Wake up at 7am. Last hot shower ;-)
We have breakfast, pack our stuff in the minivan and go to the harbor.
A human-chain is formed to load everything on the boat before other passengers arrive: kayaks, food, gear, personal stuff...etc.
The boat leaves around 9am toward Ymerbukta. It will take 2h30 to cross the bay from Longyearbyen. The captain and one of his men make safety demonstrations and then he gives us many details about the history of Svalbard.

The sky is clear and the sea is calm. We stay on the deck, enjoying the view over all the glaciers in the bay.
When we arrive at Ymerbukta, we disembark the boat on a zodiac with all our stuff. In the meantime, another group of french kayakers is leaving for a one-week trip. We might see them again later on...





















































Our first campground is situated on a beach close to Esmark glacier. The guide is the first one who gets off the boat with his riffle. He goes and checks the place for bears, and finally gives us green light.
All our stuff is put on the beach, with food separated far enough. The fist tent we pitch is the "mess tent' where we will have meals. Then everyone pitches his own tent and prepares his kayak, especially the pilot settings.

We put on our kayak outfit ("pilou-pilou" fur overalls, drysuits...) and leave towards the glacier.
We approach very close (300 m) from it, make a stop on an island facing it to enjoy the scenery.

































































































Then we paddle to another beach and walk from there to get as close as possible to the ice. We can even see an underground river coming from the glacier. A seal is even spotted in the bay !






















































































We finally come back to the camp and have our outfit dried. We have our first hot dinner together under the mess tent, and then the guide makes teams for "night" watch. In order no to be too tired, he proposes to make 2 teams of 5. Each team will watch over the camp every second "night", and each member will stay awake for 2 hours.

One rule: we will live without a watch, but when we got to bed every "night", it will be midnight ! True or not.

O. and I will be part of the first team. I'll take the shift from 2 to 4 and O. from 4 to 6.

When V. comes and wakes me up at 2, it's pretty difficult to get out of my sleeping bag. But the sun is (still) here, shining more than ever ! I grab the alarm pistol. Pretty weird to be responsible of the group safety while everybody is sleeping. But being alone facing this amazing scenery is really a privilege and 2 hours pass quickly, in spite of the strong wind starting blowing.
I wake O. and go back to sleep until 10 ;-)





























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FIGURES OF THE DAY : 8km of kayak in 1h15