Author: awaywiththebirds
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Hello from the Northern Hemisphere
Day 11: Ittoqqortoormitt, Greenland Yes, I know you’ve all heard of this place but struggled with how to spell it properly! Right? But before we reached this little town, the ship had to navigate a fjord filled with icebergs. There were so many icebergs that one could almost leap from iceberg to iceberg (if you…
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Hello from the Northern Hemisphere
Day 10: Greenland This morning we reached Greenland, and sailed into Scoresbysund, the world’s longest fjord system. The fjord stretches up to 350 kms from the Greenland sea, and is like sailing through iceberg alley. We took a zodiac cruise among the icebergs and here’s a selection of them. Also saw a beautiful waterfall, gushing…
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Hello from the Northern Hemisphere
Day 9: At sea Still on a commercial break, but thought you needed some Arctic related information to keep your interest up! The Arctic tern The Arctic tern, an elegant white seabird, migrates further than any other bird. It travels from pole to pole. It breeds on the shores of the Arctic Ocean in summer,…
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Hello from the Northern Hemisphere
Day 8: At sea We’re taking a short commercial break while at sea……..we will be back shortly…. In the meantime, meet Titina, who was the first dog to reach the North Pole. The fierce little brown-and-white fox terrier was the inseparable companion of Umberto Nobile, a world famous airship engineer. As the story goes, polar…
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Hello from the Northern Hemisphere
Day 7: Still in Svalbard Archipelago Lifted the blockout blind this morning to find this…… A stark contrast to the brown mountains and white dots of yesterday! Here’s our journey today….. We took a zodiac cruise near the Samarinbreen glacier, named after Samarin who was a craftsman, fisherman and member of Arctic expeditions between 1899…
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Hello from the Northern Hemisphere
Day 6: Within the Svalbard archipelago Some answers to your questions: Postscript to Day 5: At 11.30 pm, an announcement interrupted our sleep…a polar bear had been sighted…”come immediately to the Bridge with cameras and binoculars” (a bit like getting the call to see the Northern Lights!) The Midnight sun was shining on the mountains,…
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Hello from the Northern Hemisphere
Day 5: Svalbard archipelago Ang, you asked what happens to people who die on Longyearbyen….well, no one is allowed to be born or be buried here. If you die here, you have to be taken away to be buried elsewhere! The hospital here only has two beds. Just thought you would be interested to see…
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Hello from the Northern Hemisphere
Day 4: Oslo to Svalbard Very early start with coaches taking us to airport at 5.30 am. We flew to Longyearbyen which is in the Arctic circle and is the world’s northernmost settlement with a population of around 2000 and the largest inhabited area of Svalbard, Norway. Actually Svalbard is not strictly part of Norway…
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Hello from the Northern Hemisphere
Day 2-3: Oslo Had a screaming baby (and an apologetic parent) in the row next to me on flight to Oslo so didn’t get much sleep. So first day in Oslo is a bit of a blur. It was surprisingly warm (26 deg) and sunny. The next day was rainy but fortunately I had organised…
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Hello from the Northern Hemisphere
Day 1: Singapore….. Very smooth flight from Sydney to Singapore and all was going well until I tried to check into the Crowne Plaza at Chiangi airport…… I don’t need to tell you about the chaos at airports and hotels that Crowdstrike’s software update caused. But it took me back to the trip to Antarctica…