When travelling in the Arctic, one must be prepared for the unexpected. Plan A might not always work out, so it’s always good to have at least a few backup plans. We definitely learned that today as the first two landing attempts did not work due to poor weather conditions. On the third attempt, our luck changed, and the scout boat found a lovely spot for a landing. After a delicious Filipino lunch buffet, we were ready for an adventure.
We spent our afternoon walking on moraines in Mohnbukta. Moraines are piles of sediments formed by glaciers. It was interesting to think that roughly 100 years ago, a glacier was standing exactly where we were walking, and we would have been walking on ice. Today, we wandered around a landscape that could have very well been on the moon. On our stroll, we came across some strange things…for example, boot-sucking mud, or troll bread. You might ask, “What is troll bread?” When water freezes in the cracks of rocks, it breaks the rocks into pieces, which sometimes look like bread slices. As we wandered, we enjoyed the beauty of many tiny flowers that mesmerized us with their ability to survive in such harsh conditions. What a wonderful way to end the day!
