This is part of a series called Pan European Sojourn 2023 When we left Barcelona, the rainstorm of the previous day got a boost with massive winds. Luckily, it subsided during the night, and today we visited Palma de Mallorca, one of the Balearic islands within the archipelago of eastern Spain. We learned, however, that…
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This is part of a series called Pan European Sojourn 2023 Well, we are off again! After a couple of big recent trips to immerse ourselves in the power and beauty of raw nature, this trip has no real design per se. Rather than seeing how nature shaped cultures in order to survive, this trip…
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Today we visited Jan Mayen Island, a tiny volcanic island in the North Atlantic that is 600 miles west of Norway and 350 miles north of Iceland. It is a territory of Norway, has no native population, and only has 18 rotational people who run the weather and radio stations. The skyline is dominated by…
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This is part of a series called Nordic Sojourn 2022 Today, we visited Poolepynten, a headland at the eastern coast of the Prins Karls Forland in Spitsbergen, Svalbard. This mile long stretch of beach is part of the Forlandet National Park and is home to a group of walruses that use that area to rest. …
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This is part of a series called Nordic Sojourn 2022 This morning dawned bright and sunny, with a temperature in the mid-40s! We entered the Kongsfjorden and are at Ny London, a mining operation that went bust in the early 20th Century. We are at 78 degrees, 55 minutes. As little as 15 years ago,…
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This is part of a series called Nordic Sojourn 2022 By the next morning, the pack ice had thickened and we got a chance to see the ship’s icebreaker bow in action. At 6:40 am, the Expedition Leader made an announcement that there was a polar bear off our starboard bow, about 150 yards out. …
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This is part of a series called Nordic Sojourn 2022 We continued our northward sail during the night to the area of Woodfjorden and Liefdefjorden to visit a trapping cabin known as Texas Bar. In the morning, however, we were pretty heavily socked in with fog, causing a delay in going ashore. Texas Bar was…
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This is part of a series called Nordic Sojourn 2022 Our first landing of the trip was at Gravneset that is rated as one of the most beautiful fjords in Svalbard. It is surrounded by tall mountains and glaciers. It’s also one of the largest burial grounds (over 130 graves) in Svalbard dating from the…
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This is part of a series called Nordic Sojourn 2022 Today, we flew from Oslo to Longyearbyen. It is located at 78 degrees North — just 1316 kilometers from the North Pole, with a resident population of 2400 people from 53 different countries. It was nearly a three hour flight from Oslo to get here…
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This is part of a series called Nordic Sojourn 2022 On our first evening in Norway, we started our swing of the fjord lands of West as we flew into Alesund, Norway. Despite the fact that July is typically one of the driest months in this area, it has been raining steadily for a couple…
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