The remote wilderness of Svalbard is known as a polar desert, surrounded by rugged glaciers, frozen tundra and craggy mountain peaks. First stop today was a landing at Festningen, which is a geologist's dream with about 300 million years of rock history. Very conspicuous is the ‘Festningen Sandstone‘, a layer of very hard, quarzitic sandstone. It is standing in a vertical position and, due to its hardness, stands out like a wall in the landscape. It's northern elongation forms a small island which reminds one of a fortress, hence the name ‘Festningen’ (Norwegian: fortress). In the 1960s, footprints of Dinosaurs (Iguanodons) were found here, but the relevant rockwall has fallen into the sea. Saw our first WILD reindeer today as well. This afternoon we sailed to Poolepynten a headland at the eastern coast of the Prins Karls Forland at Spitsbergen. It is located within the strait of Forlandsundet. Poolepynten lies within the Forlandet National Park and is home to a resident walrus pod. They call a group of walruses a haul out. Is it walruses or walri? In 2015 a petition was raised to change the plural of walrus to walri however walrus comes from Dutch, and is akin to Danish and Norwegian hvalros. It is not a Latin second declension noun, so there is no reason it would be pluralized with -i. The plural of walrus is walruses. So there.
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