In the summer of 2019, Idun’s older sister Jorunn had another big birthday to celebrate. The celebration was a cruise with ‘Hurtigruten’ from Longyearbyen to the island of Moffen, 80 degrees north.
On day 2 of the cruise, we entered the Magdalene fjord north of Ny-Ålesund. Here it is wild and beautiful, and you can admire glaciers surrounded by pointed mountains.
Presumably this is where the name ‘Spitsbergen’ comes from. The fjord’s name is from the 18th century, named after the biblical Mary Magdalene.
On the south side of the Magdalene fjord is a headland with a fine sandy beach, one of the few places in the area where it is possible to a) disembark
b) bury corpses
c) have a bath
An English whaling station was built here in the 17th century.
During 200 years of whaling, many people were buried here, and the place is today called Gravneset (the Grave Headland) with Gravnesodden at the end. 130 graves have been found, many of them long after the whale station itself had closed down. The sailors preferred to bury the dead here, where it was possible to dig holes for bodies, instead of throwing the corpses into the sea. The graves are English, Dutch, but also many Basques are buried at Gravneset, they were skilled whalers. In the 1970s, you could still find bone remains in the area, dug up by foxes, polar bears and souvenir-chasing tourists. Today, Gravneset is protected, and large parts are fenced off to avoid wear and tear of the cultural heritage.
The guides had insisted for two days, that it was compulsory to have a bath at Gravnesodden, imaging that maybe 2-3 people would take the bait and actually have a dip. But that was a severe underestimation of the Løwø family. We ended up with 17 bathers from the ‘Birthday group’ – a new record!
And the bath itself? Absolutely gorgeous! A white sandy beach, crystal clear water decorated by ice cubes – and 3 degrees celsius.
In addition to the buried people, there was also an arctic tern (Sterna paradisaea) who wanted to see us leave Gravneset:
… so then we did. And as ice bathers on a cruise, this time we got physical proof of the bathing madness:
