July 28th 2013

Latte the Polar Bear Watch Dog

The next morning we went ashore to explore the station and its surroundings.

It was an exact copy of the stations we had visited in Franz Joseph Land:

buildings in ruins, rusty vehicles, all types of building materials

rotting away, furniture, tools, dishes, shoes, mouldy clothes, film reels

etc. thrown all over the place as if in a rage.

The minuscule flora that grew amongst all this scrap was a wonderful

contrast to the otherwise depressing sight. I walked around taking photos

while Pekka wandered from one building into another collecting all kinds

of interesting things that we later tried to identify.

At some point I realized that Pekka was nowhere to be seen or heard. I

also realized that I didn't have anything to protect myself in case a

polar bear would come into sight. Pekka had both a flare gun and some flares

with him whereas I only had my camera to shoot with. 'Pekkaaa, where are

you!' I hollered, and after a while I saw him come out of a building at

the far end of the village. We now divided our anti-polar bear weapons and

with a flare in my pocket I happily continued taking photos. The following

night, a big polar bear was seen walking on the beach!

Lady Dana, the Polish boat that intends to sail both the Northern Sea Route

and the Northwest Passage this summer, had arrived in the same anchorage

and, in the morning of the 27th, we left together for a nearby bay, also

part of the polar station, in search of fuel which we had not managed to

find in our 'own' village. 

We returned in the afternoon (after a successful trip of which I will tell you later) 
and I was preparing dinner when I heard Latte barking. I went up to see what was 
happening as there shouldn't have been anything to bark at except for a polar bear, of

course. And there he was, a beautiful and deadly polar bear standing on

the waterfront staring at us and sniffing the air. When Latte started

barking even louder, the bear looked startled and backed off to the nearby

buildings. There he first rose to his hind legs and then dashed

off behind the buildings.

In less than an hour, the bear was back on the beach. Latte was barking

again but this time the bear didn't seem to be scared. He came to the

waterfront staring at us, stayed there for a few seconds as if wondering

what to do next, and then again disappeared behind the buildings. Seeing

the bear so close I understood what an idiot I had been walking around on

the beach without even as much as a flare to protect myself.

For the rest of the evening, Latte and I, with my camera ready, were on

continuous polar bear watch but we never saw the bear again. As we had

decided to go and get fuel from the other part of the polar station, the

following morning we weighed anchor and moved to another bay, this time 
hopefully polar bear-free!