This whole trip incredibly well organised – apart from living in the lap of luxury in every way possible, the ship is kept immaculate, people are always cleaning inside and out – and even touching up paintwork outside, everything is sparkling clean and its very attractively done up with shiny wood panelling everywhere and really good prints of polar exploration – this ship does both polar regions. My fellow passengers are for the most part good company, nice people, interesting, companionable…..with some exceptions…..I had to ask the leader of our small walking group yesterday to intervene and prevent me committing murder – one of the Taiwanese contingent (there is a group of 37 of them on board) was taking video panoramic pictures of the glacier we were looking at, chattering loudly with all her companaions who were loudly chattering back, playing loud music all the while on her phone!

Of course I’d rather NOT be doing the social bit, mealtimes are, well, at times not my favourite time (the food is excellent albeit gross, you could literally eat ALL day from 6am til you go to bed and I think some people do, including puddings twice a day, often with 2nd helpings) I can’t just take my plate to my room, I really do need to sit with other people. Last night I was on a small table with 2 people I feel very comfortable with, we were joined by an Austrian couple – delightful, good company, interesting – but I was just exhausted by the end!

And of course within our small group of English speakers there is a little jockeying for position between some of the men, watched with amusement by the rest of us. What is it with men and wanting to be the alpha male? But then again, without that, the rest of us might miss our entertainment in the in between times…..

Our team of leaders is excellent – enthusiastic, competent, approachable, fun, they entertain and inform us….naval terms, polar bears, birds, plants, ice, geology….even knots (that’s tying knots, not how far we are going).

Have I mentioned our small team of Russian minders? 6 young people who joined us at the military base where we cleared customs, they are delightful and all here because this is where they want to be, they love it. Before we met them we speculated whether they were banished here for some misdemeanour but that one was firmly quashed. They stay with us for the duration and patrol safe places for our landings so none of us are eaten by a bear. Seriously. Twice we have not been able to land where expected because there’s a bear there. Interestingly, bears kip out in the open, their incredible coats keeping them warm and no fear as they are the top, they have no predators. There is something very special about watching a mother bear with her cub kipping, keeping an eye out to see what we are up to but relaxed and undisturbed by our presence.

I have realised how much the last few months of not being well has taken out of me, it took me quite a few days into this trip to stop feeling constantly exhausted and needing to sleep at every opportunity. Feel great now!