Buchananhalovya and Hamiltonbukta

 It’s getting a bit tedious. We have wi-fi but no internet. We’ve been used to sitting together at mealtimes checking our mobiles/cell phones every minute or so. Checking on the cricket, the summer melt down in the U.K., and hearing that the missus has just woken up. Now nothing, or at best an intermittent signal.

Last night I made four WhatsApp calls home: after a few garbled greetings, the airways would go dead. My wife got quite angry! It’s all due to latitude – we’ve too much of it. The satellite that provides us with our signal is geostationary over the equator which means at this latitude the signal comes in at a low angle. 

Here in Svalbard, as well as having a lot of latitude we have lots of peaks. These peaks, beautiful though they may be covered in snow and glistening in the sunlight, block out the signal curtaining my read of the Daily Telegraph and my sweet nothings with the wife. I now realise why our tour operator waived the Wi-Fi charge of $100 plus – they’d have a mutiny on their hands –given the signal drop out.

Yesterday we were to go hiking, don’t ask me the name of the spot, but didn’t because of a solitary polar bear. Instead, we went in the Zodiacs for two hours. There on the shoreline was a big polar bear or so we were told. I couldn’t see it but as loads of people were focusing their high magnification lenses in one direction, I take it the bear was about. We spotted, in the distance, reindeer and seal – but nowhere near the polar bear.

The bay was interesting without the added attraction of Arctic mammals. The sea birds put on some tremendous displays of flying and in places the water was so clear you could see the rocks on the bottom. There were glaciers down to the water line and cliffs covered in snow and ice. After a while, however, my attention was focusing more and more on the chill, and I was glad to climb back on board our ship and prepare for a buffet lunch. In the afternoon, there was to be another Zodiac ride up another chilly fjord – I fell asleep in the afternoon

reading a Rebus novel.

This morning at 8:30 we’re Zodiacing up the Alkefjellet