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Polar-Circle-Baptism------------------------------------------------ This is a wonderful way to smell like old fish.They baptize all crew-members crossing the ARCTIC CERCLE for the first time with a smelly sauce of old fish and plenty of other bad things. - Smells great for several days ! Better have your 'Polar Certificate' ready, when working on a new cruise-ship - it might prevent another baptism !
It was one of my best days in The arctic, at Svalbard / Spitzbergen, when the cruiseship M/S Vistafjord ran aground inside of Kongsfjord--------------------------------------------------------------------- I made plenty of pics of this very special day out in the wilderness of the lonely fjord & the rescue of our shipYou can read more about it on my my EUROPE > SVALBARD > Sitzbergen-page
Send a postcard to all your friends, collecting stamps! - They will certainly enjoy this special Postage-stamp!-------------------------------------------------------------------- Longyearbyen is the northernmost postoffice in the world at 78* 12' 28''altitude, at least it was so in the time when I travelled there on a regular basis between 1979 and 1985. Some people say that now Ny Alesund is the northernmost postoffice !
I have created separate pages for the towns I have visited in the arctic region: Kiruna (Sweden) and Narvik (Norway), the respective latitudes are 67° 51’ N and 68° 25’ N. Both have about 20,000 inhabitants and can be reached by train, so this cannot be considered the “Wild North”. I have been more to the north than that, in Honningsvåg (70° 59’N), but it has 3200 inhabitants, so by the Norwegian law it is considered a village, since 5000 people are considered the minimum for a town.The most northern place I have visited is Nordkapp, as I mentioned in the intro.
Yes, there is such a thing as a flora in the Arctic. It is a highly vulnerable ecosystem, but it is there! You just have to look closely and you will see it!I was so surprised to see little beautiful flowers where I thought nothing could bloom any more! Bright colors and thankful for every ray of sun!We also got to see a grown tree on Spitsbergen, which was only the size of a child's foot! Because of the very short summers, it can only grow for a very limited time and thus stays very small! It does have annual rings and everything - fascinating!For some more information have a look at this interesting website!
Polar bears are an endangered species and although they are very dangerous animals, we should do all we can to preserve their species!!! Seeing the footprints of polar bears so close was a breathtaking experience for me!!!
We were extremely lucky to see some walrusses that far south - I guess it was because the winter was that long that they were still in the area!!We took a zodiac cruise that took us so close to the walrus that we could hear him breathe - and watch him cleaning himself..... boy, he must have been into something...... ;-)
Two days in a row we had the chance to observe polar bears from a distance - the first day there was a mother with her cub - playfighting in the water for more than an hour!!!Then finally they went on and the cub walked up the hill, threw himself on the back and slid down the hill... hilarious!!! Not once, not twice - in fact it was 3 times, before Mom could call him to wandering on.....
The Spitsbergen reindeer is quite a bit smaller than its Scandinavian mainland relative and they live in much smaller herds as well. In fact the reindeer that we saw were all solitary. They grase on what little they can find, but I guess they have adapted to this kind of environment well.
Those fellows are really fascinating!! They look like a mixture between a parrot and a penguin and when they fly they look like little clowns!!We first saw them on Fair Isle and even in Svalbard there were Atlantic Puffins.When breeding they like to use rabbit holes - but most of the year they are not landbound but rather on and in the water.
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