Whale bone

As promised, a few more pictures. This whale carcass has been a great attraction for the bears despite the fact that it's now about 12 months old.

Drying off after diving for dinner

Look into my eyes

How wonderful is this - the bear came up beside the ship to check out the sight - maybe he could smell dinner or perhaps the passengers

 And check out my claws

We were treated to many occasions of the bears leaping from one ice flow to the next - a wonderful display of grace and power. And great landing ability.

Ready, set....

....Air Bear

And if I could work out how to place these pictures just where I want them it would not be so difficult to keep these pages up to date.

Perfect Landing

The journey begins

Bear watching

First bear

Ready for a dip

Spot the bear

Here they are!

Beautiful yearling cub

Oh No, I need a manicure

Puffin

A litter of Arctic Fox cubs

Reindeer

My apologies for not adding to this site sooner - internet connection in the far frozen north is somewhat limited. Rather than give details of my travels at this stage I'll just put up a few pictures to wet the appetite. This was an amazing journey and we had some incredible luck with the weather, the number of bears, other animals and birds we saw and just the beautiful landscape which emerged from the morning mist each day. Our first zodiac trip to hopefully see our first bear was misty, wet and very cold. We saw a small creamy blob that had no intention of moving. Bears sleep some 8 - 10 hours at a time so its not uncommon to just see a blob. Spotting them takes skill and experience and our expedition team did a wonderful job. We went out twice more that day and were rewarded with a bear that came to feed on a very decayed whale carcass and then later another bear moving along the shore, its fur catching the sunlight that was finally peaking through the clouds. Sleeping up the hill was a mother bear and her small cub, but that's for another day....

Cruising the glacial ice

Svalbard

Here I am at Longyearbyen, Svalbard. Almost as far as I can get from work so to speak - when the ship hits Moffen island above 80 degrees latitude then that's the farthest. This is the world's northernmost settlement consisting of approximately 2000 people. I'm just amazed that people live in such places. It's beautiful but the max summer temp averages 6 degrees and winter can get down to -30 plus it's dark for several months. Still they get the northern lights and polar bears.

The flight from Gardermoen was fine and views beautiful - I do my best to get a window seat. As we flew over Svalbard there was a break in the clouds and the views were breathtaking. Huge glaciers, lakes and mountains.

Summer in the UK

I've just set up my first blog site whilst sitting in my little hotel room in Gardermoen, Norway. Having just had 3 warm, mostly sunny days with our friends, Marilyn and David in England I'm about to embark for the Arctic segment of my travels. Apparently the weather in Longyearbyen is min 4 and max 5 with no sunrise or sunset as it is 24 hours sun. I'll rug up warm and wear my sunnies.

Here'e a few pics from the UK segment of the journey: