Off again!

I'm off again, this time to Burma. I've not yet finished writing about the wonderful trip to the Arctic and already I'm leaving for a cruise on the Irrawaddy River.

Alan brought me to Heathrow Terminal 3 this evening, but I feel I may have fallen through a time-warp into a parallel universe as the lady on security not only gave me a wide smile but helped to arrange my carry-on luggage on the trays for X-Ray. Bemused by this unusual kindness, I went through passport control. I noted that the Passport Officer greeted the child of the lady in front of me with a 'high five' so I was prepared when, having checked my passport, the gave me a big smile and wished me well.

I'm travelling with Eva Air (the Taiwanese carrier) on their flight BR0068 as far as Bangkok. The aircraft will then continue to Taipei. Eva Air share the American Airlines lounge - a spacious, modern lounge with splendid views of the apron and plenty of working computers to give you this update.

As the trip proceeds, communication may become more difficult but the reports of my three previous trips to Burma may give you an idea of why the country exerts such a fascination for me.

Arctic Adventure - Longyearbyen

Thursday 11th August 2010

Longyearbyen, with two of the preserved wooden supporting towers for the abandoned aerial ropeway.

As requested, the passengers had placed their luggage outside each suite on Wednesday night. Early on Thursday morning, I'd watched the luggage being placed on the quay. As a drizzle started, a large tarpaulin was stretched over the multi-coloured suitcases.

Breakfast on Thursday was the last meal on the ship and then we 'swiped-out' for the last time before leaving the ship to identify our luggage. By this time, the rain had stopped and the tarpaulin had been removed but finding and identifying the luggage of 120-odd people involved a bit of a scrum. Four large coaches were waiting for us. Like the majority of the passengers, I'd opted for coach transfer to the town, giving me a couple of hours to explore the town before catching a coach to the airport where we would be re-united with our luggage.

We drove out of the port and turned left onto the road to the town centre, with the narrowing fjord on our left and the looming mountain on our right. Just a few minutes brought us to the small town which is built in a valley running at right angles to the fjord. The buildings were modern and mainly wood-built Although there was some snow high on the mountains, most of the hills were dark and rather oppressive. I was reminded of a Welsh pit village and the image is appropriate because coal mining forms an important part of the history of Longyearbyen.

The town is remarkable in many ways. It is the administrative centre of Svalbard and, I was told, has a population of around 2,500 (the whole of Svalbard has a population of around 2,700!). When I visited, it was still the period of 'Midnight Sun' with no snow but, a little later in the year, the area enters a long period of permanent twilight when it never enjoys daylight and heavy snowfall can be relied upon. It takes a certain sort of individual to want to live there permanently.

The industrial heyday was at the beginning of the 20th century when John Monroe Longyear, an American businessman, developed a series of coal mines around the town now named after him. Longyear established an elaborate aerial ropeway system to bring the coal down to the fjord for exporting by ship. The abandoned remains can be seen all around the town today. Anything over 50 years old is regarded as a cultural relic and protected. Modern-day mining is concentrated on more discreet installations and tourism is now an important industry.

After the first world war, the Spitsbergen Treaty confirmed the territory as Norwegian but gave the various signatory countries residential, commercial and research rights which are still exercised.

More follows ...

Wikipedia has more information.

My Collection of Arctic pictures is here.

My pictures of arrival and disembarkation are here.

My pictures around the town are here.

My pictures of the Aerial Ropeway are here.

My pictures of mining equipment are here.

Arctic Adventure - 11

Wednesday 11th August 2010

All my Arctic pictures are here.

My pictures at the July 14th Glacier are here.

Jan on the beach with the July 14th Glacier in the background.

Our success in spotting Polar Bears meant that the number of shore visits was rather less than originally intended. On the day before the cruise ended, we made a shore visit uninterrupted by Polar Bears at the July 14th Glacier. This glacier was named by Prince Albert I of Monaco and named after the date of its discovery in honour of Bastille Day in France.

The Zodiacs landed us on a flat beach with the option of a level walk along the beach to the left for a spot of bird watching or a walk along the beach to the right followed by a hike up the rocks bordering the glacier for views from the top of the glacier.

Of course, I elected to hike up the rocks. The expedition staff had surveyed a route through the rocks and marked it with a series of flags. It was quite a tough climb but well worth the effort. The plateau at the top of the glacier represented the limit of our wandering, so fairly soon I was descending again. The gesturing of one of the staff caught my attention and, following his pointed I had a wonderful sighting of an Arctic Fox as he descended from the glacier and without haste made his way across my field of view to the beach and along the shoreline. He was in his summer coat of two-tone grey (the fur is white only during winter) and a handsome fellow.

One of the Zodiacs was picking up a couple of passengers from the shore near the base of the glacier and I accepted the offer of a lift back to the landing point. We had really close sightings of a pair of barnacle geese strolling unconcernedly along the beach.

I disembarked at the landing point and there was time to walk to the group of birdwatchers who'd been watching another arctic fox on the hillside. This fox had dark brown fur but was much further away than my earlier sighting. The sun shone and everybody was a little sorry, I think, when the time came for us all to return to the ship.

We continued sailing south until we came to the fjord leading to Longyearbyen where we docked in the early evening. One more night on board and then we would leave the ship and most of the passengers would catch the afternoon flight from Longyearbyen Airport back to Oslo before going our separate ways.

Arctic Adventure - 10

Tuesday 10th August 2010

My Arctic pictures are here.

We anchored off the flat spit of land known as Smeerenburg (Dutch for 'Blubbertown'. This was a whaling station used by a number of Dutch companies in the 17th century. During this period, whales were hauled ashore, hacked to pieces and the blubber was heated in huge open pans to release the oil. Baleen plates (the filters through which whales filter sea water to extract the plankton) were valuable to provide 'whalebone' used in ladies' corsetry.

Very little of the original station remains - a few timber building foundations and indications of the boiling pans. Boiling pans survive from other sites but there is none at Smeerenburg. Conservation is very strict in Svalbard - anything man-made over 50 years old is a 'Cultural Artefact' and must be left alone.

Whilst Colleen was relating more of the history of the site, one of the Bear Guards approached shouting 'Everybody back to the boats!' and we were shepherded back to the landing site where Victoria and Colleen were trying to get people into lifejackets and into Zodiacs.My Zodiac cruised to where the Bear Guards were carefully watching to offer them a lift, but they suggested that we continued to where they'd spotted a Polar Bear to observe it from the safety of the Zodiac.

We travelled about half a mile before spotting a bear walking across the rocky hillside towards the place we'd just left. The other Zodiacs joined us and we slowly retraced our route, keeping pace with the bear. The bear, in a very sure-footed manner, was plodding across the rocky hillside at a constant 4 to 5 miles an hour. They can keep this up indefinitely when stalking prey but have a burst speed up to 40 miles an hour when going for the kill. The bear was clearly aware of our presence but continued his plodding, descending the hillside to the shore and then continuing along the rocky beach. It was a remarkable experience to be able to observe the animal for half a mile or so from the safety of the Zodiacs and it gave a slight understanding of how inexorable the animal can be in pursuit of food.

More later ...