Laura and I just returned home from our trip to Svalbard, spending 12 days above the Arctic Circle. Ten days were spent aboard the M.S. Freya, a converted research vessel, for a photography tour of the region as arranged by Natural World Safaris ( https://www.naturalworldsafaris.com/ ) that was about as amazing as could be imagined. There were fifteen tour participants, three excellent nature guides/Zodiac drivers, and two professional photographers who offered tips and assistance throughout the tour. We highly recommend this tour - everyone was first rate.
Our weather was phenomenal, almost always sunny for the 24x7 daylight, and we only had one rough night at sea for the entire trip. The wildlife was the main focus of the tour, and we saw tons, with polar bear, walrus, seal, reindeer and fox being the major highlights, along with countless birds. Beyond the wildlife there was also the amazing scenery, highlighted by the vast number of glaciers in the Svalbard archipelago (greater than 1600 in total).
I’ll be back to do lots more updates so you can all get a feel for what we saw. There will also be plenty from me on Facebook and Instagram.
Here are a couple of quick pics to whet your appetite. The focus on the bear is not good because he was shaking, and we were in a Zodiac that was bobbing up and down. There’s better bear photos coming soon, but it’s fun to see him shake off the water.
My son and his girlfriend spent a week in Tromso in March hoping to see the northern lights. They were rewarded big time on their final night atop a mountain when the clouds parted for about a half hour and the sky exploded.
Lots of photo sorting/editing to do. Picked out a few more wildlife highlights last night. I still have not gotten to even look at my Arctic Fox photos, but picked out some other top wildlife shots.
We saw a wonderful group of Harbor Seals near the end of the trip.
The Walruses were abundant - all of them on the ice or in the water.
So much more to come…
Bird shots are going to be the hardest to sort through. We saw lots, but mostly while on the Zodiacs, so they were moving and we were bobbing. I will have photos of Arctic Skua, Arctic Tern and Puffin coming later (among others). We visited several bird cliffs. He’s a more up close and personal shot of gulls and their chick.
