Arctic Foxes - an expedition to Hornstrandir - Part 2

Here's Part 2 of my account of my expedition to the north of Iceland to photograph the rare blue morph arctic foxes, and we pick up leaving Ísafjörður on our private boat charter. We headed out of the fjord and into the very choppy open waters of the Denmark Strait. Around three hours later we finally turned into the the most remote fjord on the Hornstrandir peninsula and approached our home for the next week. Dropping anchor, the crew then busied themselves with dropping the zodiac inflatable rib off the back of the boat and preparing all of the many items of luggage, supplies and key equipment to keep us going.

It's probably worth mentioning at this point that we would be staying in a lodge on the shore of Hornvik bay that, while occupied during the summer months is closed down and shuttered over winter, so we needed to take over a generator, food, bedding and all paraphernalia needed to keep seven people going for a week while isolated from the rest of the world where the only way out would be the way we came, by boat.

After getting everyone and everything successfully across to dry land, we lugged everything into the house and watched our only connection to the rest of the world sail away around the headland, leaving just us and (hopefully) the foxes...

While Rúnar got the house set up, we started the gin bar (see below) and familiarised ourselves with our new home from home. The snow had settled quite deeply and so wellies were the footwear of choice whenever stepping outside. As the light started to fade, we headed inside into the warm to be fed but were treated to an amazing aurora show as the evening went on, leading to repeatedly nipping in and out as the lights came and went.

As the light came up on Day 1, after a spot of breakfast it was time to get togged up and head out to see if there were any foxes out and about. Once we'd got our eye in to what was a rock and what wasn't, we spotted one fox curled up asleep around a hundred or so yards away and then another scouting around a bit further off.

Curiosity got the better of them and they both came close enough to check us out, giving us the opportunity to get some lovely first images in the bag. As the day went on, we spotted a few coming and going along the rocky shoreline down by the water. Guessing that these foxes were using the less deep snow down by the water's edge as a convenient highway, we decided to head down and see if we could get ourselves into a position so that if one came along, it might (if we rolled the dice and got lucky), come past us.

Once in position, we scanned the length of the shoreline ahead of us and spotted that one individual was carrying a dead eider duck in it's mouth. Not knowing whether it had just caught it, found it or was carrying it off to cache, we watched and waited to see if it would come towards us. Luckily, he started slowly moving our way. Hunkering down as low as possible in the snow and cameras up and ready, we prayed that he would keep coming our way and not turn away and up the shoreline.

Fortunately, he kept coming until he was literally filling the frame no more than 20 feet away from us. As if on cue, he stopped, stared us down and then casually trotted past us...

And that was only Day 1. Buzzing from that encounter, we wondered what more was to come our way...