Whale bone

As promised, a few more pictures. This whale carcass has been a great attraction for the bears despite the fact that it's now about 12 months old.

Drying off after diving for dinner

Look into my eyes

How wonderful is this - the bear came up beside the ship to check out the sight - maybe he could smell dinner or perhaps the passengers

 And check out my claws

We were treated to many occasions of the bears leaping from one ice flow to the next - a wonderful display of grace and power. And great landing ability.

Ready, set....

....Air Bear

And if I could work out how to place these pictures just where I want them it would not be so difficult to keep these pages up to date.

Perfect Landing

The journey begins

Bear watching

First bear

Ready for a dip

Spot the bear

Here they are!

Beautiful yearling cub

Oh No, I need a manicure

Puffin

A litter of Arctic Fox cubs

Reindeer

My apologies for not adding to this site sooner - internet connection in the far frozen north is somewhat limited. Rather than give details of my travels at this stage I'll just put up a few pictures to wet the appetite. This was an amazing journey and we had some incredible luck with the weather, the number of bears, other animals and birds we saw and just the beautiful landscape which emerged from the morning mist each day. Our first zodiac trip to hopefully see our first bear was misty, wet and very cold. We saw a small creamy blob that had no intention of moving. Bears sleep some 8 - 10 hours at a time so its not uncommon to just see a blob. Spotting them takes skill and experience and our expedition team did a wonderful job. We went out twice more that day and were rewarded with a bear that came to feed on a very decayed whale carcass and then later another bear moving along the shore, its fur catching the sunlight that was finally peaking through the clouds. Sleeping up the hill was a mother bear and her small cub, but that's for another day....

Cruising the glacial ice