Lasting Memories

Well, that’s another adventure over. We left our ship in Longyearbyen on Tuesday morning and after many connections which had us landing at Tromso, Oslo, Copenhagen and Bangkok we finally arrived in Sydney on Thursday morning. We spent the night with our daughter and son-in-law and then back to Queensland on Friday arriving home at 5.30 pm.

Our memories we will always have ,but just a few things

The feeling of coming “home” to the ship after each zodiac excursion

The wonderful zodiac excursions with great guides, Quark really know how to pick their expedition staff

The reality of only going ashore with our guides and each of them with a gun enforces just what dangerous territory we were moving in but their training meant that any danger was reduced to a minimum. It was brought to us on the last day when a group of our walkers came across a bear at eighty metres. But there was a zodiac nearby to extract them. In all the years Quark have never had to kill a bear, and this is a very serious situation as all bears are protected and if that should ever happen, your holiday is over , whether it be the first or last day, and its a return to port, with very serious consequences.

The colours of the icebergs

And that first coming on to the pack ice and seeing the mother bear with her two cubs and the seal

Wow, what a trip and was it worth it, definitely yes. Like we said before we left home, we didn’t think the scenery would surpass the Antarctic, and we still agree that nothing can beat what’s down there in the south but nothing could take away the thrill of those bears. We were so lucky to see so many and so close.

Really one should not try to compare the two, they are both beautiful but they are both so different. As the saying goes, they really are "poles apart”

I.m sure our bear is saying “See you again next time”

Poo being Poo

No need to tell you what sort of a time Poo had.

Whether it be out doing what he enjoys most

Watching icebergs from the zodiac

Wishing he had Chivas to go with it

He might have slept on the way back to the boat but he was straight back on the computer to download

Never to be outdone, no fridges in the cabins and hot beer from Longyearbyen, he soon found a way to overcome. It might have been 20 odd degrees in the cabin, but out on the window sill it was still freezing

One Must Never Assume

Sitting in the hotel foyer in Longyearbyen, the morning our cruise was to depart I noticed an old couple with Quark labels on their packs. My thoughts were, gosh, how is that old man going to manage all the walking and climbing into zodiacs that is going to be happening on this cruise.

Well, once under sail it didn’t take long for me to find that my “old man” was no other than Michael Westmacott, one of the mountaineers who was part of Hilary’s party on the 1953 successful conquering of Everest. (Once back in Sydney I took a quick look again at Hilary’s book and he played a very important part in the expedition.)

What a wonderful man and he and his wife Sally made for the most entertaining company when we were able to sit with them at meal times. What a life. He is still very active in keeping a database of all climbers to the Everest region and when on trips ashore put a lot of us to shame when it came to walking and climbing. And the fact that he is now 84 years old, incredible.

Birds and Animals of the Arctic

Have to say that other than birds, they were few sightings of animals up here on the tundra.

In sure numbers you would never be able to guess just how many birds there are here

On cliff faces

 

On ice

Of course the nicest of the arctic I think, the puffin

We saw reindeer, some on ice and some on the green tundra

Not many seals around, but then why would they be up on the ice with polar bears around, you saw the earlier photo of the kill on the ice. No doubt they keep themselves in the water under the ice where its safer. Thanks Sue and Allan for this photo. I missed this one. Must have been arguing with Poo over exposures.

The Walrus. Well, what can I say. We walked for so long and had to be so quiet to get to this herd of walrus. We stood for soooo long and not a movement. Poo whispered “their stuffed” but all of a sudden one slight movement from one

More action from the next days group we came across

Then you could read what this fellow was saying “give me my personal space”

Poo’s Polar Plunge

When on this ship in Antarctica Poo didn’t attempt to try the waters. He tells me this time that it was a regret so when the time came for the Polar Plunge he was all in. Don’t really feel he did Qantas proud in their pyjamas, but I forgot the swimmers, so they were the next best thing.

Only Poo would be stupid enough to stop in that cold water and wave to the crowd before the return

I.m sure they all go into that freezing water for the nip of vodka they are rewarded with when they get back up the gang plank. Poo was given two nips, they reckon his swim deserved it.

Our Up Close and Personal Bear

When an announcement comes over the speaker “Bear on Ice” you would not believe how fast forty-five people can jump out of bed, on with the yellow parkas and make it out on deck or to the bridge. That’s what makes this ship so great. Whatever time day or night, a bear is spotted from the bridge its all up.

This bear was lying on the ice at three in the morning. During the next half hour he amazed us. He walked around,looked at us, came a little closer, went back to lying and rolling, then slowly made up his mind he would take a look. Absolutely out of this world stuff.

The number of times he had to cross over onto ice and he still wanted to have a look at us