After two years of pandemic delays, I am really excited to be departing on our ship tomorrow on my Svalbard winter expedition. This expedition was the first affected by the COVID outbreak and thus has been the most delayed. It was originally intended to run in April of 2020 and was subsequently delayed until 2021 and then 2022. To finally be getting underway is really wonderful. We are looking forward to frozen sea ice, snow-covered landscapes and with a little luck some wonderful photographic encounters with Polar Bear and other Arctic wildlife.

Since my return from Ellesmere Island a little over a week ago (I came straight from the Canadian Arctic to Svalbard) I have been guiding a private snow-mobile trip up here in Svalbard. I had planned to put together a podcast wrap-up from Ellesmere, but time has gotten away from me with long days on snow-mobile travel in the field and this will likely now have to wait until I get back to Australia.

Please note that I will be offline until we return to the small northerly town of Longyearbyen on the 16th of April. Bring on the Polar Bears!