We cruised along a fjord that crosses Kongsfjorden, called Krossfjorden in into a small bay with a long beautiful glacier called Fjortende Julibukta. This bay is named for the French national holiday, the 14th of July!
MS Expedition will be anchored here all day so we can explore on land and, after lunch, get a chance to investigate a glacier up-close!
Out on deck we hear what sounds like thunder and cannon shots. It's not thunder or cannons it is that huge glacier at the end of the bay cracking and breaking. Very eerie and spooky!
When it is time to get in our ZodiacsŪ and go ashore we can see icebergs of all sizes in the bay and around our ship! These are all pieces of the glacier that have broken off. These are from the thundering we are hearing!
In our Zodiacs we weave our way between the icebergs toward the shore. On shore where we will be landing we see a small herd or reindeer grazing there. These reindeer are nervous about seeing us, unlike the ones we saw on DAY 3 in Alkhornet, and run away over a hill and out of sight before we get to shore.
We land on a rocky beach among some small icebergs washed up on the beach. On the plateau above the beach we can see a small rocky wall at the bottom of the mountain slope near our landing -- The Hanging Gardens!
It is only a short walk over soggy, mossy ground to reach The Hanging Gardens. The rocky wall is wet. We find a surprising variety of plants and little flowers growing and hanging on the cracked, moss-covered rocky cliff. This location is known for the most variety of plants in one place in all of Svalbard!
The Hanging Gardens is an indentation that protects plants from strong winds and the snow melt from the mountain peak gives the plants plenty of water. The plants are well fertilized because just like at Alkhornet there are bird cliffs high up near the mountain peaks and the bird poop is washed down the mountain slopes and fertilizes the plants on the mountain slopes.
We take some time to explore the foot of the mountain and admire the large glacier at the end of the bay!
Even though we can't easily see the birds high up near the mountain peak there are some birds that are more easy for us to see. At the entrance to this bay there are some sea cliffs that some sea birds use to nest on when they migrate here each summer to feed and have their babies. To reach them we will use our ZodiacsŪ to get up close to them.
Back in our ZodiacsŪ we slowly and carefully weave our way from our beach toward the sea cliffs. In addition to the small icebergs we have to avoid there are also big rocks just under the water. We have to tilt up our engines so our propellers will not be damaged from hitting the rocks. Hitting the rocks will not hurt our ZodiacsŪ but they will bend or break our propellers.
When we reach the cliffs we find a lot of birds nesting on the ledges and in the cracks of the cliff faces. The sea birds we find here are Atlantic Puffins!
This is the first time we have seen Atantic Puffins! We have seen puffins before on our expeditions in the North Pacific Ocean in Alaska and Russia, but they were Tufted and Horned Puffins. The big difference between the Atlantic Puffins and the other puffins in the Pacific is their beak. All puffins have bright orange beaks but with the Atlantic Pufffins their beaks get pretty yellow and black bands during the summer breeding season.
Atlantic Puffins are not quite a foot tall and they mate for life. We can see pairs of puffins scattered along the cliffs ledges. We can't tell which one is the male or the female because they are the same size and color!
In the summer some Atlantic Puffins come here to feed on little fish that are abundant during the summer. They lay only one egg and the mother and father take turns catching fish or taking care of the egg and, after the egg hatches, their chick.
As we are watching from below we see puffins taking-off from their ledges to look for fish. It's funny to watch them fly because they are not graceful flyers as most birds are. They can not glide with their wings outstretched as most birds can. They have to flap their wings really fast and hard to stay in the air. When they dive underwater to catch fish everything changes...We have seen them swim underwater and they look like better swimmers than they are flyers! They can swim fast and gracefully underwater flapping their wings like fish flap their tails!
We are sitting in our ZodiacsŪ enjoying the comical flights of the puffins when we hear Capt. Sergei blow the ship's horn...It's time to return for lunch!
Day 5 AM 
