We went ashore (in a zodiac, of course) at Engelsbukta, English Bay, for one last hike before
heading back towards Longyearbyen.
Katie, Harmony and I (we have been referred to as “The Teachers”
throughout the week) chose the 4 mile hike. There were many reindeer on the hillside grazing and a large
flock of barnacle geese took to flight.
They looked a lot like a flock of Canadian Geese flying overhead back home. Not far into our hike, one group of
reindeer moved closer to us. We
all just stopped and kept still as the reindeer moved closer and closer to
us. One of the younger ones kept
looking right at us like he was trying to figure out who/what we were and if he
could trust us. He came within 20
feet of our group. By the way,
Rudolph and the male reindeer pulling Santa’s sleigh need to be renamed. Male reindeer (caribou) shed their rack
in November or early December after they have attracted a female and
mated. Females keep their antlers
until January as they use them to help dig in the snow to find food. Thus, only female reindeer would have
had antlers when pulling Santa’s sleigh on Christmas Eve.
Barnacle geese flew off as we started our hike.
Barnacle geese in flight.
Reindeer grazing.
Curious reindeer checks us out...
and comes even closer.
Glacier and peaks are also part of the beautiful scenery.
This part of Svalbard was greener than many of our last few
hikes. We are now back on the West
coast of Spitsbergen where the warm waters of the gulf stream impact what can
survive here. We ended our hike
with another look at a fox trap and a trappers cabin. Apparently, people still rent out cabins like this one for a
vacation. Pretty rustic.
Melt water stream
Fox trap.
Trapper's cabin.
More purple saxifrage on the tundra. This has been on every hike.
The "Teachers" (Katie, Harmony & Julia) on our last hike.
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