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This page is a "temporary home" to photos en route to more logical places in my report on a fantastic trip to Svalbard in June 2016 with Lindblad, National Geographic, which I joined through the auspices of Cornell Adult University.
As images complete their preparation for the web, they will appear at the top of this page. They will gradually disappear from the bottom parts of the page, as "proper homes" become available for them elsewhere in the trip report.
If you were on the trip, and would be willing to share photos which you took, do please get in touch... they would be very welcome. (You would get a credit beside the photo!)
We do iceburgs.
"In other news": This is an historic image!! It is the first one edited by me on an Ubuntu (variety of Linux) PC, and the first uploaded by me from a Linux machine. My emmigration to Linux going well so far. (Umm. Well. I thought it was... if the vertical bars are still on either side of the image, they shouldn't be. A minor thing, I presume. We'll see.)
Here begins a short section of GPS data logger reports, but first an overview of the spots where a log was available...
Sadly, the Google Maps images for Svalbard are not very well along yet. (The horizontal division in the following is entirely an artifact of the satellite views.)
I had forgotten to turn the logger on. The record (red line) starts at the flag, a long way into our visit. We landed where we departed, and before walking NW, had walked along the beach to near the edge of the glacier.
The part of our walk I did record (plus the short ride back to our ship) was 1.5km long. Use the red line (1.5km) to get a sense of scale.
Everywhere, everything in Svalbard was vast....
Much to be said about this... it was our walk on the 16th across the gravel plain. (The numbers are to help you see the path we took, in spite of it over-laping itself.)
Our walk on the tundra, 18th.
Meeting the walruses, 18th
Wonderful bay, 19th... with "Viking Cocoa Station". Track shows a tour by Zodiac.
View to relate parts of Vigeland Park
Pillar on plaza at top of park. Note "scenes from life all around... "real" people, everyday vignettes, not "models posing".
The fountain, already seen in overview, a little lower than plaza with pillar.
Now we move to the excellent museum. (Although, in fact, I toured museum before seeing the park... a sequence I would recommend.)
This is a model for the fountain. If you look closely, about a third from the right hand edge, you can see the top of another visitor's head, to give you the scale of this. As we saw in the previous photo, the scale of the final masterpiece was huge... the "tree" elements were probably 9 feet high. Or so.
The artist had to be part mechanical engineer to realize his concepts.
Details of three of the "trees", and on the wall behind some of the panels which decorated the sides of the fountain... there were dozens. Each depicting people of all ages, in a wondrous variety of everyday pursuits...
... such as small boys scuffling!
Tre's "Mickey Mouse".
(From classic-sailing.co.uk)
The photography will win no awards, but this starts to explain something we saw.
It is rare for a female to raise three cubs this far.
The adult was "foxing"... just about to drive her forarms down into the snow to break into a seal's den.
We saw this little family up close, and watched for an extended period.
Reindeer on hillside, from 14th. We were walking near here, not long afterwards. I hadn't realized how white they would be, and wondered if a distant one I saw might be a polar bear, before learning.
The Adventure Begins...
The little specks on the fore-shore? Us!
The in focus foreground? Perhaps 5cm across.
My spacious, comfortable, well-appointed cabin. I don't feel the photo does it justice... it wasn't at all drab or "brown".
(The photo below doesn't show the ship I was on.)
(From classic-sailing.co.uk)
If you find yourself wanting to use a photo on this site, please see my page about using web-published material which is copyright TK Boyd. If you want to contact me, here's my eddress, or you can use the contact form. (Email best; choose your subject line carefully. The contact form on the page the link takes you to is often abused, and I don't read all messages arriving that way.) Corrections to bad information on the pages very welcome... don't be shy!
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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.