In July 2025, we embarked on our fourth polar region expedition cruise: Svalbard in Depth. Our previous polar adventures include Canada’s east coast; Antarctica, South Georgia and the Falklands / Malvinas; and Gems of West Greenland. Our journey aboard the Sylvia Earle included a reunion with friends we made on our 2023 Antarctica adventures on the Greg Mortimer.

We booked a 14-day itinerary. Most of the 7 to 8 day Svalbard cruises sail up the west coast to the northern coast of Spitspergen and back. Instead, we sailed south from Isfjorden and made it all the way to the pack ice before finally returning to Longyearbyen along the northwest coast. The extra time paid off – in terms of the quality/quantity/mix of wildlife sightings; the number of kayak excursions; the glacier activity; and more.

Because it’s a long cruise, this is going to be a long blog post. If you prefer your travelogues in video form, here’s Mr GeoK’s video recap:

DAY 1 | Oslo

We’ve observed that most expedition cruises require passengers to be at the port of embarkation or near the connecting airport the day before embarkation. So we planned the land portion of our Norway vacation to end in Oslo. Even so, we had to transfer from our harbour front hotel to an airport hotel on Friday, July 4th. We didn’t think the Radisson Blu lived up to its four-star rating, but it was quiet and clean and for just one night, so 🤷.

DAY 2 | Longyearbyen

Charter Flight From Oslo

After fueling up at the hotel’s breakfast buffet, we returned our room keycard and made the short walk to Gardermoen’s departures level. As we joined the check-in line for our charter flight to Longyearbyen, we spotted our UK friends from our Antarctica cruise. We knew they’d booked passage aboard the same sailing. Then we spotted two more familiar faces from our Antarctica cruise! After exchanging hugs, we made plans for a reunion supper that evening.

We relaxed on the flight. It was smooth and the breakfast aboard was surprisingly good. It was our second breakfast, but we opted to eat because we didn’t know if we’d have another meal before embarking. This turned out to be a good call!

I spotted the Sylvia Earle as our plane approached the Longyearbyen airport.

Once we disembarked the plane and confirmed our checked bags were in a holding area, we boarded our assigned bus. Passengers had been pre-assigned to one of two buses and we ended up on the same bus as our UK friends.

Stop one = a brief opportunity to photograph a polar bear warning sign

Having seen many of these in Greenland, I didn’t even bother to exit the bus. Mr GeoK joined the queue and came away with the requisite image. For those who’d been paying attention (like Mr GeoK), there’d been another polar bear sign photo opportunity right at the airport!

Stop two = the Global Seed Vault

I hoped we’d be able to go inside, but that wasn’t the case. Instead, we stretched our legs with a short walk to the main entrance. This was also a good spot to overlook the town of Longyearbyen.

Back aboard the bus, our guide for the afternoon talked about Longyearbyen’s transition from coal-fired electricity to “cleaner” diesel generators. In fact, the last operating coal mine on Svalbard shut down while we were on our expedition cruise. I’m not sure I agree that shipping in diesel to run generators is a better option that burning local, high-quality coal. But given Norway’s overall shift to greener energy and transportation, it’s as much symbolic as anything.

Side note: Longyearbyen is named after John Longyearbyen, an American industrialist and businessman who visited Svalbard as a tourist. He saw the potential for coal mining. In 1906, he founded the Boston-based Arctic Coal Company, which built housing and docks and opened the first commercially viable mine in the area.

Stop 3 = Svalbard Museum

The Svalbard Museum is home to artifacts from the history of Svalbard since its settlement, plus exhibitions of local plants and animals. We learned more about Svalbard’s coal mining history. And I found the information about the history of Svalbard’s governance particularly interesting.

For centuries, England, the Netherlands, Spain, Denmark and Norway tussled over governance of Svalbard. Russia also had a presence on the archipelago. Svalbard remained a terra nullius (a land without government) into the early 20th century. With the introduction of coal mining in the early 1900s, the need for some form of government became obvious – not only to register mining claims, but also to settle disputes between mine owners and laborers (who were often of different nationalities).

