8th – Let there be light!

Despite my low expectations a call for a northern lights sighting went out around 0030 and people quickly came out to have a look. While the sky wasn’t completely dark (we are still too far north for that) we did have a great view of some slightly pale but very active lights. They were mainly green but did have edges of red appearing now and then. At 0200 it had all disappeared again and hoping no more would show up I followed the rest of the remaining people and went back to bed.

We had the usual wakeup call and breakfast and soon we were out on a walk on Payer’s Land. Instead of aiming for a top like our previous walk we would try to get closer to the muskoxen but as they were very skittish our success was limited.

In the morning we had been on the north side of the island Clavering Ø, and during lunch we relocated to the south of the island into Deadman’s Bay for a second walk. There were a few ruins from the original Thule culture, and this is also the site for the Sirius Patrol’s original headquarter. There was plenty of vegetation and plants but very little animal life. Until towards the end when we were returning to the boats when an arctic hare came running by and sat down at a safe distance from most of us. As any other animal in the area it kept a good distance (at least not as far as away as the musk oxen) but it did annoy me that there were other walking groups that were both closer and had better angles to photograph it.

Arctic hare.

Returning to the ship we started moving further south, aiming for Blomsterbugten and the Gerard de Geer Glacier.

After dinner 4 CEOs entertained us with a game of Arctic Bluff with on being the moderator and the other three giving each their definition of the word in question. The words were fairly obscure and the descriptions, true or not, were hilarious. It was also made the more fun by the fantastic dynamic between the guides and the interaction with the audience. It was amazing and it's clear that they truly enjoy working here.