Ekmanfjorden & Yoldiabukta

Please read about a memorable Zodiac cruise during the trip 22 - 29 May with M/S Quest! The morning after a fantastic evening with a polar bear siting, we took out the Zodiacs again in Ekmanfjorden. After a little while we found the tracks of the bear in the snow along the beach.

Further into the fjord we saw a little white creature running around on the shoreline below the snow. It turned out to be a curious arctic fox, still in its beautiful white winter fur. In the shallow inner parts of the fjord we found both unusual and more common sea birds that just have arrived from migrating from southerly latitudes. Red throated diver, long tailed duck, common eider, king eider and even four common scoter!

The weather was gorgeous, and, in the afternoon, we made another tour with the Zodiacs. This time we have sited a polar bear walking southward along the Wahlenbergbreen. When we carefully approached with the Zodiacs the bear had walked up to the edge of the ice and seemed to be looking for the breathing holes of the seals. The bear was jumping around on the ice like a little cub and we were suspecting that it was a young bear. After a while the bear moved towards the glacier front again and but almost simultaneously, we heard the sound of blows and a large pod of beluga whales passed us slowly. They didn’t seem to mind us but just swum by very calm. Incredible! When the whales had disappeared, we continued our cruise southward. The evening was stunningly beautiful! The arctic light was reflected from the mountains and on to the calm water. We turned off the engines and drifted by the ice edge, just revelling in the breath-taking scenery and processed our experiences during the day. Eventually, it was time for dinner, and we returned to M/S Quest. We know that we have had an unusually eventful day in the Arctic and that we were lucky today!