In 1920, at the Paris Peace Conference following the First World War, Norway was granted full sovereignty over Svalbard, with two major limitations. Firstly, all parties to the treaty had equal rights to economic resources. Second, the archipelago was not to be used for “warlike purposes.” Today, Svalbard is governed by a local council and a governor representing mainland Norway’s government. Svalbard is an entirely visa-free zone, which means anyone may live and work in Svalbard indefinitely, regardless of country of citizenship.

Free Time

Due to a miscommunication, we finished our rushed perusal of the Svalbard Museum exhibits about an hour earlier than necessary. So we took advantage of the brief window to walk through a few blocks of the town. As in Greenland, the houses are colourful. Remnants of coal-mining infrastructure are visible in every direction. One slope has a purpose-built avalanche prevention system, constructed after an avalanche in 2015 buried 10 homes, killing one person and injuring nine others.

Stop 4 = Camp Barentz

By the time we re-boarded the bus to ride a short distance from town to Camp Barentz, it was about 4 pm, way past lunch time. A few of our fellow passengers were complaining, which gave us an early heads up on who to try to avoid throughout the cruise. 😉

At Camp Barentz we had the opportunity to learn about sled dogs. We also welcomed the chance to duck indoors out of the wind for a bit, where we enjoyed a cup of tea or hot juice and a wrap.

Everyone rushed to pull out their big telephoto lenses when a small herd of Svalbard reindeer trotted past. That’s when we realized there were quite a few serious photographers in the group. 🙂

Embarkation / Reunion Supper

Our final bus stop was at the wharf, where we crossed the tarmac for our “passenger directory” photo before walking up the gangplank to board the Sylvia Earle. We passed on the welcome aboard refreshments and headed to our cabin to shrug off our heavy day packs full of camera gear. We had a few minutes to start unpacking and then it was time for the first briefing of the cruise – a welcome aboard and introduction to the expedition team, followed by a lifeboat drill.

The kayaking group met briefly for introductions and then it was time for supper. We enjoyed catching up with our friends from the Antarctica cruise. We spent at least some time with them every day over the next two weeks.

Beluga Whales

We couldn’t have asked for a better end to the day than the chance to observe about 30 beluga whales for a while. Well, maybe narwhals would have been slightly better? 😉

DAY 3 | At Sea and Burgerbukta Kayak Excursion

As expected, our first full day at sea began with more mandatory briefings:

• safety and other protocols for zodiac excursions;
• polar bear awareness and what to do when we encounter a polar bear (listen for instructions from our guide and give the bear lots of space); and
• AECO (the Association of Arctic Expedition Cruise Operators) guidelines, including biosecurity measures and “look, don’t touch or move” rules when it comes to any sort of artifact.

We also enjoyed a presentation on some of the unique characteristics of the Svalbard archipelago. Finally, after lunch, we left the ship for our first excursion. 57 of the 68 passengers were in zodiacs. We joined 9 others for our first paddle in tandem kayaks. Our kayaking guiding team used a zodiac to move everyone to the best position to start our paddle, and one of the guides towed all the kayaks behind a second zodiac. We did a zodiac launch for pretty much every kayak expedition over the entire cruise.

Low cloud and mist obscured the tops of the imposing cliffs along Hornsund, but brash ice and bergy bits on the surface were sure signs of Hornbreen glacier at the sound’s end. We spotted kittiwakes, gulls and guillemots on the cliffs, and eider ducks on the water. Deep turquoise icebergs floated on the calm surface.

As we queued up to exit our kayaks and reboard our zodiac transport back to the ship, word came over the radio that another pod of belugas had been sighted! It wasn’t until we were back on the Sylvia Earle that we spotted them.

