The Polar Pioneer sits in an isolated Spitsbergen Bay, while the expeditioners take a long hike, ever vigilant for polar bears.

Spitsbergen sunset over the deck of the Polar Pioneer . The Arctic sunsets are long, with beautiful colours and light for more than an hour.

Reindeer (called caribou elsewhere) are often spotted grazing in Greenland and Svalbard.

A harbour seal – one of the more playful species of seal encountered on the 2012 Australian Geographic Society expedition to the Arctic.

Moss and lichen smothers a Greenland gravesite thought to be about 500 years old.

The walrus is the world’s second largest member of the seal family (after the elephant seal). It can grow up to 3.5m long and weigh in at 1.5t.

Stunning autumnal tundra graces the sides of Nordvestfjord in Eastern Greenland.

Tiny, edible, blue berries grow very close to the ground in the Greenland’s autumnal tundra.

In gumboots, hardy expeditioners walk on a Spitsbergen glacier.

An expeditioner is dwarfed by the front face of a retreating glacier in Spitsbergen.

A fulmar: a relative of the albatross and faithful followers of the ship in all weather.

A tiny rock garden. Nearly all Arctic vegetation is tiny, but it is diverse and extremely colourful.

Abandoned boat on a Spitsbergen beach, beneath castellated cliffs.

550 beluga whale bones piled up in Spitsbergen, remnants of a longstanding whale industry.

Waterfall and a fish ladder (at left) on the Golden Circle Tour in Iceland.

One of Iceland’s abundant volcanic craters.