This was our seventh visit to Svalbard, a wonderful archipelago and one of the very best places in the world to see Polar Bears in their natural environment on ice. This year the main pack ice was way far north but we spent time in Storfjorden where there was both fast and pack ice, and we were rewarded with sightings of many bears, including mothers with cubs, albeit a lot at some considerable distance. We also had some very good sightings of Arctic Foxes at both Alkefjellet and Alkehornet, the latter with tiny cubs.

Thanks to Boris Wise and his excellent team from One Ocean, and to the outstandingly good Polar Bear spotters who spent many cold hours on deck seven of the Akademik Sergey Vavilov. Thanks also to Paul Goldstein for his energy and to Mark Carwardine for all his knowledge and advice throughout the trip.

To view this album as a slideshow click on the little triangular icon to the right.