We are anchored in a huge inlet by the Russian military station while they check our passports (face check again) before giving us clearance to leave Russian territory. While here we are not allowed to take photos inside or outside the boat – think I’ll just take one of the map to show where we are – its on the screen in our rooms.

There you are. And of course if you are seeing it, it means I wasn’t arrested for doing it……

We’ve said goodbye to our Russian minders, a very fond farewell, they have added so much to our trip. I am hoping to keep contact with them, the young woman, Dascha, who speaks good English says she will write to me, and I hope put her in contact with a Snowdonia park ranger, well, let’s see what can be done. The Russian contingent among the guests sang them a song, Russians certainly know how to have fun, mind you they were tucking well into the champagne at breakfast this morning, and not for the first time. I had a lovely nostalgic time with them this morning on our last whizz out among the ice cliffs and sea ice; we had an overflow of one from the English speaking Zodiac for so I volunteered to go with the Russians, I told Vladim, our driver, he didn’t need to translate for me and had a very happy hour surrounded by Russians, happy in my own space among them, reminiscent of my weeks on the Russian trains last year, revelling in the ice formations at the glacier outlet and just resting among newly forming sea ice which tinkles as it moves, a sea of tiny ice crystals, the birth of the sea ice which will cover the bay over the winter.

We had an early call this morning and were out before breakfast. I went up on the bridge to just stand and stare at the huge enclosed bay in the early morning, glorious weather after our rolling sea last night that sent not a few people scurrying for their bunks after supper. I was, and have been, OK – fingers crossed (!) this trip is not finished yet – I have worn wristbands constantly and if concerned, have sucked on ginger tablets which seem to have done the trick nicely.

I have succumbed to temptation, well, after all, for the duration of this I am among the Rich, and have handed over most of my clothes for laundry. $39. Well, that is the cheap deal, here’s the usual prices……

The cheap deal includes “pressing”, there is no option for just washing, sadly. I told Rowland my room steward to please get them back to me tomorrow and not make me wait 2 days, I need the stuff, and am perfectly happy to have it back unironed if that makes the difference. In fact the clothes will really be better unironed, never having been ironed ever in their entire lives before, the shock might be enough to disintegrate them!!!!

And how lucky have we been? The weather has been awesome, fine, amazing cloud formations, grey light on the sea, the sky, the islands, the snow, we’ve had calm seas, fog – atmospheric and beautiful. Yesterday was bloody cold but the prize for that was a landing where we were able to just walk, by ourselves, uphill to a lookout point (instead of being shepherded in a tight group). It was stony with less growing so less need to watch our feet to avoid treading on plants. Good job, I was quite stiff with cold after the Zodiac ride. This morning there was a lot of ice on the walkway outside the bridge. God its just glorious here!

We quietly nose our way through fog and sea ice looking for wildlife and for places to land, or to go out on the Zodiacs and explore glacier faces or ice bergs or just roam around among the sea ice. Because we never really see the sun and because it never actually goes down I have no sense of which is north or south. I feel afloat in a wilderness where no man has ever lived, divorced from all our normal points of reference, and I am content.

We change our plans by the hour depending on conditions, or because we have spotted a bear. We land where no tourists have landed before. We are surrounded by this huge seascape, all clouds and sea and ice and rocks, glorious colours in the glacier ice – pink, green, yellow, blue, with marbling effects and striations where crap has become embedded, and then a shaft of sunlight lights up a distant iceberg or icecap. The sea will reflect the islands, the icebergs, the light…..it is utterly and completely glorious.

We spend our days exploring these Islands, going where ice and weather allows, landing where possible or zipping about in the ice in the Zodiacs. They keep finding new and different things for us to do – today we walked around on the moraine at the foot of one of the massive glaciers, walking to the end to get a good look at the ice face. Sometimes its hard to take my eyes off the ground, the plant life here is extraordinary, its all mosses and fungus, so beautiful, the flowers, the colours, the variety.

One landing was aborted because the scouts spotted a bear on the island so instead we went to watch him from the Zodiacs, he got up from his slumber and lumbered around the island, slipped into the sea and swam across to another island. As we watched him wake up, a couple of walruses were frolicking in the sea immediately below him. Returning to the ship we were thoroughly sussed out by a young seal who popped up on every side to examine us. Its like a dream. Yesterday’s bear didn’t bother moving himself, just lay there snug between a pile of snow and a rock and peered us. We are being incredibly lucky – the previous group doing this trip only got 3 landings out of a possible 11 because of fog and, I think, didn’t see a bear at all.