DAY 4 | Storfjorden

Sylvia Earle sailed part way up the east side of Svalbard overnight and we awoke on a calm sea under a blanket of fog. While the fog thinned a couple of times, it was never enough to allow for an excursion. Eventually, the bridge crew sailed to Edgeøya Island in search of clearer skies. Unfortunately, the weather gods did not cooperate, so it turned out to be a day at sea, with an informational talk on Svalbard’s glacier ice and a presentation on adventure photography. We spent time exploring every deck of the Sylvia Earle and found a walking route that allowed a lap around the ship over three decks (45 steps up and down each lap). I found this a distinct improvement over the design of the Greg Mortimer.

DAY 5 | Negribreen | Heleysundet | Kükenthaløya Zodiac Excursion

Fog, fog, and more fog, in all directions. All morning long we’d have brief glimpses of scenery only to witness more flog drifting in. At one point, it cleared enough to create a fogbow (i.e. a white rainbow). But that only lasted a few minutes.

We spent most of the morning on deck, photographing birds and icebergs and listening to lectures on the history of Svalbard and then one on cetaceans (i.e. whales, dolphins and porpoises).

At midday, Sylvia Earle‘s Captain Jorge accepted the challenge of navigating Heleysundet, a narrow channel with strong currents. Finally, we broke free of the fog!

As a result, we got out for an afternoon zodiac excursion around Kükenthaløya. We spotted eider ducks, barnacle geese, skuas, kittiwakes, Arctic terns, grey phalaropes, reindeer and our first walrus. 🙂 The geology was interesting, too.

As we re-boarded the ship, we heard an announcement that Captain Jorge spotted a sleeping polar bear on a rocky hill within viewing distance from the ship. Everyone crowded the observation decks where, with the help of expedition staff, we finally spotted it through the lingering fog. Our best photo of this polar bear is from our cabin balcony; the fog lifted just as the ship pulled away and Mr GeoK snapped this picture with his long lens + teleconverter:

Day 6 | Alkefjellet Kayak Excursion | Kinnvika Kayak Excursion

Woot! This was a 2x kayaking excursion day, two very different experiences.

After breakfast, a short Zodiac ride transported us to just off the base of towering dolerite cliffs of Alkefjellet. From there, we paddled from south to north, observing Brünnich’s guillemots in the thousands. The ledges here are home to more than 90,000 breeding pairs. We also noted black-legged kittwake and glaucous gull nests. In terms of geology, we saw towers of stone. And then 150 million-year-old dolerite layered between 300-million-year-old limestone below and above, making for spectacular contrast. Overhanging snow shelves and a few waterfalls rounded out the scenic highlights. Some of our fellow passengers on the zodiac excursion witnessed an Arctic fox steeling a guillemot from a feeding gull.

The captain repositioned the Sylvia Earle over lunch and early afternoon, anchoring off Kinnvika, a Swedish scientific station built in 1956-57. In 2008, it was restored and used again. At the time of our visit, it had been abandoned for well over a decade, so kind of eerie. The station is comprised of smaller huts, a large communal hut and various outbuildings, including a sauna.

We again enjoyed a zodiac launch for kayaking. This time it was a short paddle, with some garbage collecting along the way. We passed large smooth boulders and a snowmelt creek feeding into the bay. Unique in our expedition cruising kayaking experience, we had a shore landing with the kayaks.

Once everything was secured, we walked up the beach to investigate the buildings and hear directly from our expedition historian about the site. It seemed a popular spot, as two smallish sailboats were also anchored here.

Day 7 | Pack Ice

What is Pack Ice?

One key difference between this in-depth cruise and shorter Svalbard expedition cruises is the opportunity to spend a couple of days in the pack ice. What is pack ice, you ask? It’s salt water (sea) ice that’s not attached to land. Each winter, pack ice grows in area and each summer, it shrinks. In peak winter, pack ice covers about 5 percent of northern oceans / 8 percent of southern oceans. Since it’s not attached to land, it moves with tides, swells and wind.

Pack ice is the primary habitat for pelagic polar bears (ie polar bears that live primarily on sea ice and hunt seals). So we were in the pack ice hoping to see at least one polar bear. And we did!

