![BillyHermanSpitsbergen (109 van 173) Time to land. © David 'Billy' Herman](https://ik.imagekit.io/maneuver/starling/tr:w-auto-1400/app/uploads/BillyHermanSpitsbergen-109-van-173.jpg)
![BillyHermanSpitsbergen (109 van 173) Time to land. © David 'Billy' Herman](https://ik.imagekit.io/maneuver/starling/tr:w-auto-1400/app/uploads/BillyHermanSpitsbergen-109-van-173.jpg)
![BillyHermanSpitsbergen (137 van 173) Arctic foxes are always a customer's favorite! © David 'Billy' Herman](https://ik.imagekit.io/maneuver/starling/tr:w-auto-1400/app/uploads/BillyHermanSpitsbergen-137-van-173.jpg)
![BillyHermanSpitsbergen (125 van 173) Arctic terns are very common and full of character. © David 'Billy' Herman](https://ik.imagekit.io/maneuver/starling/tr:w-auto-1400/app/uploads/BillyHermanSpitsbergen-125-van-173.jpg)
![_D4P2852 © Johan Verbanck](https://ik.imagekit.io/maneuver/starling/tr:w-auto-1400/app/uploads/D4P2852.jpg)
![_D4P4591 © Johan Verbanck](https://ik.imagekit.io/maneuver/starling/tr:w-auto-1400/app/uploads/D4P4591.jpg)
![BillyHermanSpitsbergen (121 van 173) Atlantic puffins are always fun to see and photograph. © David 'Billy' Herman](https://ik.imagekit.io/maneuver/starling/tr:w-auto-1400/app/uploads/BillyHermanSpitsbergen-121-van-173.jpg)
![_D7A4797 © Johan Verbanck](https://ik.imagekit.io/maneuver/starling/tr:w-auto-1400/app/uploads/D7A4797.jpg)
![BillyHermanSpitsbergen (122 van 173) Little auks in breeding plumage, on their way to the colony. © David 'Billy' Herman](https://ik.imagekit.io/maneuver/starling/tr:w-auto-1400/app/uploads/BillyHermanSpitsbergen-122-van-173.jpg)
![BillyHermanSpitsbergen (104 van 173) Polar bear, one of the main targets of the trip. © David 'Billy' Herman](https://ik.imagekit.io/maneuver/starling/tr:w-auto-1400/app/uploads/BillyHermanSpitsbergen-104-van-173.jpg)
![BillyHermanSpitsbergen (97 van 173) Walruses are known for their feisty fights. © David 'Billy' Herman](https://ik.imagekit.io/maneuver/starling/tr:w-auto-1400/app/uploads/BillyHermanSpitsbergen-97-van-173.jpg)
![BillyHermanSpitsbergen (83 van 173) The icebergs look like whole continents floating on the water. © David 'Billy' Herman](https://ik.imagekit.io/maneuver/starling/tr:w-auto-1400/app/uploads/BillyHermanSpitsbergen-83-van-173.jpg)
![BillyHermanSpitsbergen (69 van 173) Where does this smell come from? © David 'Billy' Herman](https://ik.imagekit.io/maneuver/starling/tr:w-auto-1400/app/uploads/BillyHermanSpitsbergen-69-van-173.jpg)
![BillyHermanSpitsbergen (49 van 173) An old bull gazes upon the colony. © David 'Billy' Herman](https://ik.imagekit.io/maneuver/starling/tr:w-auto-1400/app/uploads/BillyHermanSpitsbergen-49-van-173.jpg)
![_D4P4089 © Johan Verbanck](https://ik.imagekit.io/maneuver/starling/tr:w-auto-1400/app/uploads/D4P4089.jpg)
![BillyHermanSpitsbergen (34 van 173) This male king eider came very close for a picture. © David 'Billy' Herman](https://ik.imagekit.io/maneuver/starling/tr:w-auto-1400/app/uploads/BillyHermanSpitsbergen-34-van-173.jpg)
![_D7A9896 © Johan Verbanck](https://ik.imagekit.io/maneuver/starling/tr:w-auto-1400/app/uploads/D7A9896.jpg)
![_D4P2756 © Johan Verbanck](https://ik.imagekit.io/maneuver/starling/tr:w-auto-1400/app/uploads/D4P2756.jpg)
![BillyHermanSpitsbergen (35 van 173) Summer flowers in the arctic. © David 'Billy' Herman](https://ik.imagekit.io/maneuver/starling/tr:w-auto-1400/app/uploads/BillyHermanSpitsbergen-35-van-173.jpg)
![_D7A9857 © Johan Verbanck](https://ik.imagekit.io/maneuver/starling/tr:w-auto-1400/app/uploads/D7A9857.jpg)
