More Svalbard

We celebrated Linda's 21st birthday here and it was a day I'll never forget. We started the morning with songs and gifts for Linda. 

We watched a seal floating past on a little peice of ice in the fjord outside our window while we ate breakfast. 

Then we took off on a 120 km snowmobile trip out to Templefjord.  Linda and Kjetil brought their own snowmobile and borrowed one from a friend while we rented two more.  

We drove out of town on some well used snowmobile trails to the end of Adventfjord. We drove down

Eskerdalen and crossed Sassendalen before arriving at Fredheim where there is a trappers cabin with two bunk beds and a table. 

From there we rode over the frozen fjord, checking the ice thickness every km or so. There were seals all over the fjord, laying beside their holes relaxing on the ice. We drove for at least an hour towards a huge glacier that was at the end of the fjord. We stopped about a km from the end to look at the glacier from a distance before driving up close. 

We stopped to look at the seals by the glacier with the binoculars when Wenche yelled "polar bear!". There by the glacier wandered a big polar bear and two cubs! What an experience. We stayed there, sharing binoculars for a while before abandoning our plans on driving up to the glacier wall.  We turned around and headed back. 

With the binoculars you can see that it's a bear!

On the way home we stopped by a big ship frozen in the ice. It's a tourist attraction where people can sleep and eat. They were packing up for the season so we couldn't go aboard. 

What a day, three polar bears, seals all over the fjord, reindeer and several types of sea birds. Amazing.