Author: Andrew Reilly

(written 17 August) Martin woke us around midnight to say that the bears had come back to near the boat. Got back into all of the thermal gear and headed out to have a look. At first it seemed to just be two of the cubs having another go at the remains, some way off.…

(written on 16th August) We were in the ice by about three this morning, but it was foggy, and no-one was making a fuss, so I stayed in bed for a couple of hours more. Got up a bit after five, and there was quite a bit of ice, and good visibility. Rugged up and…

(written on 14th August) The plan is to steam hard north for a day or so, to make it to the pack ice. Yay! Last night we steamed up the west coast while we slept, inside the protection of Prins Karls Forland: nice and calm and quite flat. We woke to sirens at about three,…

Breakfast and pack-up were fairly leisurely, aiming for a 10:30 check-out, then a taxi ride (for our luggage at least) down to the Wildphoto gallery, where it would spend the day. Unfortunately the first taxi was half an hour away, so we opted to carry/trundle our luggage the few hundred meters down the hill ourselves.…

Yesterday was as close to a lay day as we’ve had so far. Mostly poking around the local gear shops, worrying if we have the right jackets and trousers. Met some of the folk at the Wildphoto gallery and confirmed departure plans. Met the other couple on our expedition who are staying at our hotel.…

Longyearbyen is an interesting place! Small, to be sure, but not small like a village. Feels like a mining town. Streets are dusty and dry like a desert town. Every house and hut has a couple of skidoos out the front, many covered. Some sitting on crates. Down towards the shore there was a skidoo…

Got to Tromsø OK. Car hired OK. Found apartment OK. Took quite a while to work the digital locks to get in, in the rain. Part of the problem was poor instructions had us trying the wrong door. Weird loft bedrooms with beds wedged into the slope of the roof, cramping the wall-side sleeper. Everyone…

We started west from Lofoton Links, but veered north to see what was at the northern end of the road at Gimsøya. That turned out to be a nice little fishing harbour. The region down the western side of Gimsøya is a bit different from what we’d seen elsewhere in the Lofotens. Instead of craggy…

We saved a cleaning fee at the lodging this morning, by doing it ourselves, which involved a bit more actual work than we’ve been used to, beyond the gathering of our stuff and fitting it into the car. Vacuuming, for instance. All of this was brightened by our cunning plan of going straight back to…