Ebeltofthamna - Summer 2008

July 25^th to ^29th

Due to ice and snow conditions it was not possible to pitch our camp at the planned location in Raudfjorden, so we moved back further south to Ebeltofthamna in Krossfjorden, on the Mitra peninsula.

• There is some grass here too. Yes, I guess I am the only one taking pictures of grass…
• Day one, just after arriving and settling in to the camp, we take a stroll up Gnipakollen (380m) and Blåshaugen (572m) - this is the view westwards from the top, the red Devonian sandstone of Krümmelfjellet (three peaks at, from left to right, 540m, 585m and 600m) and the two lakes Nordre Diesetvatnet and Søre Diesetvatnet.
• Eastwards the view is on Trongdalen, with the beautiful heart-shaped lake.
• Moss and ice.
• At the camp we find a dried-out deep-sea fish in rather good conditions - can you identify it?
• The eyes…
• …and the fish in its completness.
• Tufted Saxifrage (Saxifraga cespitosa).
• Lone and hairy…
• Tufted Saxifrage.
• Tufted Saxifrage.
• Moss Campion (Silene acaulis) grows in dense, pink pillows.
• Mountain Avens (Dryas octopetala).
• Mountain Sorrel (Oxyria digyna) - the leaves are very rich in Vitamin C, and were used to prevent and cure scurvy.
• Mountain Sorrel.
• Barnacle geese are daily visitors to our camp.
• Ruddy turnstone.
• Curious Harbour Seals sunbathing.
• Not really sure what this was, but besides batteries in the box on the left there were some bones in the box on the right, wrapped in plastic - maybe a grave?
• Big walrus skeleton.
• Details.
• Details.
• White Arctic Bell-heather (Cassiope tetragona).
• Reindeer on Diesetsletta, close to Collinsodden.
• Chick - of which bird?
• Mitra (395m) has a very characteristic shape, and is a reference for navigation. The whole peninsula, Mitrahalvøya, is named after this mountain which resembles a bishop's head-dress.
• Usually it is said that there are no trees on Svalbard - though strictly speaking it is not true. Here is a whole forest in a bottle: the Dward Birch (Betula nana).
• In Ebeltofthamna there are several traces of human activity:
• …the ruins of an old trapper's cabin,
• …a German weather station,
• …and the remains of a small shelter built with a smal boat turned upside-down as roof - that explains also the odd shape of this shelter. The boat-roof is now gone, but there are pictures of this shelter in a publication from 1984 that still show it complete (although the picture might have been taken earlier, in fact as early as the 1950s).
• Where once the roof was, there now is only orange moss…
• Ebeltofthamna also was a whaling station in the 17^th century - an as every whaling station, it has an adiacent cemetry.
• And lots of bones scattered all over the place, both from whales and walrusses -
• and maybe human?
• As all other cultural inheritance sites on Svalbard, also Ebeltofthamna suffers from wear due to weather and erosion: where the permafrost does not bring all bigger objects back to the surface, the sea takes care of exposing the old coffins…
• It is very touching to see such a direct, and natural relationship to this aspect of death here. In our society, everything "after death" is tucked away and well hidden from us - here, cemetries co-exist with all other human traces. In fact, permafrost takes care of resurfacing everything. It can happen, like in the case of this very grave, that only a few stones and some wooden planks, remainders of a coffin, shelter a human skeleton, well visible when peaking into the grave.
• I at first tried taking a picture, but it turned out to be rather difficult - finally I took this as a sign to not invade some very private sphere. Do respect these graves, this is a cemetry. I could not imagine a more beautiful place for the final rest. R.I.P.
• The view from here is of a stunning beauty.
• Going north from Ebeltofthamna along the coast, there is another, still functional trapper's cabin.
• It offers three beds…
• …and a fully equipped kitchen.
• But somebody has been realizing the shortage of space, and an expansion is planned.
• Our dog Luna, taking a rest.
• View from our camp: south,
• …east…
• …and west.
• Do not take anything for granted - the Polar Fox skull is indigenous, but the birch bark has come thousands of kilotetres from the russian coast.
• Two purple sandpipers.
• The Arctic Skua,
• …in flight.
• View towards Grimalditoppen, across Krossfjorden.
• White Arctic Bell-heather.
• Arctic Skua, dark version.
• And then, just before arriving at the cabin at Collinsodden, which was our destination, we spot a large white rock just besides the cabin…
• Wait a moment - this is no rock! It's a sleeping Polar Bear!
• Gently we wake it up by making noise - you want it to know you are there, and you want it to take notice of you. You do not want it to wake suddenly up and get afraid, or to not notice you and start walking into you…
• It is an adult male. Huge.
• But tired - yawning…
• …taking notice of us…
• …but not particularly interested.
• It moves over to the shore…
• …and goes for a swim!
• Probably it wants to bring itself under the wind to catch our smell. It then swims off, and was seen the following day on the other side of the fjord.
• We have time to inspect the cabin,
• …in rather bad conditions,
• …and the usual scattered bones around the area. There are graves here too.
• A reindeer in Tromsdalen.
• When the boat picks us up, we sail north along the coast we have been walking along, into the Lilliehöökfjorden to the very head, the Lilliehöökbreen.
• Ice.
• Ice. Again, it is very difficult to get an idea of the scale,
• …but again, the birds help!
• Ice.
• Blue.
• Ice.
• Cadiopynten is a birds' cliff on the exit of Lilliehöökfjorden.
• It is very easy to spot birds' cliffs even from far away - the rich green vegetation underneath is an easy give-away ;)
• Sailing into Tinayrebukta towards Tinayrebreen, we get a good view on the retreat of the glacier: notice the morain on the left slope. This is where the glacier was once upon some time.
• It is a massive…
• …hanging glacier…
• with an impressive 130m high face.
• The waterfall might help you getting some sense of scale.
• A bearded seal, sunbathing as we leave the fjord.
• A brief stop on our way to Ny Ålesund at Camp Zoe, built by Mansfield (of whom we'll hear later) for his employees, named after his daughter. The cabin is now taken care of by Ny Ålesund.
• It has a very spacious interiour.

On to Ny-Ålesund | Back to Svalbard - Summer 2008