Midsummer, Solstice, longest day of the year—all names for the same thing. It is wise to notice that the first and third name only apply to half the planet. While the solstice means the sun, either the presence or lack of it, claims of midsummer or longest day show a Northern Hemisphere bias. In the Southern hemisphere it is the shortest day and midwinter.
Our day was long; in fact it bled into the day before and will into tomorrow for we are so far north that there is only day- from April to September. The midpoint was today. After today the sun will get a little lower each day and then disappear completely in October, not to be seen again until late February.
We reveled in the light on our last day of the expedition here in Svalbard. We were revisiting the western side of Spitsbergen Island where we began our journey. This time we would visit Bellsund, a two forked fjord with many seabird cliffs and much more vegetation than our other stops. The morning was spent either kayaking or walking amongst some curious reindeer. The afternoon was spent hiking or Zodiac cruising the amazing bird cliffs that make up the highlands of this fjord. The sheer limestone walls and their tortured surfaces made a perfect ledge for the kittiwakes, murres, geese, and gulls that make this place their summer home for the breeding season.
After dinner we ventured out of the fjord to look for larger life forms, the whales that also inhabit the waters of Svalbard during the summer.
