Svalbard (7) the way home Islfjorden and Longyearben

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When : August 2026 Weather: 0to5C

OM1mk2 Zuiko 150-400mm

Sailing back into the Islfjorden estuary, we were surprised by more sightings and interesting landscapes….

As we entered the estuary leading into Islfjorden the weather clear, the sun was shining…
Beluga! was the call
spouts from three belugas
Our only view was at this angle…this is when a drone would have done better but we were within the Spitzbergen drone exclusion zone…
and one of my favourite moments of the whole trip was this classic sighting of a puffin with fish in its beak…true it’s only 2 fish but I never thought I’d ever see this scene
Puffin
The hills fringing the fjord had really interesting colours!
after docking, we spent our last night on the boat…and were able to engage a local wildlife guide to bring us out….I really wanted to seek out the ptarmigan but alas we failed… this barnacle goose would have to do…
An arctic skua accompanied us
a flight of migratory barnacle geese!
Reindeer in the setting sun on Longyearbyen
Reindeer
one of our target animals was the arctic fox and it took a while but our guide then thought she saw some movement up the slopes…..
Indeed it was our arctic fox! It didn’t get close enough for us to take better shots and we thought that was that….
But just as we were leaving in the evening light….one of our group spotted something by the road…..
Indeed it was another arctic fox, much closer !
our final arctic wildlife experience was this lovely arctic fox bidding us goodbye…

So our great Arctic adventure finally ended…Singapore-Bangkok-Oslo-Longyearbyen, Arcic Icepack and back on our ice breaker. A unique wildlife trip…highly recommended!

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