Spitzbergen Cruise

Coming in to land in Longyearbyen, Svalbard’s bleak main town, we were swallowed up by the thick damp mist. After the incredible blue and white vistas as we flew over the mountains of Svalbard, the town looked dismal and grey. It’s not exactly attractive at best – a sort of wild west shanty town, but I soon began to understand the fascination of life just a few hundred miles from the North Pole.
The access by sea, the wildlife, the mineral deposits and the nearness to the north pole has given a long history of whalers, hunters, explorers, miners and speculators and their marks are everywhere, from lonely hunters cabins, cairns on isolated headlands to the vast Russian coal mines. Uniquely, the archipelago is designated international territory by treaty and many countries have established a foothold, often as a research centre. The Indian Polar Institute may only be a large shed, but it’s probably the coldest part of India!
The warm welcome as we boarded our ship, the Academik Vavilov, a Russian ice hardened research ship, cheered us up and we looked forward to brighter weather next morning. There was no dawn as it never got dark, and the mist hung as heavy as before. We headed out of the fjord and turned north, with snow capped peaks appearing and then tantalisingly disappearing again. Several hours later we turned up a fjord and took the small zodiac boats to a glacier snout. In the mist this was extremely impressive, with a surreal atmosphere of menace.
The next day we celebrated crossing 80 degrees north and the clouds began to lift. With the sky now intense blue, we took several walks along the shores and into the hills, astounded by the natural beauty of snow peaks, glaciers and bays full of sea ice. The rich wildlife of the area became apparent, with whales, polar bears, walruses and seals making daily appearances. The Gulf Stream pushes warmer water north here along the west coast of Svalbard’s main island, Spitzbergen, bringing life-giving food and making this area by far the most northerly open water in the world.
The ship itself was one of the stars of the trip, workmanlike but comfortable and supremely good for this type of exploration. The travel company Exodus, who had invited me on this trip, have used this ship for years in the Arctic and Antarctic. Next year will be its last, as it is being replaced by a newer more efficient ship. The crew were multinational but mainly Russian and together with the mix of the expedition staff and the eighty tourists, we managed more than twenty nationalities. The diversity prize was probably won by the expert in Polar history who came from Argentina. The depth of knowledge of the expedition leaders was remarkable, and their evening talks were some of the highlights of the trip.
I was expecting the trip to give me some amazing wildlife experiences and it did – sitting beneath cliffs teeming with birds, looking into murky water at a whale’s skeleton, the iconic polar bear – but what I had not expected was the truly stunning landscape and the fascinating culture and history.

There's more information about this trip and others here: http://www.footlooseadventure.co.uk/polar.html

Wildlife and development

The Serengeti is perhaps the most well known of the great African game parks. The sight of the great herds of wildebeest and zebra as they move in search of new grass has enthralled people for years. This migration has been possible because of the huge size of the Serengeti, extending north into Kenya and the Masai Mara National Park. Here the seasons and the vegetation are different, giving year round grazing.
The spectacle of the migration and the sheer number of animals has made the Serengeti world famous and underlined its importance, so when the Tanzanian President announced last year that a road was to be built across the reserve there was a huge outcry. The road is to improve access to the west of Tanzania to help trade and development in a poor part of the country, but it cuts across the middle of the reserve, and more importantly, across the route of the migration.
Thus began the classic standoff between a country trying to look after its people and the world wildlife community trying to look after animals. Battle lines were drawn with the President staking his reputation on it, aid agencies threatening to withhold money and wildlife experts warning of the end of the Serengeti.
Compromises have begun to appear as the aid agencies promised help with a road to the south of the reserve and the President promising that only essential supplies would use the new road. The Government then announced that the road would be downgraded to gravel – this despite the fact that it never stated that it would be tarmac.
The solution must be some sort of compromise – would you be happy on safari knowing that it was only possible by keeping the people of West Tanzania in ongoing poverty? The problem was summed up well by Paula Kahumba, Executive Director of Wildlife Direct: “ I think we need to re-frame our approach if we are to win the hearts and minds, and the involvement of Tanzanians must be genuine and fair. If we are to save the Serengeti from the threats that it faces, we need good science and we must listen to the voices of Africans. So maybe it’s a wild idea but why don’t we start thinking creatively about building a road that serves both the wildlife and the development needs.”While this dispute rumbles on in the north, a similar confrontation has started in the south. On the far southern edge of Tanzania’s Selous Game Reserve, one of the biggest in the world, uranium and other valuable deposits have been found. Since mining is not allowed in the reserve, the simple solution has been to move the reserve boundary. UNESCO has been very upset by this and has threatened to remove the reserve’s international status. So again it’s a question of valuable income for a poor country or protection of wildlife – a question which will be asked frequently around the world in the future.

http://www.footlooseadventure.co.uk/tanzania.html