Polar Bears!

We were still eating breakfast when we heard the announcement that a distant polar bear had been spotted.

The Captain and bridge team carefully sailed closer (while complying with all distance requirements) and we soon sighted another bear on a kill.

After a while, the first polar bear we’d spotted approached the ship, perhaps curious about the sounds and smells.

Expedition staff were stunned to see more than a thousand harp seals on the ice – the largest colony any of them had ever encountered. With so much prey on the horizon, a group of four polar bears approached. We were spellbound, watching as they played, wrestled, swam, and eventually emerged with another seal, taking turns to feed.

As the day wound down, the Sylvia Earle approached a sperm whale carcass and we all settled in to watch. No polar bears appeared, but fulmars and kittiwakes scavenged.

What an amazing day. We felt truly blessed to have been in the company of at least six polar bears as they went about their daily lives. And to have had the opportunity to appreciate the scale of a truly massive harp seal colony. 🙂

Day 8 | Pack Ice

04:30 wake up call = “A polar bear is approaching the wale carcass. No need to rush, it’s still a fair ways off.” We rolled out of bed, washed up, dressed in layers and headed out. By the time we reached the observation deck, the bear was feeding.

Soon, a second bear arrived. It was larger than the first, and I assumed it would chase off the first arrival and chow down. Wrong! The smaller (female) bear ended up being the dominant one, but only after the two spent some time testing / flirting? The larger (male) bear settled down on the ice to wait his turn for breakfast.

After we had breakfast, a third polar bear appeared. Wow! Northern fulmar and ivory gulls competed for scraps.

By mid-morning, fog started rolling in and another expedition cruise ship came into view. Our expedition leader made the call to sail south and east.

We spent the afternoon processing photos in our stateroom, with the TV tuned to the lecture theater presentations.

While we observed “just” three polar bears (in comparison to the previous day’s seven or eight), it was another absolutely amazing day.

Day 9 | Storøya Zodiac Excursion | Isispynten Kayak Excursion

Storøya

This morning we woke up at anchor just off Storøya, an Arctic desert island resembling a fallen meringue floating on the sea.

After breakfast, we returned to our cabin to dress for a zodiac excursion. It’s easy to overheat once you’re layered up, so we headed out onto our cabin balcony to wait for our boarding call. That’s where Mr GeoK spotted a couple of polar bears in the distance. The presence of polar bears explained why kayaking wasn’t an option this particular morning.

As the zodiacs loaded up and headed out to explore the coastline of the “big island,” one passenger spotted three polar bears swimming. Regulations require keeping a long distance from polar bears in the water, so our zodiac headed away from the sighting and roughly parallel to the shoreline.

After a few minutes, we spotted a sleeping polar bear on a patch of snow. A walrus briefly surfaced before disappearing.

We also spotted a weathered hut left by members of the Ymer expedition, a large Swedish scientific expedition in 1980.

For me, the scenic highlights were a small, deep turquoise iceberg that we circled long enough to get a pretty good composition plus the play of light and shadow across Storøya’s snow cap.

Just before returning to the ship, we cruised past two more polar bears. These were the two we’d seen in the distance from our balcony on the Sylvia Earle. We took full advantage of the chance to photograph them from the regulated distance.

Isispynten

Captain Jorge and the bridge crew repositioned the ship while we enjoyed a leisurely lunch and a quick scroll through our morning photographs. Once the ship anchored off Isispynten, we donned our drysuits and other kayaking kit and joined the rest of the kayaking group on a mission to circumnavigate the small island.

The towering glacial front of the Austfonna ice cap (largest ice cap in Svalbard) loomed across the channel, making everyone feel small as we admired the long stretch of glacial front as far as the eye could see!

As we paddled along enjoying our island adventure, the radio message came in: ‘Walrus in the water, moving north following the coastline’. We calmly and quickly paddled out to open waters, where our designated safety driver, Gabe, picked us up and we smoothly got off the water.