The ship nosed her way north, flat calm, amazing cloud formations with shafts of light hitting distant ice caps and peaks, islands all around, among loose sea ice to the point where the Captain decided was the farthest north we would go on this trip, 81^o10^’, and did one of those superbly elegant 180^o turns on the spot to wend our way southwards again.

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!

Even as a little girl I knew our family was different – we weren’t happy, I didn’t have friends, and I dreamed of moving to the country and having a pony. It seemed totally unattainable for us townies and when it happened it gave me a deep and wonderful knowledge that dreams really do come true. Life has thrown a few challenging things my way – as it does to most of us – and I have learned that just when those things threaten to become overwhelming, hopes and dreams long forgotten, just sometimes, that’s just when a dream can come true. Don’t ever stop dreaming, whether you are 7, as I was with my pony dream, or 67 as I am now, or anything in between or indeed any time at all. As a young adult I dreamed of seeing Everest with my own eyes with no idea that it was something I could ever achieve. To stand there and do that very thing – I can still shut my eyes and be there.

You’ll have gathered how much I love wild and lonely places, nature, the sky above me, the earth or the sea beneath my feet. For more than half my life my dream has been to come to the Arctic and to stand where Nansen stood and lived for a winter. Keep dreaming folks and keep hoping, whatever it is…if mine can come true, so can yours.

Everything else is a bonus now – polar bears, walruses, the light on the sea, the ice, the sky – it is stunningly, unbelievably beautiful here. To stand and stare. I am so lucky.

That lonely little patch of flat land at the bottom of the cliffs is where Nansen and Johanssen overwintered, they made a shelter from stones and a driftwood log and lived off polar bears and walrusses. It wouldn’t have been green when they were there,  just ice.

And here is what they looked out at, again, it would have been solid ice and of course what they didn’t see was a ship….this is the lovely Sea Spirit waiting patiently for us as we walked where they walked, breathed the air they breathed and looked out on the same sea they looked at every day.

….and in front of me and beside me and in fact just everywhere around me! Fantastic animals! And what a sound they make, sort of a cross between pigs and a stag at rutting time as they loll about on the rocks all cutched up together. We watched them for ages, lots of them, some swimming around – a mother and cub popped up a bit close, got a surprise to see us and she ushered her cub away from us and towards the others. On the whole they seemed happy to see us, it felt as though we were their summer entertainment and they were happy to play with us.

And the landscape – the sun lighting up glaciers, rocks, the sea, reflecting off the icebergs which become icy blue turquoise – I could just revel in the landscape forever, the light, the space, the vast uninhabited emptiness of it.

And the icing on the cake? A mother Polar bear with her 2 cubs – we watched them for ages. Sublime!

Yep! I took both of those! Promise!

We’ve landed in Russia.

Our first sight of land this afternoon, Franz Josef Land, low lying, all ice and cliffs, its snowing out there……

Our lovely Sea Spirit has anchored just offshore, 6 Russian officials have been Zodiaced on board and we were all called for a face check against our passports and to sign immigration cards before sailing off again for our first landing – Bell Island, tomorrow. We now have 6 Russian Park Rangers on board who will keep us safe from Polar bears, which is a real issue and not just an excuse for them to surround us with rifles every step we take on Russian soil.

Last night we all sat down to dinner and wondered quite what was happening as the ship’s engines were obviously working overtime as we ground to a halt – there were whales everywhere! The ship had to stop, there was nowhere for her to go, whales on every side. We all rushed out on deck. Minke whales and humpback, all round as far as the eye could see, one even arced right out of the sea, it was almost like slow motion. We were so lucky – they are saying they’ve not seen that many in one place before.

On the subject of wildlife, I saw 2 arctic foxes on the hike from Longyearbyen (which I now know is pronounced Long – yer – ben). I don’t ever aim or plan to see wildlife, haven’t the patience and would rather enjoy all the wonderful things around me than feel disappointed at not seeing wildlife, and have been extraordinarily lucky in my travels.

