from Obbola, my “home home”. But I think, I’ll visit Norddeich again some other time.

Back in Tromsø – an autumnal walk

After five weeks of travelling with just two intermediate days I have come back to my work home Tromsø two days ago. Now I’ll stay here for a while.

Yesterday I have started working in the office again and today I walked home from the lake Prestvannet to my apartment after work. That’s five kilometres. Weather and nature have been showing, that summer says farewell and the wind is strong enough to tear out some of the tree’s green leaves, too. From today on I’ll try to take a one-hour walk every day. Let’s see, how long I’ll keep up that habit.

Some photos from today. Just the iPhone and some editing in Lightroom.

Autumn forest, snowy mountains

When the temperature have dropped to 2–5 °C and the wind blows and it rains, rains, rains in Tromsø, then the season is a matter of altitude. In the lowlands it is autumn yet the mountains are covered with fresh, white snow.

Autumnal equinox 2024

It is autumnal equinox, the beginning of autumn today. Despite of the unstable weather a friend of mine and I took a tour to Oldervik and took some photos. Yes, we got wet and the friend’s dog was not amused. The good thing about unstable weather: You have a good chance of interesting light situations and rainbows.

A chilly tour to the Steindalsbreen

Yesterday I took a hike to the Steindalsbreen together with my friend C. and her husky. I’ve been there last year at almost the same time of the year. The previous days of this year however have been colder. The mountains are coated with snow and the ground is covered with frost.

What I really love about this hike is the different landscapes you cross. First we follow the rising forest path.

We can see the river Gievdanjohka below. After a while the path leads back down until it meets the river.

We pass the cabin Steindalshytta, follow the path a bit further and the valley Gievdanvággi opens up to a broad U-shaped valley. Reindeer are grazing on one of the slopes. While we are taking a short break the sun vanishes behind a mountain. In an instant it gets colder and I put on a woollen cap and gloves.

After the break we continue the path. We ascend a stony slope and leave the birch trees behind. A quarter ago the landscape looked more like “The hills are alive ♩|♩🎵𝅗𝅥 …”, now it appears grey and  harsh.

And then we get a great view on the glacier and the glacial lake in front. We continue until we reach the lake’s shore.

The lake is frozen. In the icy pattern on the surface the snowy mountains and small cumulus clouds are reflected.

On the northern side of the valley it is possible to pass the lake until we reach the glacier. It looks quite different then last year.

This year it is easier to walk around for taking photos, because the soft sand you can sink in is frozen. And creates its own visual world.

We take photos from the glacier and the surrounding landscape. I took the following two images from almost the same place. It is just two different directions. (For the photographers: the white balance it the same on the following two images.)

After a while we decide to return to the car. It will be eight more kilometres to go. The edge of the stony slope provides a view on the levels of the landscape. In the bottom the branching river in the shadow. Above the wooded hills, now in autumnal colours. In the background a chain of snow covered mountains. They are already on the other side of the fjord Storfjorden. At half past five we are at C.’s car.

I feel privileged that I may live in Tromsø and have such a gorgeous landscape within reach for a day trip like this.

Takk for turen C., thanks for the tour!

Appendix I

In the evening the sky was still clear. At a quarter to ten I went on the balcony of my rented apartment to check for polar lights. I was not disappointed and got my first aurora of the season. I just took a photo from the balcony.

Appendix II

Today I compared the tracks from last year’s and this year’s hikes to the glacier. The satellite imagery on the screenshots is old. I do not walk on glaciers without guide.

On both hikes I approached the glacier until I could touch it. The glacier is in the west (or left). You can clearly see that I came further west this year which means, that the glacier has shrunk within the last 12 month. Where will the glacier calve next year? In five years? In ten? When will it be gone? Depressing thoughts after a wonderful tour.