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,…
The origin of the colourful Greenland houses was in the colonial period of the 1700s when Scandinavia shipped the prefabricated houses in blue, black, yellow, red and green. Buildings were coloured according to their function and to assist in providing directions, as there were no street names nor house numbers at the time. While some public buildings still follow the tradition (e.g. hospitals are often still yellow), today people can paint their houses any colour they like.
I have never been on so many different boats in such a short space of time in my life! But before I launch into my stories I’m going to start with a lesson…What is the difference between a ship and a boat? Well, there are a few interpretations, depending on who is delivering the explanation, and who is the audience. In the old days the difference had to do with the number of masts. Now it can be about the…
My wildlife photos aren’t the stuff of professional photographers. But to me they are just perfect. I didn’t spend the trip with a camera before my eyes. Rather, my photos are simply there to trigger a memory of the scene before me at the time. Or of the event which was unfolding. To that end I thought that I would record the story behind the photos and videos I took of the polar bears and the walruses. First the polar…
It’s already two months since I returned home from the trip. And while it seems an absolute age ago, I have been brought back to the extraordinary time I had by sorting my photos. In my photo stories I am sharing my experiences by topic, rather than simply uploading a chronology of photos. Often people ask me for the one or two highlights of the trip. This is a really hard question to answer, but I have been replying with…
by Florence Page Jaques Oh, there once was a PuffinJust the shape of a muffin,And he lived on an islandIn the bright blue sea! He ate little fishes,That were most deliciousAnd he had them for supperAnd he had them for tea. But this poor little Puffin,He couldn’t play nothin’,For he hadn’t anybodyTo play with at all. So he sat on his islandAnd he cried for a while, andHe felt very lonely,And he felt very small. Then along came the fishes,And…