Arctic Off The Beaten Path

 
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  •   Off The Beaten Path
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  •   Off The Beaten Path
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  •   Off The Beaten Path
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  • Vardø - the northernmost fortress on earth
      Vardø - the northernmost fortress on...
    by globetrott
 

Reviews from VirtualTourist Members

GO TO THE ICE - BARRIER

by globetrott

By ship you can cruise to the so-called "Ice - barrier" , where the frozen part of the area around the Northpole starts. In summer that point is almost 800 nautical miles from the Northpole - depending on the time of the year and the average temperatures It is a great feeling to go by cruise-ship into the Ice-barrier, plenty of icebergs of all sizes around the ship make a special noise when touching the ship.And all our passengers got such a certificate with the exacte position that the ship could reach at that day at the Ice-barrier !

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Vadsø & an interesting airship-museum

by globetrott

Vadsø is a small town of about 6000 inhabitants in the very north of Norway and the Hurtigruten-ships stop there on their northbound voyage for about 30 minutes. Time enough to visit a small museum - in a shed opposite of the ship - about the early days of the airships: In 1926 & 1928 the airships "Norge" and "Italia" made their last stop there on the european continent before exploring the Northpole.In my main picture: The replica of the gondola of Umberto Nobile's Airship "Italia".No entrancefee to be paid in that museum, but donations are welcome and the most time of the year the museum will also be open just when the Hurtigruten-ship will be docked there for 30 minutes.You can step into the gondola as well.

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Vardø - the northernmost fortress on earth

by globetrott

Vardöhus Festnig in Vardø is the northernmost fortress on earth. This tiny village is one of the ports of the Hurtigruten-ships and when-ever they will get there during the southbound cruise from Kirkens to Bergen someone will wait there at the port and walk with you to that old fortress, so you will not miss it and will be able to make the best out of the short stay of just 60 minutes in Vardoe.The entrancefee is 30 NOK, that is just about 3 euros and you have to throw the money into a former bomb next to the entranceThere is an interesting museum inside of Vardoehus festnig and it is showing old uniforms, documents and my favorite exhibit there was the winter-cannon, fixed on a sled instead of wheels. There is a small souvenir-shop in that museum as well and most of the exhibits are explained with norwegian, english and german inscriptions !The walls of Vardoehus festning are not...

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Engineer Creek

by Darby2

As you travel up the Dempster Highway north of Dawson, in the Ogilvie Mountains, you will encounter this small stream that parallels the highway for a few miles. It's rocks are brightly coloured by iron in the water.

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what a peaceful place

by globetrott

What a peaceful place, somewhere out near Ny Alesund.On most of the cruises in Spitzbergen / Svalbard we also anchored in a bay and had a picknick on a remote beach with hot punch for our passengers.

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...but it did not happen...

by globetrott

Maybe next time.It looks great of course, when a large part of the ice would all of a sudden fall into the sea, but its also a big danger for small ships, like our tenders.The big cruise-ship would not be affected so much, except of a short heavy movement of a few seconds

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...besides the humming of the engines

by globetrott

...besides the humming of the cruise-ship there is absolutely NO noise up here at the 'end of the world'and on every cruise we went into one of the fjords and the captain turned off all engines for a few minutes in order to get a feeling for the " natural noises " of this remote island

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sandbanks are hidden at many places

by globetrott

We once touched a sandbank with the ship and it took a whole day to get out of it again.There was a large ship coming from Longyearbyen to tear us out of the sandbank again.Our Cruiseship had some holes on the bottom, but we were allowed to go on cruising till Hamburg.It was an adventure of a very special kind.

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Prudhoe Bay Oilfield, Alaska

by call_me_rhia

Visit the oilfields, if in Prudhoe Bay! Mind you, the visit is quite boring... but since you've come so far, and sicne there's nothing else to do, you might as well join one of the Oilfield tours. The Arctic Caribou Inn and Prudhoe Bay Hotel organise tours of different lenghts: 3 hours and 8 hours. For the 8 hours one you really must be an oilfield fanatic, or else a masochist. Generally speaking the views are nasty, but what can be interesting is to learn about how people work - and how hard it can be - in summer and winter

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Great Northern Arts Festival, Inuvik NWT, Canada

by call_me_rhia

Not exactly off-the-beaten-path since it's not a location, but many people seem to miss it, since it's a festival.. a wonderful festival and gathering of artists and art enthusiasts from the Northwest Territories, Nunavut and Yukon. It's usually held in mid-July and Inuvik, from a sleepy town, comes to life with plenty of performing artists, a large indoor exhibit and sale of fine arts, and a large cultural program of workshops and demonstrations which are generally opened to everyone. Some examples are: workshops on soapstone carving, lessons on how to make your own dreamcatcher, a traditional night of drum dancing, viewing the eskimo-throwing competition, a demonstration on dog-whipping (there's no dogs - it's just a show of skill), and a lot more. It's held every year at the Alexander Mackenzie school.

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Questions and Answers

sheherezad profile photo

Q:  I suddenly mused that it might/should be more interesting to check out the Canadian North, the Inuits etc instead of checking out... 

Bothwell profile photo

A: Sheherezad, I think “Into the Northwest Passage” tour is definitely unique and is the kind of tour that you’d remember for the rest of your life. I’d say, go for... 

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