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Packing for a trip is, of course, always difficult.
Lindblad/ National Geographic did give us good advice, of course. But a list of things to bring can only take you so far.
In general, two rules apply:
1) Lay out everything you are intending to bring. Double the money, and halve everything else.
But that brings us to...
2) You won't need half of what you bring. But you won't know which half you didn't need until after the trip is over.
Packing for this trip was particularly odd. We would be in a remote location. So some of the things I've packed for the Amazon rainforest, or the wild places of southern Africa were appropriate.
But we would be getting their through a very "modern" country. And living in considerable comfort on a cruise ship. So the things I bring to "spread a little sunshine" in the lives of the extraordinarily poor people I have met in some of my travels to remote places were irrelevant. And some of the medical "be prepared" packing wasn't necessary.
We would be experiencing 24 hour DAYS, no nights. About the most "high" high summer you can experience in the northern hemisphere, and we nearly be there for the longest day of the year... And yet we would have to be prepared for serious cold, possibly even snow. Or warm days.
Nothing was said by the organizers, but I decided that Svalbard might not be, in terms of habitat and biological activity, greatly dissimilar to Alaska. Some of the birds that migrate to Svalbard for "the boom times", good chick raising conditions, feed on marine prey... but if Alaska (and Northern Canada) can be plagued by swarms of mosquitos which can make breathing difficult... maybe a few items related to that would be in order? Especially as I REALLY dislike scratching bites! (Happily,
So... as I say... the "packing list" for this trip was an interesting mix of things needed and not needed.
We were limited to one bag (max 50lbs) and one carry on bag (12 pounds). I wanted to use a soft bag so that I wouldn't have my largish, rigid sided bag underfoot in my cabin... and I tried hard to Make That Work.
Life had been a little "stressed" in the days running up to departure. But somehow, I had myself "packed" by late afternoon the day before I was leaving home at start of the next day.
But to fit "everything" into the soft bag, I had left things out... most notably my good camera. Being without that would have been a terrible situation, not that I fully realized this a the time.
I like my "toys", and a last minute decision to change bags really paid off... especially in that it allowed me to bring the good camera. And my cabin proved to be so spacious that there was room for the big bag under my bed. It was no nuisance at all. Whew!
A last minute, unexpected need to pop into town on Friday afternoon meant that I made it to evensong at the cathedral. The chance that gave me to reflect is probably what allowed me to realize that abandoning the first bag choice was worth the effort of re-packing. Who says I cannot make changes?
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Page WILL BE been tested for compliance with INDUSTRY (not MS-only) standards, using the free, publicly accessible validator at validator.w3.org. Mostly passes. There were two "unknown attributes" in Google Translate and Google+ button code. Sigh.