Journey to the North Where North Ends — Part 1 First Bears

Today is the day to board our nuclear icebreaker. I woke up with an early morning call at 5:30 to get ready. A brief flight with our chartered plane took us to the port city of Murmansk, Russia. We greeted our tour guide who took us to tour around Murmansk. You may have not heard of this place, but this a very important city for Russian naval and arctic operations. Most of the Russian nuclear ships and submarines call this city home. One of such is the retired nuclear icebreaker Lenin. No longer have a nuclear reactor inside it, Lenin now serves as a museum vessel to give visitors a glimpse of life aboard a warship.

Bidding farewell to our tour guide, we proceeded to board our nuclear icebreaker 50 Years of Victory from the Atomflot. Atomflot is one of the highly secured areas. Thus, we were not allowed to take any pictures. It did not take us very long to figure out why. Russian flagship aircraft carrier along with 3 other nuclear ships was also docked the Atomflot. Our ship, being the largest nuclear icebreaker in the world, was also granted the privilege to dock at this harbor.

After some delay, two ship officers ran into our ship each with boxes of paper. Our final paperwork was delivered after an hour of delay. Atomflot sent us off with a cheery Russian march to wish us luck. Off we went, to the North as North goes.

Day 2:

After a delicious and fulfilling breakfast, I jumped at the opportunity to enjoy what nature has to offer. Off to the bow deck, I went. The magnificent seabird also came to welcome us (and catch easy fish from our wake). Since we were crossing the Barents Passage, day 2 was a perfect day to catch up on the basis of the arctic knowledge and safety information. We are also fortunate to have the pride of Cambridge’s Scott Institute Lecturer, Bob Headland, to give us a brief historical overview of the Arctic explorations.

Onboard activities started running as well. We were split into 12 different groups. Today, our group, group 9, had the honor of touring the engine rooms guided by the head engineer of the ship.

I am not a gearhead myself, but to see the inert of a working nuclear icebreaker is once in a lifetime experience. At one point during the tour, we were only 5 meters away from the nuclear reactors. To think that we were that close to the thing that made Chernobyl a wasteland is a scary thought. Luckily we are in the safe hands of the experienced Russians nuclear engineers. To reassure us further, we were introduced to all of the ship’s officers at the welcome cocktail party.

Day 3:

We woke up to some strong glare from outside of our cabin window. It was ice. Ice as far as we could see. If there is ice, there must be bears somewhere. Wanting to discover the majestic beast myself, I rushed outside. The wind was strong, but I was determined to stay outside for the possible encounter. An hour later, some footprints. Then there were more. Could the bear be close?

More and more joined the search. Then, a little dark yellow spot appeared right in our horizon on a giant piece of ice. I raised my camera to zoom in as much as I could. I saw the fur, the little head, and those signature small black eyes. A polar bear! The first polar bear I have seen in the wild. The bear was very focused on the breathing hole in front of him. Neither did the fast-moving giant redfish, nor the long telescopic lens bothered him. Peeking a few times at our ship, the bear decided to hunt for his lunch first before satisfying his curiosity. We stayed around 20 minutes to fully observe this bear before continuing on to drop off the Russian National Park Rangers on the Franz Joseph land. These rangers will prepare for our visit on our way back as well as the 2 months of tourism season.

Franz Joseph Land was a truely amazing place. It was not only a popular polar bear breeding ground but also provided hospitality for many of the birds. Particularly, Rubini Rock was famous for hosting thousands of birds on its sheer drop cliff.

As everyone was getting ready for bed, another surprise, the sighting of a mama bear and her cubs! This must be an extraordinary mother as polar bears generally don’t raise more than one cub successfully. When we arrived, the mom seemed to have just had dinner judging by the blood on the ground. The giant redfish seemed to be causing some concern for the mama bear.

The two cubs playing seemed to not worry about the ship at all. Under their mother’s watchful eye, they enjoyed wrestling with each other. Occasionally, the cubs involved mom as well.

After a while, mama bear decided that it was time to go. She carefully led the two cubs to cross between the ice chunks so the cubs won’t get too wet.