27 Aug 2017

SOE: Mother & Cubs in Glorious Light

The ship was anchored just off the bird cliffs of Pitchy Bazaar, when the early risers reached the bridge. Sunshine bathed the ridgeline, highlighting a mother bear and cub nestled in a carpet of tundra vegetation. On the beach below and to the right, another bear was sleeping and further along, another three. The day looked promising, except for the rising wind. It had begun at about 4 am, and by breakfast time, the whirley-whirleys and wind-blown spume indicated speeds in excess of 40 knots. We waited a bit, but the wind just got stronger, so we relocated the ship to Komsomal, hoping to land and see the rangers hut. But no luck. By now thin clouds were sweeping over the coastal mountaintops in a gossamer veil. The sea surface danced like mad furies.
The beauty of expedition cruising is ultimate flexibility when it comes to itineraries. Can’t land here? Let’s try somewhere else. And so we did. We continued up the coast to just south of Dream Head, just beyond the wind gradient, where the sea was calm at last. We quickly loaded Zodiacs and went ashore, sorting ourselves into the now familiar long, medium and short walking groups. The long walkers struck off across the tundra, following the rising slope until we were just below the rocky southern slopes of Dream Peak. Just above us, polar bears had chosen comfortable nooks in the rocks. It was incredible to see white dots in the black landscape suddenly morph into a mother with two cubs. We counted more than a dozen bears on the slopes above us and enjoyed great (albeit somewhat distant) views. The medium walkers set off for a small Chukchi hunter’s hut, while the short walkers used their extra time to take a Zodiac cruise up the coast where they enjoyed closer views of a couple of bears.
While we enjoyed lunch, our expedition leader Howard worked with the Captain to relocate the ship back towards Pitchy Bazaar. From the north, it appeared as if the intensity of the clouds had diminished, but it was not to be. We barely reached Komsomol when the wind encouraged us to head back north. In the end Howard announced an ‘exploration’ cruise. Just north of Dream Head he found an oasis of calm, so late in the afternoon he decided to launch Zodiacs. The shore looked a long way off, but our trusty boats quickly covered the distance. As we got closer we could see a spit of land with a lagoon behind. And on the spit, there were white dots, which as we got closer, could clearly be identified as a mother with two cubs, then another bear and another. In the end we spent more than an hour following ranger Julianna’s directions to go gently closer and closer, until we were less than 100 metres off the beach where two bears went about their business without being disturbed. There were nine bears on the spit and including the bears we could count on the mountainside, we’d seen some 59 bears in the afternoon. We returned to the ship chilled by the arctic breeze, but thrilled by our bear encounters and the glorious sunset lighting up the sky.