We finished our circumnavigation via Zodiac, with kayaks in tow. Arctic terns loudly defended their territory. And the geology was quite fascinating, too.

We joined everyone on deck to end the day with a silly hat BBQ. Even Mr GeoK joined in the fun! 😉

At some point during the long day, I took a few minutes to take some more abstract images of the relatively smooth water.

Day 10 | Torellneset Zodiac Excursion | Wahlbergøya Kayak Excursion

Torellneset

We’d last gone ashore on Day 6, so everyone was looking forward to another landing and walk this morning. But the expedition scouts reported a polar bear having a nap at our intended landing site, Torellneset, a well-known walrus haul-out.

The water was pretty choppy, which made photography from the Zodiac even more challenging than usual. And because there was a polar bear in the area, we had to stand off quite a distance. Even so, we could see more than 50 walruses resting on the beach or cooling off in the water.

The polar bear had just eaten, but for some reason decided to wander through the haul-out. Maybe it was just looking for a snowier spot to lay down. Or maybe it thought it might catch a younger walrus off guard. Regardless, the walrus herd did not appreciate the intrusion. The younger walruses fled into the sea, while the large bulls just lolled there, as if to say, “try it, buddy!”

The polar bear continued through the group and down the beach another 100 meters or so before flaking out on a patch of snow. It was quite a remarkable thing to witness, and a flock of guillemots flew past to check out the situation. 🙂

Wahlbergøya

After lunch, we launched from the ship for a 7 km paddle along the eastern shore of Wahlbergøya. This area is geologically interesting, with sedimentary rock intruded by dolerite and shaped by glaciation. On one steep and green slope we saw reindeer grazing on vegetated permafrost. We spotted a quick moving Arctic fox crossing raised beaches.

When we got a radio call about a walruses in the water, we had to get out of our kayaks and continue by Zodiac, cruising past bird cliffs teeming with guillemots, kittiwakes and PUFFINS!

We ended the day with a kayak group dinner in the Rockhopper restaurant. As the ship anchored along the Frazerbreen glacier, everyone got up from the table to head on deck to check out the massive wall of ice and its floating terminus.

Day 11 | Frazerbreen Kayak Excursion | Palanderbukta Hike

Frazerbreen

The morning light over Frazerbreen and Wahlenbergfjorden was beautiful for photography. I took several images before we went up for breakfast and went outside a couple of times during breakfast to take even more. Here are a few of my favourites.

By 9 am, as some passengers boarded Zodiacs and we headed down to kit up in our drysuits, the sky was blue and the sun was shining! Our kayaking group was in for a surprise – Captain Jorge and Expedition Leader Kristophe joined us.

After a short Zodiac ride with kayaks in tow, we started paddling along a rocky stretch of coastline with some rock formations more than 700 million years old. We made our way along the side of the glacier, keeping at least 400 meters distant for safety. As we rounded the corner to the leading edge of the floating terminus, the sea was littered with ice, a sure sign of an active glacier. A few pieces fell while we were on the water, but nothing too dramatic.

Palanderbukta

Over lunch, the bridge crew repositioned the Sylvia Earle to Palanderbukta, where we opted to join the group hike to Vegafonna.

Polar bear safety protocols required us to stay in a tight group, which I found challenging given all the wildflowers in bloom. First expedition staff encouraged me to keep up with the group. Then when I charged ahead to create a few minutes to enjoy my photography, I was called up short! Eventually I gave up on careful composition and just pointed and pressed the shutter button hoping for at least a few good flower photos.

We also spotted fossils in the rocks and enjoyed watching the various techniques our fellow passengers used to cross slushy snow fields. We stopped after reaching the edge of Vegafonna, an ice cap on Norauslandet. After a bit of time for photos, we all turned around and headed back down to the shore, where we boarded Zodiacs for the transit back to the ship. Total hiking distance = 8.3 km with 196 meters elevation gain.

