Let’s start this post clarifying the different spellings. As you can probably guess, “fjord” is the Norwegian spelling and “fiord” is the English spelling, so I will standardise with the Norwegian spelling (although in earlier blogs I was probably not particularly discerning!?) The next thing I want to cover is the difference between a fiord and a sound. So, both fiords and sounds are valleys which have been flooded by water. However, fiords are formed when a glacial valley is…
Further measures were introduced from 1908 onwards; e.g. Finnish parliamentarians were required to be Finnish officers of the Imperial Russian Army, plus all Finnish civil and governmental positions were now open to Russians to apply for. Sources:
While this trip doesn’t necessarily fall into the category of being extremely remote, it is nevertheless distant. Having said that, pretty much everywhere is distant from Australia?! So let’s start with the trip itself, and share where I’m traveling to. On the map above, the trip starts in Sweden with a key to the stops presented in the table below Destination More details about the ‘how’ Stockholm, Sweden (A) First stop, after some 23 hours flying time. Argh! Copenhagen, Denmark…
This timeline started as a history of Scandinavia. Quite quickly I realised that I was far too optimistic to think that I would have the time and energy to translate the full and vibrant history of this part of the world into a blog post! It was taking me ages! And I wasn’t even at the end of the Viking era! So, I changed my plan and decided to make it a Viking History instead. This was a much better…
The “why” I am asking here has two connotations: To start with the blog question, and to introduce this new Remote series… Even before I embarked on my trip to Svalbard and Greenland, I had started the planning for this next one. I knew that we are currently in a period of exceptional solar flare activity which is ideal for viewing the northern. And so, I felt some pressure to take advantage of this and venture back north. Catching a…
When we were delayed by ice on our first day in Greenland, we boarded the ferry at Narsaq, instead of Qaqortoq. The ferry then travelled on to Qaqortoq a per its normal schedule. However, along the way it collected a small flotilla of local vessels which had been waiting at the edge of the ice… … waiting for the ferry to cut a path through the thick ice for them. So, as we proceeded, crashing through the ice, we could…
In the very first photo story of my trip, when I shared my highlights, the visit to Eqi Glacier Lodge was one of those highlights. And I promised that I would write about it separately. So, here we are. What was so special about it? It was the feeling that you are staying somewhere on the very edge of a wild and powerful force of nature….which you could literally hear… all day and all night! In Greenlandic, the glacier is…
Longyearbyen is one of a small handful of settlements in Svalbard, and is the main centre, boasting of around 2,400 people, and even more snowmobiles. It began its history as a mining town, but I won’t be spending any time on that here. You can read about the development of Longyearbyen in my post on the history of Svalbard. What I want to share are the photos of the town, and my personal impressions. There is evidence of Longyearbyen’s mining…
The title of this post is a quote from “New Lands Within the Arctic Circle”, a book which Julius Von Payer wrote about his voyage in the Austrian ship Tegetthoff in the years 1872-1874. I have been wanting to use this phrase ever since I first read it! Then, for this post, I was trying to figure out what to write, without going into technical detail about the different types of ice and their characteristics and formation cycles. That’s when…
Zooming around in a zodiac is an inherent part of any expedition. And this was definitely true for our voyage around Svalbard. Except when the weather was atrocious, we were out on the zodiacs every day, sometimes twice a day. The Vikingford had two zodiacs which meant there was a maximum of 6 guests on each zodiac at any one time. The weather had to be pretty bad for us not to venture out. Freezing temperatures, accompanied by mild rain,…