The Travelling Howes: Blog 4

We eat, we eat a lot every day and the food is good! Our cabin is warm and a reasonable size, there is a large lounge which doubles up as a lecture room and has a library attached. There is also a bar in here which is often not conducive to staying awake through lectures after lunch. We land on average 2/3 times a day, the ship anchoring off the coast and we all pile into rubber zodiacs (10 to a boat) to go ashore for almost always a wet landing! The amount of kit we wear to keep warm, dry and safe is huge and takes a good 15 minutes to put on, including wellies, thermals, lifejackets, cameras binoculars etc etc. Each group is split into various types of walks, accompanied by 2 armed lectures/guides who take their work very seriously. Every year something happens to a tourist in relation to polar bears so these guys take absolutely no chances with our safety. When we first boarded we had to do a complete abandon ship drill in full kit which was reassuring although there is always someone who just doesn't get it!!!!
We are allowed to wander the ship at will (except for crew areas) so have spent quite a lot of time on the bridge with the Russian Captain who seems quite happy to answer questions and let you see how his ship works....fascinating. Have to say the whole crew are excellent and nothing is too much trouble for them.
We had a BBQ one night and it was slightly bizarre to be anchored off a glacier in a fjord looking at stunning views one way and turning the other way to see people dancing to Lady Gaga in complete thermal kit, all with the sun shining at midnight. No idea who was dancing with who under all those layers, but it was fun......
The other passengers are mainly European and North American, the Brits seem to mainly be birding groups. Everyone mixes well and of course there are the obligatory oddballs who are always entertaining! There are a small group of Italians who don't seem to speak any English which has caused a few problems (and laughs) as they don't understand the crew instructions, lectures etc. but after a few days everyone just settled down and formed the usual groups as always happens on these trips.