Churt, Farnham. June 27-July 2, 2013.

June 27

Travel day to see long time friend Dan, Lisa and James.  Amazing drive from Heathrow through some beautiful countryside and tiny lanes to Churt.  A little unfortunately it was raining most of the time.  Dan and Lisa have a wonderful place and it was great to see them both again.

June 28

Spent most of the day with Dan doing a little shopping and seeing his village.  Of course found time to stop for and English Pub lunch.

Enjoying an English beer with Dan

June 29

Caroline's birthday today complete with sunshine.  Friends from London headed south to help us, Dan and Lisa to celebrate Caroline's birthday.  We all enjoyed a BBQ lunch, some drinks and a little afternoon tennis.

Birthday BBQ.  Pictured here is Dan, Wayne,
Caroline, Sally, Jody, Silvia, Natalie and Pete. 

June 30

Spent a lovely morning watching James playing school-boy cricket for his local village.  Lunch at the Dog and Pheasant before a relaxing Sunday afternoon with Dan, Lisa and James.

July 1

Last day in England.  Remarkably the weather is still very good.  The first leg of the adventure draws to an end.

Last Day in England.  Caroline in the Three Horseshoes.

Gent - Gent - Ypres. June 21-27, 2013

Friday and Saturday, June 21st - 22nd.

Had a wonderful stay with Hilde, Yaron, Moos and Liran in Gent.  Moos kindly gave up his room for us which was very nice of him.  We talked, ate, drunk and just relaxed with our long time friends.  We found Starbucks within walking distance, which is pretty good luck as there are only a handful in the whole of Belgium.

Hilde and Caroline arranged a send-off party for our friends in Belgium.  We rented 'the dungeon' (dating back to the 13th century) of De Afkikker in Gent. dating back to the 14th century.  It was great to see everyone over a few drinks.

13th Century Basement with 21st Century lights.

Sunday, June 23rd.

Back in Caroline's home town.  And of course enjoying the first of a few beers with Stefaan in 't Kabouterke, Caroline's old haunt on the Markt in Eeklo.

Stefaan, Stephen, an 'Exporke' and a Hoegaarden.

Monday, June 24th

Had a wonderful lunch with Caroline's mum, aunts and uncle.  It was quite the outing with everyone enjoying and food and wine.
That evening we caught up again with Stefaan, and where else but in Café 't Kabouterke in Eeklo.

In 't Kabouterke.

Tuesday, June 25th

Touring Eeklo for the day and being a tourist in Caroline's home town.  Found the local museum, which was closed and yet we were still allowed to visit. I guess we looked harmless enough.

Huysmanshoeve. Eeklo's oldest farm.

Eeklo Markt.

Wednesday, June 26th

Spent a lovely day with Hilde visiting Ieper/Ypers and surrounds. The whole area was the site of many years of trench warfare during World War I, and consequently, is now the site of many monuments and graveyards. People of many commonwealth countries including New Zealand fought and died in these fields.
We started with the impressive, humbling and reflective In Flanders Field Museum in the Lakenhallen in the center of Ieper. We then walked to the nearby Menenpoort / Menin Gate. Afterwards we went for a drive that took us amongst others to Tyne Cot Cemetery and The 's Graventafel New Zealand Monument.

Menenpoort Ieper.

's Graventafel NZ Monument.

Tyne Cot Cemetery.

Thursday, June 27th

Heading to the airport for our flight to London.

Traffic in Belgium.  Just a few road works.

Groningen. June 18-20, 2013

Had a wonderful stay with our friends Heleen and Mark in Groningen, Netherlands.

June 19

Headed North to the coast enjoying a drive around the countryside.  Lovely canals, tree lined roads, windmills, flat fields, bicycles and tiny hamlet villages. All very pretty actually.  Finished the day with a bbq over a few drinks.

Great friends Helen and Mark.  Very very nice that they
looked after us during our short stay.

June 20

City walking tour of Groningen seeing all the sights.

St George, as in St George and the Dragon.

June 21

Took the long path from Northern Netherlands to Northern Belgium along the coast and through driving rain.  Again the countryside was amazing green and beautiful.  During the drive we visited the low point for the Netherlands, at which time the weather gods decided to stop with the rain.

Caroline at the low point of Netherlands.

GPS confirming that we are below Sea Level.

Tromsø (again). June 17, 2013

Stopped in sleepy Tromsø before our flight to Amsterdam.  Said goodbye to friends and family on The World and watched her sail out of town.

