Hornsund: Gåshamna

Wednesday, 6 July (Part III)

After our zodiac ice cruise (post here), we returned to Silver Explorer, but not for long. While we grabbed some sustenance, the ship weighed anchor and repositioned to Gåshamna (Goose Bay), an open bay near the 7.5-mile (12-km) wide mouth of Hornsund. There was a tiny bit more chop in the water, but certainly nothing to hinder us from our afternoon outing — a landing this time.

It was Group 3’s turn to go first. So, when we were called, we lost no time making our way first to the mudroom and from there to the gangway. After a short zodiac ride, we arrived at a rocky beach where Robin welcomed us ashore and outlined the plan, which included a walk on the tundra with one of the expedition members guiding us. The team had already scouted the landing area for bears and set up a perimeter. All that we needed to do was drop off our zodiac vests in the blue bin and head out across the vast plain.

Looking back towards our landing site.

Capturing the tiny tundra wildflowers on film.

As usual, we’re lagging behind!

As we made our way across the tundra, watching carefully so as not to tread upon the tiny flowers that cling to life in the Arctic, we noticed that the gravel was in artificial-looking circular patterns. Juan, our expedition geologist, explained that these formations are created by the repeated freezing and thawing of the ground, which lies above the permafrost that is not far below the surface. The freeze/thaw cycle slowly separates the surface material into areas of sand and stones, forming rings. The rings are rimmed with vegetation sheltering in the narrowest of depressions between the rings. Mother Nature at work!

Stone circles stretch as far as the eye can see.
(oops! Should have turned off the flash; sorry!)

Another geologic feature Juan pointed out to us was rocks that looked like they had been sliced. Known as troll bread, these rocks are created when water gets into cracks and fissures, freezes and expands, and breaks the rocks apart. We saw quite a few examples of such rocks, some looking more like sliced bread than others.

Bread and wine anyone?

(During recap, I asked about the chards of hundreds of broken bottles we saw near the ruins. Most penetrated into the ground and looked like they were frozen in place and time. I was curious about their significance, but it seems there’s no known reason for the broken glass. However, because no one knows if they date back to before or after 1945, they’ve been left in place [pre-1945 debris is considered cultural remains and has to be left intact]).

There’s ample evidence of reindeer here, but they stayed out of sight.

There’s a lot of history at Gåshamna. From those who set up whaling stations; to Russian and Norwegian trappers who overwintered; to members of one of the first international research expeditions that came to the Arctic — all left their mark on the land. Obviously, they came before the cardinal rule we must follow today — take only photographs, leave nothing but footprints behind.

Cultural remains.

concrete evidence of barrels of cement.

The oldest remains of human activity here date to the whaling era (1600-1700s). The whale of choice was the bowhead, which was found in great concentrations during the summer. The bowhead population was decimated as a result of the whaling and has yet to recover. I understand there are blubber ovens and other cultural remains of this era, including a grave, but we did not see those today. We did, however, see the whale bones that litter the area — a sad reminder of those times.

Evidence of human activity — ruins from the Arc-de-Meridian Expedition and whaling.

seeing whale bones littering the land always makes me sad!

We shared the landing site with a group of AECO (Association of Arctic Expedition Cruise Operators) scientists charged with developing site guidelines. Their work will determine how much environmental impact there is from visitors and lead to limits being placed on the number of people who can visit these places. Important work to be sure as both the environment and the cultural remains need to be protected. Since they were studying the area around the trappers’ cabin, at first we thought we’d be unable to approach, but they were kind enough to allow us to do so.

What’s left of Konstantinovka, the trapping station.

In the late 19th century, the Swedish-Russian Arc-de-Meridian Expedition was launched for the purpose of defining the shape of the Earth by means of very precise astronomical measurements of latitude and longitude as well as topographic work. These results were to be compared with measurements taken from near-equator latitudes. If earth was a perfect ball, the distance between latitudes would turn out to be the same near the equator and near the poles. If earth was flat at the poles, however, the lines of latitude would turn out to be closer to each other near the poles than in the tropics. We’ve all seen maps and globes, so we know what the result of this study was, don’t we? (More info here.)

Anyway, since such measurements would take several years (1899-1904) to complete, a station was built at Gåshamna. There was a residence, a laboratory, and an observatory. The station was only used by the one expedition that overwintered, and was then left to fall into ruin. In later years, a trapping station was built within the ruins of the laboratory with materials from the research station. Today, it’s too dangerous to go inside what’s left of that hut, but as we did, it can be explored from the outside.

And on that note … we headed back down the beach to catch the next zodiac back to the ship to allow another group to come ashore.

Ice never fails to capture our attention.