Country Images Magazine Derby Edition November 2016 | Page 12

Our visitor who stayed for half an hour and then went to sleep.

An armed guard accompanied us when
ever we went ashore.
12 | CountryImagesMagazine.co.uk

Cruising steadily north through the arctic ‘day’,
our next port of call was a beach landing at
Philippsøye, the largest island in the north of the
Svalbard archipelago. Echoing Private Frazer of
Dad’s Army, ‘it is a wild and lonely place’ where a
lone Austrian trapper once spent several winters,
living in the tiny cabin that is just about managing
to stay upright. He wouldn’t have gone short
of timber for the beach is littered with piles of
logs washed down from Siberian rivers. No bears
to be seen, but a huge pile of walruses seemed
impervious to our presence. They must have been
aware of us because on our way in they came right
up to the Zodiacs, giving us suspicious sideways

glances from tiny eyes set above long sharp tusks.
Due to a heavy swell, getting off the island and
clambering into pitching Zodiacs was more than
a bit hairier than landing.
After lunch we cruised steadily up to the ice edge
at almost 82° north,18°east, our furthest yet, to
Lågøya where we spotted more bears. Anchoring,
we took to the Zodiacs and cruised slowly by in
a wide circle, just offshore of two bears resting
above the rocky beach. The animals became
curious of our interest and wandered down to see
what all the fuss was about, but fortunately came
no nearer.
End of Part One