![BillyHermanSpitsbergen (112 van 173) Some experimenting with the fish-eye. © David 'Billy' Herman](https://ik.imagekit.io/maneuver/starling/tr:w-auto-1400/app/uploads/BillyHermanSpitsbergen-112-van-173.jpg)
![_D7A0586 © Johan Verbanck](https://ik.imagekit.io/maneuver/starling/tr:w-auto-1400/app/uploads/D7A0586.jpg)
![BillyHermanSpitsbergen (37 van 173) So close you can hear them breathe. © David 'Billy' Herman](https://ik.imagekit.io/maneuver/starling/tr:w-auto-1400/app/uploads/BillyHermanSpitsbergen-37-van-173.jpg)
![BillyHermanSpitsbergen (30 van 173) An abstract photo of a northern fulmar. © David 'Billy' Herman](https://ik.imagekit.io/maneuver/starling/tr:w-auto-1400/app/uploads/BillyHermanSpitsbergen-30-van-173.jpg)
![_D7A6854 © Johan Verbanck](https://ik.imagekit.io/maneuver/starling/tr:w-auto-1400/app/uploads/D7A6854.jpg)
![_D4P1851 © Johan Verbanck](https://ik.imagekit.io/maneuver/starling/tr:w-auto-1400/app/uploads/D4P1851.jpg)
![BillyHermanSpitsbergen (16 van 173) Cariboo are not wary at all in this region. © David 'Billy' Herman](https://ik.imagekit.io/maneuver/starling/tr:w-auto-1400/app/uploads/BillyHermanSpitsbergen-16-van-173.jpg)
![_D7A3598 © Johan Verbanck](https://ik.imagekit.io/maneuver/starling/tr:w-auto-1400/app/uploads/D7A3598.jpg)
![BillyHermanSpitsbergen (14 van 173) An arctic fox showing its winter coat. © David 'Billy' Herman](https://ik.imagekit.io/maneuver/starling/tr:w-auto-1400/app/uploads/BillyHermanSpitsbergen-14-van-173-e1557317815501.jpg)
![_D7A0513 © Johan Verbanck](https://ik.imagekit.io/maneuver/starling/tr:w-auto-1400/app/uploads/D7A0513.jpg)
![BillyHermanSpitsbergen (2 van 3) Grey phalaropes belong to those few species on earth where the females are actually prettier than the males. © David 'Billy' Herman](https://ik.imagekit.io/maneuver/starling/tr:w-auto-1400/app/uploads/BillyHermanSpitsbergen-2-van-3.jpg)
![BillyHermanSpitsbergen (3 van 173) This northern pintail is going in eclips plumage, which is expected with the short breeding season these birds go through each year. © David 'Billy' Herman](https://ik.imagekit.io/maneuver/starling/tr:w-auto-1400/app/uploads/BillyHermanSpitsbergen-3-van-173.jpg)
![BillyHermanSpitsbergen (5 van 173) You rarely see red-throated divers in full breeding plumage, but here it's pretty normal! © David 'Billy' Herman](https://ik.imagekit.io/maneuver/starling/tr:w-auto-1400/app/uploads/BillyHermanSpitsbergen-5-van-173.jpg)
![_D7A3394 © Johan Verbanck](https://ik.imagekit.io/maneuver/starling/tr:w-auto-1400/app/uploads/D7A3394.jpg)
![BillyHermanSpitsbergen (7 van 173) During summer, purple sandpipers gain the most beautiful patterned summer plumage, allowing them to be invisible on the tundra. © David 'Billy' Herman](https://ik.imagekit.io/maneuver/starling/tr:w-auto-1400/app/uploads/BillyHermanSpitsbergen-7-van-173.jpg)
![BillyHermanSpitsbergen (12 van 173) They sure do have the prettiest of eyes! © David 'Billy' Herman](https://ik.imagekit.io/maneuver/starling/tr:w-auto-1400/app/uploads/BillyHermanSpitsbergen-12-van-173.jpg)
![BillyHermanSpitsbergen (28 van 173) Real barnacle geese, you don't find them any more pure! © David 'Billy' Herman](https://ik.imagekit.io/maneuver/starling/tr:w-auto-1400/app/uploads/BillyHermanSpitsbergen-28-van-173.jpg)
![BillyHermanSpitsbergen (39 van 173) Wow! © David 'Billy' Herman](https://ik.imagekit.io/maneuver/starling/tr:w-auto-1400/app/uploads/BillyHermanSpitsbergen-39-van-173.jpg)
![BillyHermanSpitsbergen (42 van 173) A black guillemot takes off! © David 'Billy' Herman](https://ik.imagekit.io/maneuver/starling/tr:w-auto-1400/app/uploads/BillyHermanSpitsbergen-42-van-173.jpg)
![_D7A0564 © Johan Verbanck](https://ik.imagekit.io/maneuver/starling/tr:w-auto-1400/app/uploads/D7A0564.jpg)
