Clear skies opened up to beckon National Geographic Orion into the blue, shallow waters surrounding Smøla. At first, we were not sure how to pronounce the name of this novel destination, however, by the end of the day we were all more familiar with the terrain, the history, and even the pronunciation of this charming fishing village. Some chose to immerse themselves fully in fishing culture while throwing a few hooks in the water themselves, others hiked up to sweeping views to see the wind turbines from a higher perspective, while others took slightly more traditional tours of the area. Even the underwater team dove in for a brisk swim with some of the infamous juvenile cod, amongst many other notable sea creatures. A lively singing performance closed the evening nicely with a few brews, claps, and of course, an accordion!
6/1/2022
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National Geographic Endurance
Bellsund
It’s hard to believe that our amazing journey together is coming to an end. Today’s expedition in Bamsebu in Bellsund treaded an oddly comfortable line between the utterly foreign wilds of the High Arctic, and the now familiar embrace of a landscape we have fallen in love with. The wind was brisk, but explorers of all interests set out to absorb the scenery with new flames of intrigue, ignited by our two weeks of exploration. Discarded reindeer antlers, whalebones left behind from human activities of the past, old ships, ancient fossils, lichens, mosses, fresh buds of spring plants: we were surrounded by a plethora of curios set amongst stunning scenery and snow topped mountains. As we took time to talk about what we had seen in the morning during our afternoon “recap,” we were interrupted by a radio call from our captain. The folks on the bridge had spotted something white and fluffy on the ice ahead! Our time in Svalbard concluded, stunningly, with one last solitary polar bear ambling along the last remaining fast ice of the season. How lucky we have been on this incredible expedition!
