Survival in Svalbard.
I’m in Longyearbyen, Svalbard – 1,200 km north of the Arctic Circle. We are about to set off on a two-day expedition to the abandoned Russian mining town of Pyramiden. With all the grace of a beached walrus, I throw my leg over the snowmobile for the very first time. Ahead of me lie 200 kms of Svalbard tundra. I can’t help wondering if this time I really have bitten off more than I can chew!
Why would anyone want to sail around Cape Horn?
Cape Horn is a large headland by the sea, a bit like Bray Head really, perhaps a bit taller – but it’s its location at the very southern tip of South America that makes it such a special place. This is where the mighty Pacific and Atlantic oceans meet. At 56° south, there is no land to the east or west of Cape Horn anywhere around the globe – the next nearest landmass is Antarctica, 600 miles further south across the Drake Passage. In this stretch of turbulent ocean, storms are stronger and waves are bigger than anywhere else on Earth.
The Polar Bears of Greenland’s Forbidden Coast.
Two days before I’m due to land in Iceland, a brief email from the skipper simply reads:
“There’s a storm brewing in the Denmark Strait, the forecast from Sunday to Tuesday is crap, so to get ahead of it, we’re leaving 24 hours early.”
Panic! Change flights. Cancel meetings. Pack bags. Kiss wife.
Mining for spies in the High Arctic.
I’ve only managed to travel south of the equator once (so far) - that was back in 2009 when I sailed through the Beagle Channel and around Cape Horn on Skip Novak’s ‘Pelagic Australis’. That expedition started and finished in the Chilean Naval town of Puerto Williams on Isla Navarino, the southernmost permanent settlement in the world at 54º 56’ South - just over 2,000 nautical miles from the South Pole. Ever since then (and probably because of mild OCD) I’ve always felt the need to complete the set and visit its northernmost equivalent – in 2017, I was fortunate enough to do just that.
Moral Panic…
When out shooting mountain bike events, not only do I need to haul myself around the mountains chasing riders, I also need to carry around 20kg of expensive camera gear. For a couple of seasons before the eMTB revolution, I dabbled with off-road motorbikes. The first of which was a 125cc pit-bike, which was a great giggle. I looked absolutely ridiculous on it, but who cares.