![BillyHermanSpitsbergen (54 van 173) You're always safe on a sheet of ice, this bearded seal figured. © David 'Billy' Herman](https://ik.imagekit.io/maneuver/starling/tr:w-auto-1400/app/uploads/BillyHermanSpitsbergen-54-van-173.jpg)
![_D4P3226 © Johan Verbanck](https://ik.imagekit.io/maneuver/starling/tr:w-auto-1400/app/uploads/D4P3226.jpg)
![BillyHermanSpitsbergen (56 van 173) Brünnich's guillemots are packed on the steep cliffs. © David 'Billy' Herman](https://ik.imagekit.io/maneuver/starling/tr:w-auto-1400/app/uploads/BillyHermanSpitsbergen-56-van-173.jpg)
![BillyHermanSpitsbergen (92 van 173) It's always important to keep checking these icebergs for ivory gulls. © David 'Billy' Herman](https://ik.imagekit.io/maneuver/starling/tr:w-auto-1400/app/uploads/BillyHermanSpitsbergen-92-van-173.jpg)
![_D7A6673 © Johan Verbanck](https://ik.imagekit.io/maneuver/starling/tr:w-auto-1400/app/uploads/D7A6673.jpg)
![BillyHermanSpitsbergen (131 van 173) Sedum species are very common and often reminiscent of local species we know from elsewhere. © David 'Billy' Herman](https://ik.imagekit.io/maneuver/starling/tr:w-auto-1400/app/uploads/BillyHermanSpitsbergen-131-van-173.jpg)
![BillyHermanSpitsbergen (140 van 173) Northern fulmars belong to the most common species on Svalbard and often allow for great views and photos. © David 'Billy' Herman](https://ik.imagekit.io/maneuver/starling/tr:w-auto-1400/app/uploads/BillyHermanSpitsbergen-140-van-173.jpg)
![BillyHermanSpitsbergen (141 van 173) A seal comes inspecting what all that activity is on the beach. © David 'Billy' Herman](https://ik.imagekit.io/maneuver/starling/tr:w-auto-1400/app/uploads/BillyHermanSpitsbergen-141-van-173.jpg)
![BillyHermanSpitsbergen (169 van 173) Rock ptarmigan soon change their white winter plumage for a more mossy one when summer arrives. © David 'Billy' Herman](https://ik.imagekit.io/maneuver/starling/tr:w-auto-1400/app/uploads/BillyHermanSpitsbergen-169-van-173.jpg)
![BillyHermanSpitsbergen (142 van 173) The surf looks a fair bit unusual! © David 'Billy' Herman](https://ik.imagekit.io/maneuver/starling/tr:w-auto-1400/app/uploads/BillyHermanSpitsbergen-142-van-173.jpg)
![BillyHermanSpitsbergen (144 van 173) A view from bridge on the ship. © David 'Billy' Herman](https://ik.imagekit.io/maneuver/starling/tr:w-auto-1400/app/uploads/BillyHermanSpitsbergen-144-van-173.jpg)
![BillyHermanSpitsbergen (173 van 173) Our ship effortlessly ploughs through the ice fields of the Arctic Ocean. © David 'Billy' Herman](https://ik.imagekit.io/maneuver/starling/tr:w-auto-1400/app/uploads/BillyHermanSpitsbergen-173-van-173.jpg)
![BillyHermanSpitsbergen (106 van 173) The Arctic Ocean breathes pure peace and quietness. © David 'Billy' Herman](https://ik.imagekit.io/maneuver/starling/tr:w-auto-1400/app/uploads/BillyHermanSpitsbergen-106-van-173.jpg)
![BillyHermanSpitsbergen (108 van 173) The zodiac will be of use during this trip. © David 'Billy' Herman](https://ik.imagekit.io/maneuver/starling/tr:w-auto-1400/app/uploads/BillyHermanSpitsbergen-108-van-173.jpg)
![BillyHermanSpitsbergen (110 van 173) Brunnich's guillemots, the ultimate penguins of the arctic! © David 'Billy' Herman](https://ik.imagekit.io/maneuver/starling/tr:w-auto-1400/app/uploads/BillyHermanSpitsbergen-110-van-173.jpg)
This was Svalbard 2018
This is not going to be your average trip report. It’s sometimes hard to put into words what a journey or unique atmosphere has been like. But then one of the participants gives a farewell speech to make u fall in awe. The words of traveler Johan Verbanck form the perfect summary of a fantastic trip.