Honningsvåg. June 16, 2013

Honningsvåg is a sleepy town with one main tourist attraction, the North Cape.  Instead of driving out to most northerly point of mainland Europe, which is not part of mainland Europe, we went for a lovely hike above the town.

Home to the Cruise ship.

Statue of Knut Erik Jensen.

Beautiful tree-less and rugged land.

Murmansk. June 15, 2013.

Murmansk is the home of the Russian Navy's Northern fleet as well as nine nuclear powered ice breakers.  In the morning we went for a city highlights bus tours stopping to see Alyosha the defender of the Soviet Arctic during the second world war and other sights.  In the afternoon we visited the Murmansk Shipping Company museum and the world's first nuclear powered ice breaker, the Lenin.  Because of the harsh climate and reduction in government subsidies the overall population has been in decline for the last decade.  And there is not a lot going in Murmansk.

Memorial to the "Defender of the Soviet Arctic during the
Second World War".   Or more affectionally called Alyosha.

Nuclear powered ice breaker.  The Lenin.

The bridge of the Lenin.

The reactor room of the Lenin.  People are not real.

Franz Josef Land. June 12, 2013

After a day at sea we arrived at Franz Josef Land. Look it up. We were far north on the map, very far north actually. Never even thought about getting here. But then again... this was m/v The World with Captain Dag Saevik at the helm and he just loves a good challenge!!!!
Successful landings depend on a combination of ice, sea and weather conditions.

In the morning we made a zodiac landing at Flora Point, Cape Flora on Northbrook Island for our first steps on Franz Josef Land.  It was cold with an unforgiving wind.

An ice-free Northbrook Island.

Enjoying a short and cold stroll at Cape Flora.
We are not the first to visit here.

We sailed around for most of the day unsuccessfully looking for places to park the boat until we finally found Baxter Island with very promising looking 'fast' ice (as in fastened to the land). The expedition scouting party went 'ashore' to check out the ice conditions and it was decided that the landing could go ahead. The weather, light, wind, all was aligned perfectly. Captain Dag drove the ship right up to the ice edge and around 10pm we went for an evening stroll.
Absolutely surreal experience. We haven't experienced anything that even remotely comes close to this.
And to top the day off, we went for a midnight dip in the freezing waters.  Crazy? Yep! Thing to do? Of course!

The World parked right at the fast ice's edge.

Beautiful landscape over the frozen sea.

Hard to believe it is 10pm in the evening.

Classic photo of the residents trying to pull
the ship through the ice.

Stephen with Maria, one of our Russian guides.

The Polar plunge.  Yes, it was very cold.

And very glad to be out of the water.

Ice Cruising, Barents Sea. June 11, 2013.

Spent the day cruising from Novaya Zemlya to Franz Josef Land in search of wildlife.  We found Beluga Whale.

Beluga Whale.  Mum and baby.

Novaya Zemlya. June 10, 2013

Morning Activities

Today we truly ventured north.  We woke very early to discover the ship had discovered ice.  Ice conditions prevented a landing at the abandoned Soviet research base.  Instead the captain took the ship on a lap of the bay in search of wildlife.  And yes, we finally spotted our first Polar Bear.  We did make a landing on an ice-free beach to enjoy a brisk (short and cold) hike to view the local glacier.

Enjoying the icy cold weather as we head North.

People on the forward deck looking for Polar Bear. 

People on the Bridge looking for Polar Bear.

We spotted Walrus.

And finally - Polar Bear.

Two adults feeding.

Russkaya Gavan an abandoned Soviet research station.

We went for a hike.

Lunchtime Activities

The ship continued sailing north along the coast packed filled of magnificent glaciers.  We stopped briefly into Muck Bay to get up close to one of the glaciers.

Back in the Ice.  This time in search of glaciers.

Glaciers found in Muck Bay. 

Evening Activities

And to round out the day, we visited Oranskie Island, which is merely a rock to the North of Novaya Zemlya (at about 77° North).  In fact it does not even appear on Google Earth, hmmmm.  The landing started at 10pm and we were safely back aboard before midnight.

Welcome to Oranskie Island.

Caroline enjoying the balmy weather.

And all to see the birds.

Time to head back to the ship.

After a quick brandy (on ice).

Cape Kanin. June 8, 2013.

Cape Kanin is the last outpost of the White Sea and mainland Russia before we head north into the Barents Sea.  We did a little Tundra hiking before our 2 day sea voyage to the next destination.

Evidence of bear.  Not Polar bear but Brown bear.

Stephen on the Watch Tower.

T-Shirt weather.