Leg 1: Europe and the White Sea

May – June, 2013 Leg 1 was a great start to the trip. Caroline started in London and then sailed to Hamburg, through the Kiel Canal to Flensburg, Aalborg, Skagen and Oslo. At Oslo a short flight took her to…

Churt, Farnham

Thursday, June 27, 2013 Travel day to see long time friend Dan, Lisa and James. Amazing drive from Heathrow through some beautiful countryside and tiny lanes to Churt. A little unfortunately it was raining most of the time. Dan and Lisa…

Gent – Gent – Ypres.

Friday and Saturday, June 21-22, 2013 Had a wonderful stay with Hilde, Yaron, Moos and Liran in Gent. Moos kindly gave up his room for us which was very nice of him. We talked, ate, drunk and just relaxed with…

Groningen

Had a wonderful stay with our friends Heleen and Mark in Groningen, Netherlands. Wednesday, June 19, 2013 Headed North to the coast enjoying a drive around the countryside. Lovely canals, tree lined roads, windmills, flat fields, bicycles and tiny hamlet…

Tromsø (again)

Stopped in sleepy Tromsø before our flight to Amsterdam.  Said goodbye to friends and family on The World and watched her sail out of town. And thus ends our expedition to the The White Sea.

Honningsvåg

Sunday, June 16, 2013 Honningsvåg is a sleepy town with one main tourist attraction, the North Cape.  Instead of driving out to most northerly point of mainland Europe, which is not part of mainland Europe, we went for a lovely…

Murmansk

Saturday, June 15, 2013 Murmansk is the home of the Russian Navy’s Northern fleet as well as nine nuclear powered ice breakers.  In the morning we went for a city highlights bus tours stopping to see Alyosha the defender of…

Furthest North

Our Journey will take us half around the world, but today is likely to be the furthest point North we will go. The ship made it to North 80° 24′ 13.23″, East 52° 4′ 16.82″ before turning around and heading South…

Franz Josef Land

Wednesday, June 12, 2013 After a day at sea we arrived at Franz Josef Land. Look it up. We were far north on the map, very far north actually. Never even thought about getting here. But then again… this was…

Novaya Zemlya

Monday, June 10, 2013 Monday, June 10th Morning Activities Today we truly ventured north.  We woke very early to discover the ship had discovered ice.  Ice conditions prevented a landing at the abandoned Soviet research base.  Instead the captain took…

Cape Kanin

Saturday, June 8, 2013 Cape Kanin is the last outpost of the White Sea and mainland Russia before we head north into the Barents Sea. We did a little Tundra hiking before our 2 day sea voyage to the next destination.

Chapoma and Pyalitsa Rivers

Chapoma River If you believe the guides, apparently we were the first westerners to visit this Chapoma River village.  We saw first hand how hard life is in these remote lands.  There is no wharf for large boats to land…

Zayatsky and Anzer Islands

Thursday, June 6, 2013 Zayatsky Island This was our first ‘real’ expedition outing as we got into the zodiacs for the first time this trip to join the Expedition team and local guides for a walk to view a chapel…

Solovetsky Island and Monastery

Wednesday, June 5, 2013 We visited Solovetsky Island and Monastery on a cold summer’s day.  This spiritual home to the Russian Orthodox Church was the greatest citadel of the church in the far north until it was turned into a…