We are therefore delighted to publish the speech that Johan gave on our chartered boat ‘Origo’ during the last evening, spiced with photos of Johan and tour guide Billy Herman. Travel with us and enjoy!
![](https://www.starlingreizen.be/app/uploads/BillyHermanSpitsbergen-67-van-173.jpg)
Dear friends,
It is almost impossible to put into words all the impressions we experienced together during this fantastic expedition to Svalbard and much further (up to the ice fields at 82 degrees North!) But when I close my eyes … I do see some obvious highlights:
- Endless snow-covered mountains and countless glaciers that are entwined in an eternal, impressive embrace.
- We all remember the postcard view of the glaciers on the ‘Magdalena fjords’ with in the foreground 10 pairs of walrus tusks with a blubbery beast of more than one tonne attached to each pair of teeth.
- Kilometers and kilometers of clouds hanging between the mountains and adding a ‘flou artistique’ to our many landscape photos.
- We admired the beautiful reflections in the sea water of countless beautiful glaciers (one was 160 km long) and the azure blue sky.
- That moment when we, as an accomplished Sherlock Holmes’, searched the horizon with our binoculars, just above the water surface and we suddenly noticed a geyser-like water fountain: it was a blue whale … a huge 200-tonnes ocean creature.
- The panoramas from the deck of our ship Origo at 2 o’clock at night: giant breeding cliffs with more than 60,000 pairs of Brünnich’s guillemot guillemots and thousands of black-legged kittiwakes were quite impressive … just like the chicks of the glaucous gull, who looked at us from their nests in a narrow cavern about halfway through an almost vertical rock wall rising out of the ice water.
- The very close encounter that some participants had on day 2 with the indescribable beauty of a group of beluga whales. Very fast, but no less elegant, swimming less than 30 meters from the coastline where we stood. It filled us with emotion and enthusiasm.
- More than once we were amazed by the sound of that gigantic creaking ice mass echoing from the depths of glaciers during their slow journey to the sea mouth.
- For minutes we were the privileged witnessing a family of arctic foxes with playful puppies in their pristine environment.
- Only minutes later our memory cards registered a group of Svalbard reindeers, including some handsome, completely white young animals.
- Our countless encounters with polar bears were fantastic. Neither of us had dared to dream in advance that we would see 35 (!) Different polar bears during our trip. Some we will never forget:
- the polar bear mother who slowly came closer with her two boys on the ice pack, straight to the stern of our Origo;
- that one male with the seal carcass on the pack ice, flanked by an elegant, elusive ivory gull.
- Our tour group consisted mainly of ‘birders’, which drove the Starling team to show us some ‘specials’, such as:
- the delicately colored king eider males next to the Origo, with their unique, colorful collar;
- the male snow bunting looking for seeds on top of the purple flowers of a compass plant;
- the magnificent red-throated diver who offered a fish to his young at the nest;
- the clown-like colored pelvis of Atlantic puffins, fraternally side by side on their nest cliff.
- How beautiful the tundra flowers were only became clear to us when we sat on our knees or flat on our stomach to photograph them, preferably with a wide angle lens.
- Equally appealing were the diligent and nervous escadrons of little auks that bombed through the sky at enormous speeds.The old Russian mining village, Pyramiden, left a big impression on us. In 1998 the clock on the wall of the primary school stopped ticking at a quarter to five. Since then the time seems frozen in the ghost town. Children’s drawings from the late nineties hang on the walls of the school. In the day care center there have been untouched jars and children’s shoes next to the beds for two decades. Outside, huge steel structures, used in the last century for the mining works, brave the arctic storms. Millions of salt molecules and microcrystals adorn the iron skeletons, while Lenin’s statue watches over his private arctic “Champs Elysées.” When we closed our eyes on the edge of the empty Olympic Soviet swimming pool, we could almost make a virtual dive into history.
- I am sure I forgot to mention many essential things that we saw of the impressive nature of Svalbard. All these things will slowly become clear in the coming months, while we will decide on our computer which photos will survive the selection. Fortunately photography is also: freezing and saving time.
THANK YOU!
Johan Verbanck