Summer to date.....the ed of norway, well not the country obviously!

It’s been a whilst since I’ve posted anything and as usual I’m going to hide behind the excuse that I’ve been a bit buy getting my “affairs” in order. As far as I can recall it’s been about 6-8 weeks since I added anything and even without looking I can’t begin to remember what the images were of?

Anyways August pretty much flew by, my 28th Birthday was pretty cool and it was good to be able to do something I wanted to do for a change instead of the usual run of the mill party which normally ensues on a ship.

The main difference this year was that unfortunately my birthday was spent on a sea day, and even worse still it was the day at sea before homeport and a new (for this year anyway) homeport of Newcastle. So on the 3rd a few of us took the football and a few beers off the ship and over to the park, which is nearby the Skolten, berth in Bergen. It was a great day; we had plenty of sun and a load of laughs and even squeezed in a customary visit to Peppe’s.

So moving onto the Longyearbyen/North Cape Cruise, which was my last cruise in Norway for this year. It should all things going to plan wrap up three straight years of Norwegian cruising.

(There should hopefully be a series of images to accompany this blog).

The cruise itself was a walk in the park, it basically involved five ports in 14 days and of those five, there were only four ports, which had operating tours.

It was a great start with a call into Geiranger, which was made even better by the fact ours was the only ship at anchor, which helped with a nice quiet day and it also meant that I was able to head out on a tour, so went on the 2nd departure of the fjord adventure (rib/fjord safari).

Again the weather was fantastic, slightly fresh but it was a good day all in all, and the guide Daniel was pretty cool. It was the first time I’d been told about the dangers facing the occupants of Geiranger.

Geiranger is situated at the end of the Geirangerfjord, and it’s really mainly a summer town, but it is still home to some year-round inhabitants, and these are the people who are under threat. Further down the fjord there is a steep cliff face, just up from a waterfall, this cliff face is moving, and will slide into the fjord causing an unforgiving tsunami.

Moving on, the main attraction of this cruise was pretty much the cruising on the way North to Svalbard. It included some stunning scenery and some amazingly narrow passages. It was a fantastic experience and it’s the second time this summer, which I’ve, had such an experience.

The next port of call was into Honningsvag, and as usual we sent the masses up to North Cape to the Visitors centre. I jumped on the afternoon departure of the fast boat and took Matt and Andi with me. It was pretty cool experience and fairly different to the Geiranger tour. But to be honest I’m glad I hadn’t paid for that tour, as it was pretty expensive for the sights, which were to see. The groups, which had gone in the morning, had seen porpoise, but if they were there in the morning they were definitely in siesta in the afternoon.

So leaving Honningsvag behind we headed to Longyearbyen and in turn to Ny Alesund. Both ports came and went with the usual complaints, which I expected, but most people were happy, enough seeing the huskies.

Now before we arrived into Ny Alesund, I had a fantastic opportunity as the ship arrived into Magdalene fjord to view the glacier. My old friend Ryan, who is also the photo manager had arranged to go down in the lifeboat and invited me along to photograph the ship and the glacier from the water level. It was a fantastic experience and well worth getting up at stupid o’clock for, and hopefully the images, which will be displayed, will do the early start justice.

So we headed south to the final port of call, which was Alesund, and my last Norwegian pizza of the summer from Peppes!!

Now something else, which I was looking forward to, was that at the start of the cruise I was given the best piece of news by my girlfriend, who was disembarking the Black Prince and would be waiting for me when I got off on the 18th.

So that wrapped up the summer and sent me into a vacation, which has to date, been so busy ahead of the plans for the winter which are now in full swing and will be revealed officially and in full on the 22nd September so watch this space closely……….

Well as for now it’s off to London tomorrow to see we will rock you and then we’ll see how next week develops. For now though enjoy the images and I’ll be in touch soon!!

Take care
Jd

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Part of trip: United Kingdom - Not actually so united anymore....

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