Food. I love my food and love it when somebody else plans, cooks and clears it up afterwards, but, and this is a big but, here on board……there is a ridiculous amount of food, all wonderful, it took about 24 hours for the novelty to wear off and to feel a little – nauseated? overwhelmed? – not sure quite what word to use, but its not a particularly happy one. And not content with 3 very square, overly square, meals a day, there is early bird coffee and pastries at 6am, cakes and buns available all day and usually something like crepes suzette at teatime….a Bit Much!

I, of course, am in the cheap cabin down in the bottom of the ship, not quite down in the bowels – that’s reserved for the crew – but I love sleeping next to 2 old fashioned round portholes with the sea just outside, rocked to sleep to the sound of the waves and waking to look out at the surface of the sea right there next to me. My posh friends can keep their picture windows and balconies…..there is actually a very nice atmosphere and feeling of friendliness and acceptance. Its good!

Love the open bridge policy on the Sea Spirit, we can go up pretty well anytime.

PS don’t expect wildlife pics, I don’t do it, I’d rather watch and experience than fart about trying to get the perfect shot (which I’m never going to get with my little camera) and miss spending time with the whales.

I am on the Arctic Ocean!

Lots of introductions, briefings and lectures. Quite a team to look after us and instruct us on flora and fauna, photography, geology, terrain and, the one that interests me, history – the explorers who found and mapped this place. And instructions and information. We are not on a cruise, apparently, its an expedition (I just quote Our Leaders here). We are the ONLY ship that gets to come this way, and once here we can go wherever we like – or wherever we can, as there are lots of places we can’t get to as the sea ice is all around and along the eastern side of the archipelago. Including, unfortunately, as far across as Jackson Island – the place where Nansen overwintered and the one place I had really hoped to set foot. So its extremely unlikely we can land there but will go as close as possible and get a good look. Good enough!!

We really are out in the wilds, its just us exploring these remote, inaccessible, exciting, icy islands, following in the footsteps of Victorian explorers. With this rather ridiculous contrast of living in the very lap of luxury……

Life on board sees our every need catered for, all the trappings – thick white linen napkins, clean every meal, your water glass refilled when its half empty, beds made in the morning and turned back at night….I’m enjoying it all….for the novelty, you understand, its not really me!

My travel companions are good company, nice people, and I am enjoying being more sociable than usual, especially as I can retreat to my cabin with a book or out on deck to stare at the sea.

So early in our voyage, we have been among sea ice – lots of bits of ice of all shapes on the sea around us, the sea calm and smooth – apparently an effect of the ice, in the fog, just beautiful. That’s all gone now as we motor along, and so far the weather is being kind.

So, here I am, incarcerated for a fortnight in a tin box with people for whom, in the majority, this is just this year’s cruise, rather like last year’s group tour of Mongolia where I was definitely the only one living a dream. What strikes me, though, is that I am rubbing shoulders with people who can afford to do this eyewateringly expensive trip as a matter of course. It will be very interesting and informative – although it’s a big enough group for me to be quietly and completely separate and just revel in my dream.

Having said all that, people are nice, and friendly, and I will at least attempt to be sociable occasionally!

My room mate is Lilian, from Taiwan – she at least is not one of the Rich, she’s a travel agent, here with a group of 30 many of whom apparently travel together most years and have developed a very personal connection. Rather nice

Our cabin is palatial! And we’re on the cheap tickets!!!!

Looks like this really is over and out – no connection on board – the promised wifi is $100, or so rumour has it!!!! So I’ll write as I go and post as and when…….see you in 2 weeks……xx

Took a walk up a local hill – 500 m – its stark an stony up there, and just amazing, huge landscape, this place is so BIG, our guide said its as big as the whole of southern Norway. All mountains and sea and glaciers. The place is full of bright young things here to do guiding – hiking, kyaking, etc etc. You aren’t allowed to leave town without an official guide who carries a rifle in case you meet a truculent polar bear, which has happened, with tragic results. But rather mixed feelings about that aspect of things.

As ever in these wild and lonely and exposed places I marvel at what grows and how tenacious nature is. Here is the only sort of tree you find in Svalbard, they can’t grow up so they creep across the ground, this is a willow, in its autumn colours and is what gives the hills their slightly golden hue.

Off into the blue tomorrow………no idea whether there will be any sort of connection…..see you at some stage!

climbed the one on the right above.

and this is Longyearbyen, looking the other way…..