Top of the World

We arrived in Heimeay just before lunchtime but not before we had spotted our first whales of our trip…reliably identified by our expedition team experts as a pod of Pilot whales. HX included a free guided hike to the top of Mt Eldfell so we were keen to join. Mt Eldfell is an active volcano which last erupted in 1973 and older readers may remember it made international news headlines as the local fishing fleet trained their water hoses on the approaching lava which was threatening to engulf both the town itself and the harbour. Although not all houses were saved, the harbour was and thankfully there was no loss of life. The hike to the summit (600ft) wasn’t too difficult as long as you took care and hiked at a sensible pace. Unfortunately, the higher we climbed the more the visibility reduced so that by the top the town below was just a vague misty blur. The lava rocks contained a lot of iron and parts of the pathway up were quite an intense rusty red colour compared to the more tradi...

There has not really been much change in the sea state since yesterday. It’s not rough but there is a swell running which makes us resemble staggering drunks just walking around the ship. Never have hand rails been more essential, or if you want to try taking a shower using one hand while holding onto the rail for dear life with the other while ship rocks and rolls you might get an appreciation of the challenges everyone faces. But hey, we should all have grown our sea legs before too much longer. Being a sea day, the Exploration team have a full day of activities and lectures lined up. This is how today looks: 0830- wildlife watch on deck  0930- smartphone photography tips lecture  1030- knitters and natters (yes really) 1030- Art workshop  1130- introduction to cloud observations (data is provided directly to NASA) 1400- interactive session with microscopes 1500- lecture on the whales and dolphins of Iceland 1600- discover Ebird, a citizen science tool for exploring and...

Seeing as embarkation of the MS Spitsbergen was taking place on the west coast of Scotland, our morning was taken up with more railway journeys. We had to get the train from Edinburgh, change in Glasgow and then travel on to Largs, from where an HX shuttle bus would take us along the coast to where the ship was docked, in Fairlie. Thankfully all the connections went like a dream and three hours after leaving Edinburgh we were checking in for our trip. Quite why HX use Fairlie as an embarkation and disembarkation port I don’t really know. It’s a small port/ fishing village in the middle of nowhere with no facilities whatsoever. Having said that, I suppose it’s a convenient stop for their Scottish Isles cruises, especially when the next itinerary is heading northwards. Anyway, Southampton cruise port it is not! Formalities over, we were soon on board and trying our best to familiarise ourselves with the layout of the ship. Thankfully with only 5 decks usable by guests, it didn’t take too...

We have a day in Edinburgh before needing to make our way to our ship and having been here twice in the last two years, today tried to find a couple of new/different things to do around the city. First off, we thought we would take the train over to the “ other side”…. the other side being North Queensferry on the north of the Firth of Forth rail bridge. This meant that we got to travel over the bridge, having sailed underneath it last autumn. It’s an impressive structure and I’m amazed to report that we didn’t see anyone painting it…perhaps they have indeed completed that task. North Queensferry itself is nothing special, just a few little houses and a couple of hotels that looked well past any hope of renovation. There was, however, a little lighthouse which advertised itself as “the world’s smallest working Light Tower by Robert Stevenson”. Hopefully you can see just how small it was in the picture below. We then returned to the city centre thereby completing a double crossing. ...

1. The journey begins. No, not the well known Carpenters song, but instead a trip to 80 degrees north on the HX expedition ship, MS Spitsbergen. Our adventure starts today departing Jersey on the red eye to London Heathrow. A good start, the taxi arrived on time, the flight departed on time and we’re heading north already.  We then allowed ourselves a good three hours to get from Heathrow to Kings Cross station where we managed to avoid the wannabe wizards alighting platform 9 3/4 on their half term break and found our seats on the far less magical platform 6 express service departing for Edinburgh.  There is something to be said for train journeys….we’ve done several over the last few years around Europe and thoroughly enjoyed them…much less stressful and hectic than airports…just sit back and watch the countryside go by. And that’s what we did today and took in some notable sights….the historical Kilburn white horse, Durham and Newcastle cathedrals and crossed the grade 1 li...