Date: 5th July
Latitude & longitude: 80.08°N, 33.34°E
Wind speed: 6.6 knots
Wind direction: W
Barometer:  1023 hPa
Air temperature: 1°C
Sea temperature: 0.3°C

Total polar bear count: 6!

Today we saw five more polar bears!! I’ve decided we need to do an official total polar bear count for this trip, because we seem to just keep on running into them!

In the morning, the ship anchored at a spot near the island Kvitoya, also known as ‘White Island’. We were planning on landing and hiking at Andreeneset, which is where Andrée, Strindberg and Fraenkel spent their final few days.

However, once more we were thwarted by bears! We spotted one sleeping on a massive ice cap, occasionally rolling around playfully, and another one lumbering along the shore, heading straight for the monument commemorating the ill-fated Andrée expedition that we had planned to visit!

As the bear sauntered past, we couldn’t miss the opportunity to record a lesson in front of him. When we first envisaged the Arctic lessons we’d be creating for Upschool.co, the dream was to capture them with a bear in the background, and there we were, prime position to bring the dream to reality!

Later on, the ship repositioned to the most Eastern point of Svalbard — Kraemerpynten. Once again, our plans to hike on the land were thwarted by bears! This time, there were three! We saw one adult bear walking towards the beach, and a mother with her cub snuggled together nearby!

They don’t call it White Island for nothing!

See you tomorrow and thanks for reading!

Love from the A Team
Tanya, Gavin, Richard & Graeme