Adventure Travel Blogs

Monday, 18th July, 2011
Northwest Spitsbergen

“This grand show is eternal.  It is always sunrise somewhere.  The dew is never dry all at once, a shower is forever falling.  Vapour is ever rising.  Eternal sunrise, eternal sunset, eternal dawn and glowing, on sea and continents and islands, each in its turn as the earth rolls.  And for this I am forever grateful to be alive.”  John Muir

Flat calm waters,  balmy temperatures, cameras locked and ...

Sunday 17th July
Longyearben

A wise man once said ‘it’s not the arriving, it’s the getting there’. He was wrong, but who cares now, the lines are thrown and the bow noses purposefully North. One hundred arcticians are aboard and 99 bags, but I’m over that.

Right about time you read this, the signal will flicker then die on your cell phone. There is no internet, no Twitter and no injunctions, and also no ghastly, insidious, duplicitous Murdoch, be thankful fo...

Ship's log: 13 March 2011 - We ended with a pot of gold

On February 27 over a hundred people boarded the gently angled gangway of the Akademic Ioffe. Despite the acres of digested prose there was still a semblance of trepidation and palpable powerful portents of delicious, delectable, dramatic dramas ahead. Conversation with new neighbours was stilted, anxiety mixed with impatience ? for many this patient pilgrimage has lasted years not months.
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Ship's log: 10 March 2011 - Tomorrow we will sight land

It is imperative that this dubious literary bolt is not fired early; some adjectival powder must be kept dry for the Nautical finale tomorrow night. Today, however has not been without incident. The Drake rumbled beneath the hull, rogue waves crashing into the sealed superstructure. This is the most fickle stretch of water on the planet and as waves mounted the bow it was sobering to think that the Drake was still not real...

Ship's log: 9 March 2011 - Another pleasing performance awaits...

The pleasing performance of the last week was morphed into a melancholy monochrome mantra today. Deception gives away her secrets with a high  meteorological tariff and this morning was no exception.
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