Svalbard Arctic Adventure (1): Longyearben outbound….

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When: August 2026 Weather: Cold 0-5C

OM1mk2 150-400mmZuiko, Leica M11 35mm summilux

Our great arctic adventure started with Thai Airways, Singapore to Oslo via Bangkok. A short flight on SAS then brought us to Longyearben in Svalbard, the northernmost city in the world.

Arrival on a bright morning into Longyearben, Svalbard Archipelago
The iconic signpost at the airport, 78deg north….the north pole is 1309km away
colourful houses of longyearben
mountains surrounding Longyearben…we stayed at the Svalbard Hotel Pulforaren….where we had to spend a night
whilst there were a few snow buntings in town, our first birds were really the arctic terns at the waterfront after the airport….
hungry arctic tern babies
purple sandpiper
Sandlo ringed plover

The next morning we spent exploring the small town centreand shopped in the winter wear clothing stores, visited the museum and had coffee at the Huskies cafe before boarding our boat for the next ten days….we were booked on the Kvitungen, a fishing boat instead of the usual ultra-lux liners that are usually advertised….the friends we wre going with felt that this small boat with 10pax would be better than the large liners which usually had 100to200pax. We might also get further into the packed ice…..

The Kvitungen……10 travellers and 10 crew…..it catches king crabs in the off season

After settling into our small cabins and a brief briefing, we set sail westward out of Ilsfjorden,the fjord in which Longyearben sits…..as we exited the island of Spitsbergen..we turned right heading north up towards the Arctic Ocean. The seas were a bit choppy so we diverted into Bjornforden Fugelfjorden and the Smeerenburg glacier…no.1 on map.

map of our route up north from Spitsbergen toward the Ice Pack….
beautiful fjord scenery on the way
snow capped peaks in summer
Smeerenberg glacier at the end of the fjord…our first encounter with sea ice…
The Northern Fulmars were the commonest birds we saw flying with our boat much of the way….
The black legged Kittiwakes were also very common
and then the first mammal of our sea journey….a charming RInged Seal popped up to say hello…one of 6 seal species in the Arctic
and then out of the foggy skies came a little bird flying alongside our boat….it looked like a puffin!
and so it was…an atlantic puffin! yet another lifer
puffin on the water
an arctic skua with its stuka like wings
another commonly seen bird, the black guillemot
little auk in the foreground with black guillemot behind

As we departed the fjords our guides decided that though the ocean was a bit rough we should head up north across the ocean to get to the pack ice of the Arctic! This was an arctic summer with no night so we just settled into our cabin and slept as best as could till we reached our destination…..

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