Time to Head North

Time to Head North Today (Monday, July 29) brought us to the Northeastern edge of Svalbard, where we went on a land excursion up to some pretty impressive glaciers like the Monacobreen Glacier. There we found a dead Polar Bear, that had passed away about a month ago, most likely due to starvation. The bear's main food source here in Svalbard are the ringed seals, and the bears travel northward on the pack ice in the summer towards the seals. But because the pack ice was so poor this past winter, many bears have been stranded in the area where they are because the land bridge of pack ice is not consistent throughout the region. Our expedition decided to make our way due north to reach the pack ice (above 81 degrees latitude) to get to their summer habitat. So up north we head, daylight 24 hours a day, to break through the ice in our ice-breaking ship to reach the bears!! Also having a great time with my friends David and Debbie from Belgium, he's a photojournalist and she's a travel writer. Late nights laughing and carousing, they travel the world and write a blog with fascinating destinations and stories that Conde Nast and the New York Times publish. And I thought I traveled a lot! They're publishing a book this September on some of their favorite destinations that they've been to. We talked about Greenland this winter; so many places, so little time!