This tokt has been quite an experience this year. We were given an amazing feeding show from the humpback whales near Jan Mayen and the next morning we were expecting a trip on the island in the middle of nowhere.
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| A screenshot from a video I took of humpback whales at the bow. |
Jan Mayen is a Norwegian volcanic island in the Arctic, northeast of Iceland, that we tend to see from the ship during this tokt every year. This year I was privileged to go on land!
At one end of the island there is a military base and meteorological station with up to 35 non-permanent residents. The other end is a 2277m (7470 ft) volcano called Beerenberg. Last year we saw the volcano perfectly from the boat, but this year there was too much fog to see.
We had to wait for the fog to clear and ask for permission to take the lifeboat to land. We finally got on land around 5AM after climbing a rope ladder down the side of the boat and into the lifeboat. There is no dock so we had to wade through the water and onto the black sand beach. It was a slightly eerie feeling with the fog and stillness.
We were greeted by one of the military residents and he gave us a tour of the island in his truck with information about the island and living there. He said they have not seen polar bears on the island since the early 1990s, but they have seen walrus and plenty of seabirds including gannets and puffins. Shipwrecks also cannot be touched, as the island is treated as a historical site, that also includes the housing on the island. The buildings were constructed in the 50's and they are not allowed to alter them.
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| Heading out from Kings Bay |
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| Herdis and I took a few stones for souvenirs |
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| All of the trucks have names, this one is called Kristian |
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| The base |
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| Found the wine cellar |
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| Places where everyone who has served on Jan Mayen come from |
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