BOREBUKTA

Visiting the walruses

BASIC INFORMATION
Borebukta is one of the most popular places on Spitsbergen and, due to its short distance from Longyearbyen, tourist excursions are often organised to this place. Borebukta has two large and beautiful glaciers: Nansenbreen and Borebreen. Numerous beaches and plains with tundra elements also make these places the choice of wildlife. In addition to numerous bird colonies and grazing reindeer, in recent years we have seen groups of walruses appearing here. They may greet us in the water at the entrance to the bay or later we can find them on one of numerous beaches. Borebukta’s waters are shallow, and thus there is plenty of easily accessible food on the sea bed for walruses.
The name Borebukta finds its origin in ancient Greek mythology: Boreas is the god of cold, strong and northern winds. Unlike the strong bora winds that blow in Croatia – those on Spitsbergen are cold.
The retreating Borebreen and Nansenbreen glaciers have shaped the land creating tundra landscapes. There are lots of wet areas where mosses and lichens grow. Birds take advantage of this by establishing their numerous colonies here.
Human activity in the past mainly involved coal mining. In 1899, Norwegians under the command of Soren Zachariassen mined the first 90 tonnes of coal, which was considered the beginning of commercial mining on Spitsbergen. The first mining settlement was also established here and it thrived until 1922, when miners moved their activities to nearby Barentsburg. One of the buildings built in 1900 is still preserved in good condition today. It also has an interesting history. It was here that Norwegian trapper Arne Olsen died of scurvy in April 1926 and thus became the last person on Spitsbergen to die of this disease. Although this title is not very honourable, he is buried in the Longyearbyen cemetery. No one has been buried on Svalbard for many years, the corpse being transported to the mainland.

Trekking, walrus colony, touching the glacier
A visit to Borebukta is one of the highlights of our trips. We come to admire beautiful glaciers and to look for walrus colonies. In recent years, they have appeared here every year on one of the beaches.
If conditions are right we organise a very interesting trek to the glacier. We try to break through the ‘ice slush’ near the Nansenbreen glacier and land on the shore. We try to get close to the cove where the front of the glacier is located and which just calves into it. If conditions are favourable we make a short trek across the glacier. The whole activity is difficult to do because of the amount of ice and the soggy shore near the glacier. There must also be good wind conditions, as the route to be taken by zodiac is long. Activities in Borebukta require the bay to thaw after winter and let the ice out. This most often takes place in June. Until this happens and the ice closes the end of the bay, there are ideal conditions for looking for polar bears. Seals often rest on the ice in this area and for this reason bears appear.