DAY 12 | Bockfjorden Walk | Monacobreen Polar Plunge

Bockfjorden

Overnight we sailed to the north coast of Spitsbergen, the main island of the Svalbard archipelago. Unfortunately, gusty winds whipped whitecaps all around the ship. We wandered the decks, checking out Sverrefjellet, one of the few mountains of volcanic origin in Svalbard, as well as hanging glaciers and other mountain peaks.

Fortunately, the wind calmed with enough time for everyone to transfer by Zodiac to land and make the short walk to the Bockfjorden hot springs. We had to stay well back of the fragile mineral deposits, which looked like a hard multi-coloured coating on the land. Photography was particularly challenging due to the location of the sun, but we came away with some acceptable photos, including a few of some of the expedition staff.

This was another wildflower studded landscape, with mounds of purple saxifrage everywhere! Return distance = 1.5 km with 150 meters elevation gain.

Polar Plunge

After lunch, it was time for the hardiest aboard to take the polar plunge. We were already queued up when a cheeky iceberg popped up and into the jumping platform. The captained repositioned the ship a little farther from the Monacobreen terminus and put the ship between the plunging platform and the terminus for additional safety. After that, it was just a matter of waiting our turn in the rather short line of 18 passengers (out of 68) who opted to jump. This was our third polar plunge, after one in Antarctica in 2023 and then off the west coast of Greenland in 2024.

At evening recap, Mark shared all kinds of fun facts about the Svalbard reindeer, hardy creatures with adaptations like turbinate nostrils filtering cold air. Eamon, one of our kayaking guides, explained the ship’s dynamic positioning system. And Suzanne spoke about Austrian author Christiane Ritter’s poetic account of overwintering on Svalbard in 1933–34. We managed to find a copy of Suzanne’s book and some oversized postcard prints of Christiane Ritter’s paintings at the Svalbard Museum in Longyearbyen on the last day of the itinerary.

DAY 13 | Fjortende Julibukta Kayak Excursion | Kongsfjorden Kayak Excursion

14th of July Bay

We woke with the sad realization we’d be disembarking in Longyearbyen in just two days. So it was no surprise to us to learn we were sailing south along the western coast of Spitsbergen. This is the area frequented by those on shorter sailing itineraries.

By the time we finished breakfast, we were well-positioned for a morning kayak excursion along the bird cliffs and across the glacier front at Fjortende Julibukta, also known as the 14th of July Bay. During a visit to Svalbard, Prince Albert I of Monaco named it in honor of French Bastille Day.

After a short Zodiac ride, we launched our kayaks into the brash ice, where Eamon encouraged us to pause for a brief meditation focused on the crackling sounds around us. Then Eamon and Gabby led us in a game of “follow the leader” through the floating ice.

We paddled down the bay, past small cliffs with nesting puffins, guillemots and grazing reindeer. As we continued along the coastline, we honed our paddling and steering skills, skimming between rocks and through narrow channels, pausing occasionally to photograph glaucous gulls and their chicks. Fun!

We ended our paddle by hanging out with a small colony of puffins. Mr GeoK came away with some great photos!

Kongsfjorden

Back aboard we confirmed we’d turned off wi-fi and Bluetooth on all of our devices, as we’d be sailing close to Ny-Ålesund until early evening. Why turn everything off? Because there’s a strict 20 km radius banning transmissions. The Norwegian Mapping Authority runs measurements in Ny-Ålesund that are critical to reliable use of GPS systems and other applications. NMA’s measurements are severely compromised by Wi-Fi and Bluetooth (BT), so Wi-Fi/BT are not allowed.

Over lunch, the bridge crew repositioned the Sylvia Earle to one bay/fjord further south. We towed away from the ship and launched our kayaks into light brash and bergy bits coming off of Kongsvegen and Kronebreen glaciers. With the afternoon sun beating down on the glacial terminus, we witnessed spectacular (but also sad face making) calving events.

Gabby, our lead kayak guide, said she’d never seen anything like it! Some icefalls generated swells out 500 meters or more. At one point, the bridge radioed to ask whether we were far enough away from the wall of ice.

The biggest calving of the day involved massive chunks, some the size of two-storey buildings crashing down. We shot almost exclusively video here, so if you want to see the calving events, pop over to Mr GeoK’s video (linked at the top of this post) and move the slider to 37:45.

Just before reboarding the Zodiacs to return to the ship, we took advantage of the patiently posing bearded seal to grab a few pictures.

This was a truly awesome penultimate day aboard the Sylvia Earle.

DAY 14 | Alkhornet Kayak Excursion | Borebukta Zodiac Excursion

Alkhornet

There was no question we’d be joining the kayaking group for our last kayak outing (the other option was to join the long hikers) at Alkhornet. The geology was remarkable – a tall bird cliff that was like something out of Star Wars and striking, twisted layers just above the water line. There’s enough accumulated peat moss here to provide good grazing for reindeer and – according to the hikers – to support a range of wildflowers. Bird life ranged from 60,000 breeding kittiwakes and Brünnich’s guillemots, glaucous gulls, puffins to purple sandpipers at water level. The long hikers spotted snow buntings, the northernmost breeding land bird in the world.

What an amazing paddle! We glided along the rocky shoreline, weaving between rocks and channels. The geology was striking, with warped patterns of quartz, basalt and limestone.

Glaucous gulls warned us off their chicks, and sandpipers flitted just above the water.

Not wanting to stop, we retraced our journey.

Lucky us – a curious herd of more than a dozen Svalbard reindeer came close to the shoreline to visit. Among them we spotted a fluffy white calf!

We paused for an on-water toast of hot chocolate.

And then cheered when we got permission from the captain to paddle around the Sylvia Earle! This was a unique experience for us and everyone else in our paddling group, too.

Borebukta

After lunch, our final Zodiac cruise was along the glacier face at Borebukta. It was chilly. And a little busy, with day trippers from Longyearbyen cruising up on very large RIBs, plus a couple of sailing vessels on the scene. We witnessed some small calvings, but it was anti-climactic after the calvings we’d witnessed two days previously at Kongbreen.

Our kayaking group gathered for a farewell toast and slide show put together by kayaking guide Gabe. We all got on really well, and continue to stay in touch via group messaging and a shared photo drive.

At the debriefing, we applauded loudly to express our appreciation of the Captain and crew and the wonderful service we’d received while aboard. Then we settled in to watch ship’s photographer Adrian’s slideshow of our time together. It was a beautiful reminder of how blessed we’d been with the richness and diversity of wildlife, plant life and geology observations. And of both new and renewed friendships.

After supper, the hard reality of the next morning’s disembarkation hit – we had to rein in the chaos of having room to spread our stuff out for the past two weeks!

DAY 15 | DISEMBARKATION | LONGYEARBYEN

By the time we opened our cabin curtains, we were almost alongside the pier in Longyearbyen. I took a short video clip of the shore and ship crews working together to secure the Sylvia Earle before we placed our packed suitcases outside our cabin door and then headed up to the dining room for our last meal aboard.

We had to vacate our cabin by about 8:30, so that the ship’s housekeeping crew could get to work readying the staterooms for the next group of passengers, embarking late that afternoon.

We hung about in the common spaces, doing some last minute exchanging of contact information, saying a few farewells, and finding out who would be in our group for our second day of Longyearbyen sightseeing.

Coal Mine No. 3

We were on Bus 1, so walked down the gangplank with our heavy packs of camera gear on our backs just before 09:30. Our first stop was Coal Mine No. 3, which operated from 1971 to 1996, one of the last low-drift mines in the area. Today, it’s a tourist attraction, offering guided tours that include a brief movie, kitting up in coveralls and lamps and then walking 1 km into Mine No. 3. Equipment is still in place and there’s an optional activity to try out the awkward side-laying position miners used to pick and shovel out coal from the low-drift shafts.

