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  Wednesday 24th of June 2015 and we were going to leave the boat at 16:45. Estimated time of arrival to Brageneset/ Brage Point. I was in the last Zodiac leaving as this was going to be the  easy walking group when we made our landing. And easy means Zodiac safari and a chance to spot some interesting animals.
And we had just left the boat for shore when we spotted a Puffin bird. I was happy, this was something I had been looking forward to. I have even booked a special Puffin tour for when I'm on Iceland. OK, no worries as I don't think I can see too many of the Puffin birds.  Everyone happy to see the Puffin bird
 Everyone happy to see the Puffin bird
 Everyone happy to see the Puffin bird
 Everyone happy to see the Puffin bird  Everyone happy to see the Puffin bird
 Everyone happy to see the Puffin bird
 Everyone happy to see the Puffin bird
So I had seen my firs Puffin bird and I was excited. And it was a very nice looking bird. And as it looks like a Parrot it is also called the Nordic Parrot. Some amazing information we get by visiting  www.aladdin.st
Something we have grown use to by now. We continued up a small bay when we came around Brageneset/ Brage Point. Head of the bay was covered in ice and we spotted something that looked like a giant sausage. It turned out to be a Walrus relaxing on the ice. We were approaching him very slowly as we didn't wanted  to scare him. Walruses usually don't get scared unless they get surprised. And then they just take off without looking.
This is the technique the Polar Bear use with the Walrus. If they see a group of Walruses they start charging and  when one Walrus get scared the whole group takes off down in to the water. And they just takes off without looking when they get scared and they crushes their babies when leaving.
And this is what the Polar Bear wants, a crushed Walrus is nice food for the Polar Bears. But this was a lone Walrus so no risk of killing any babies, but we wanted to have a closer  look and we approached slowly.
We saw plenty Walruses on Moffin Island yesterday but I never counted that as an encounter and I never ticked of the Walrus in my Art List. But this is a good encounter and I will thick off the Walrus from my Art List when we're back on  board m/s Quest again.
And of course, I will thick off the Puffin bird as well. Puffin Bird is Lunnefågel in Swedish, well, this had turn out to be yet another gorgeous and exciting day on Svalbard. We came pretty close to the Walrus and he didn't mind us. He was just lying on the ice like a sausage or a rock. He turned around to look at us. I discovered 2 things. His head was where I thought his ass was. And one task was missing.          We left the Walrus behind and we started to steer towards our landing point on a moraine. Looked
Wahlenbergfjorden is a fjord in Hinlopen Strait, the strait (to make it easy) split Svalbard in two, the Western island Spitsbergen and the East island Nordaustlandet. Of course, Svalbard is many many islands. But this is how I think about Svalbard to make it easy. Two islands Spitsbergen and Nordaustlandet divided  by the Hinlopen Strait where we are today.
And we are exploring the Brage point and we have the Brage glacier, the biggest glacier I have seen so far. And the name is Bragebreen as breen is glacier in the Scooby Doo language. So we have also learned 2 new words today, fonna and breen. There is no end to it here at www.aladdin.st. It was a beautiful glacier. We made landing on the moraine and I don't know why, but today there were 11 people in the “easy walking, hardly moving” group. This was not good as I had expected us to be very few and thus giving us plenty space in the Zodiac.     All the people disappears over the moraine leaving the slow walkers on the beach
 All the people disappears over the moraine leaving the slow walkers on the beach
 All the people disappears over the moraine leaving the slow walkers on the beach
And it is easy to see all the stuff the ice have deposit to make the moraine
 Our Zodiacs secured with the anchors
 Amazing rocks in the moraine
 Amazing rocks in the moraine
 Shh, this one ended up in my pocket by mistake. So I will have to keep it in Bangkok Amazing rocks in the moraine
 They say it is water between the layers and when it freeze the rock split like a loaf of sliced bread
     Kelvin, that is 272° C below zero. So it was quite interestin gto walk around on the moraine.
But 10 minutes and we got the picture. Now we wanted to go for some Zodiac safari as we had enough of the rocks. We boarded the Zodiac, 11 people and it was not easy to move around taking pictures. Anyway, I move like a kitten so for me it was not any problems. We had decided to  go have a look at Bragebreen/ Brage glacier and we set course towards the edge of the Vestfonna.
We saw some black dots in the water and when they started to spray water we knew it was Walruses. They look like whales when swimming and blowing water. I didn't get any good pictures as we were at some distance from the action, but I hope to see more of this before we're leaving Svalbard. But I saved the pictures just in case;  A Walrus
 A Walrus
 A Walrus
 Bragebreen/ Brage glacier
 Bragebreen/ Brage glacier
 Bragebreen/ Brage glacier
 Bragebreen/ Brage glacier
 Bragebreen/ Brage glacier
 Swedish chocolate in Norwegian wrapping
 Swedish chocolate in Norwegian wrapping
We drove up in the ice and we studied the very beautiful glacier in all shades of white and blue. We could see a lot of small brown stuff coming out from under the ice. LIFE IN THE MAKING!  This is the alga, the source of all life.
The ice is a very important place for this alga to grow and it is the thing that gives life to everything. Without this no fish and then no birds and seals and then no Polar Bears. And this was of course interesting to see. The passengers started to get cold and we started to move back towards m/s Quest again. By now it was already past dinner time. When I started to think about it I started to get hungry, so far the excitements had made me forget the hunger. The best diet ever?! We started to move and suddenly we stopped and the Guide started to shout KINDER KINDER!!! We thought we were running in to a Polar Bear, but she brought out Swedish chocolate from her back  pack. Well, Swedish chocolate in Norwegian wrapping. No one believed me, they were just laughing when I mentioned it. Never mind as long as they enjoyed the chocolate. We resumed our trip back to m/S quest and I asked for one stop to take a picture of an ice berg. Well, actually I requested 2 stops.
     Almost back home again
Canon, my Canon 28 to 300 mm is an amazing lens. The Zodiac is jumping and slamming and with Image Stabilizer II and I manage to get good pictures. I also need to keep a very high ISO speed to give me some shutter  speed to play with. But I'm very satisfied with my Canon equipment.
Dinner and sleep and I'm very tired. And I need sleep to prepare myself for tomorrow's adventure. Tomorrow we will look for and explore the ice edge, if this isn't going to be exciting I don't know what will. So hang on and click HERE and you will soon find yourself at the arctic ice edge adventure. Poar Bears and Walruses are what we're hoping to see. Maybe some whales, anyway, I'm pretty excited. More pictures to be had, even though I promise myself every morning to slow down with the picture taking. Thousands so far and to sort them out take way longer than taking the pictures. And how many to keep? How many to throw away?
    
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To www.aladdin.st since December 2005
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