The temperature in the mine is a stable -3C, so I was glad for the coveralls. The coal extracted from this mine is a low sulphur (1.1%) anthracite, the youngest in the world. At the end of the tour, we got to pick a small piece of coal to bring home as a souvenir.

Our guide, Anders, was outstanding. Mine No. 3 is also the original home to the Nordic Gene (Seed) Bank and the site of the Arctic World Archive, which preserves notable information on piqlFilm, an ultra-secure, non-hackable and self-contained data storage medium. There’s a wide range of things being preserved here, including copies of software that may be used to access digital special collections materials in the future (eg MS Office), health databases, collections of art and photographs and much more.

North Pole Expedition Museum

Through newspaper clippings, photographs, personal and historical accounts, the North Pole Expedition Museum recounts the heroic efforts of pioneers to reach the North Pole at the end of the 19th / beginning of the 20th centuries. Most such efforts were by some kind of airship. Norway, Russia, Italy, USA, Sweden, Holland, France the Czeck Republic and Finland are all represented.

Nordover Gallery

The Nordover Art Gallery opened in 2022, with the aim to be a central pillar in the community, with a youth club, yoga studio and cinema in addition to the art center. We really enjoyed the short historical film that regularly plays in the movie theatre.

At the time of our visit, the gallery was exhibiting works by Kare Tveter and Ligg Unna. It’s the most northerly art gallery in the world.

Free Time

During our free time, we walked to the edge of town to look more closely at the avalanche control structure. It was designed and installed after avalanches in 2015 and 2017, which resulted in both casualties and property damage. The mitigation techniques include deflecting walls and snow fences; the deflecting walls are 15 meters high and have a curved design that blends directly into the landscape. Total cost was US$20 million and the project was completed in 2019.

Near the avalanche control structure is a red postal shed. This is a neighbourhood postal drop off, and it looked to us like residents install their postal box of choice wherever they can find room on the wall. We also saw a community bulletin board inside the shed.

We had time to wander a bit, checking out various public art installations, aspects of life in Longyearbyen, and pondering possible last minute souvenirs (we stood firm, as we were already carrying books and art cards from the Svalbard museum).

To the Airport, to Oslo, then Home

Late in the afternoon, our bus delivered us to the airport in Svalbard, where our suitcases awaited us. We checked in, cleared security and then waited for longer than expected for our charter flight to land, tidy up the plane and then we could board. We took advantage of the time to enjoy yet more conversations with new and renewed friends. The supper served aboard the plane was very good.

We finally landed in Oslo around 10:30 pm, collected our bags and headed back to the mediocre airport hotel where we’d stayed way back on July 4th. It was still mediocre. But it didn’t really matter, because we had to be up by 4 am to catch our flight from Oslo to Amsterdam, where we connected with our flight back to Calgary.

It was a very long travel day, and we were pleased to be home mid-afternoon. It was a bit of a struggle, but we both managed to stay away until close to our regular bedtime, which made settling back in to our usual routine fairly seamless.

On reflection, the highlights of our Svalbard In-Depth Expedition Cruise include the amazing wildlife viewing (including 19 polar bears, one brazenly walking through a walrus haul out); the glacier calving at Kongsbreen; the people we spent time with; our kayaking excursions and the Coal Mine No. 3 tour.

Fun Facts:

• 14 days / 13 nights, including one night in a hotel at the Oslo airport
• 2 days in Longyearbyen
• 2 days on the pack ice
• Sailed 1,584 nautical miles (2,924 km)
• 68 passengers, 16 expedition staff and 86 ship’s crew aboard
• 10 kayak excursions totaling 53.2 km (we did nine, totaling 47.2 km)
• 4 zodiac excursions
• 3 landings
• 19 polar bears, multiple whales (beluga, minke, humpback, fin, sperm (carcass)), Arctic foxes, Svalbard reindeer, ~ 20 kinds of birds and lots of wildflowers
• Polar plunge
• Reunion with 4 passengers from our Antarctica, South Georgia and Falklands cruise