Exciting Iceland
EXCITING ICELAND Introduction. According to the ancient manuscript Landnámabók, the settlement of Iceland began in 874 AD when the Norwegian chieftain Ingólfr Arnarson became the first permanent settler on the island. In the following centuries, Norwegians, and to a lesser extent other Scandinavians, emigrated to Iceland, bringing with them thralls […]
Circumnavigate the Svalbard Archipelago
CIRCUMNAVIGATE THE SVALBARD ARCHIPELAGO. A small ship on a big ocean. The old wooden 49 feet long vessel MS Laksholm is on the Barents Sea heading northwards for the Svalbard archipelago. We are 3 persons onboard that want to do the travel by the old and slow way for really […]
A high Arctic Oasis
Foreword: As we all know is Greenland the world’s largest island, -and where over 80% is covered by glaciers which can be up to 3km thick. Great parts of the coasts are only navigable for a short period in late summer, and farthest north there is always sea ice. From […]
Observations along a Barren Lands River, Nunavut
THE TUNDRA OF THE BARREN LANDS. The Barren Lands between The Great Slave Lake and the icy sea waters north of the Canadian Mainland have complete and functional ecosystems. However, heavy decline in the Caribou populations the last decades have made certain changes in some of the wildlife species populations there. […]
Summer days in high Arctic Canada
Banks Island, -the westernmost island in the Canadian arctic archipelago. Banks Island is in general a polar desert where the tundra is frozen and snow-covered from September until June. Snow and freezing temperatures can however occur at any time of the year. It is such placed in the archipelago that […]
The Land hidden by Ice
Foreword 900 km fra the North Pole there exist an almost hidden land in the Russian high arctic. This land, or more specifically archipelago, is “hidden” by glaciers covering as much as 85 % of the land mass. The nearest point on the mainland, Yamal Peninsula, is 750 km away. […]
The nomads of Siberia
Foreword Changes,- the world today is not the same as the world yesterday, that is for sure. Development and modernization that for the last fifty years have taken place in a rapid way make us see that past generations had a very different way of living than most of us […]
Tunu,- the backside of Greenland
Foreword Tunu is the inuit word for the “Back Side”, and it is not the dark side that is ment, but the word for “The Other Side”,- or the side of Greenland were very few people live, -the east coast. The inuits living there are called Tunumiuts. The east coast […]
The last Kayak-men
A glimpse into the past. …the harpoon run through the air, and plunges the razor sharp point into the back of the narwhal. “Mattaq” shouts the Polar Eskimo Mamarut Kristiansen enthusiastic… – We are in Thule District, an outskirt of the north western corner of Greenland, -close to Canada`s Ellesmere […]
A journey to the white land of arctic Canada
MEMORIES FROM A JOURNEY TO THE WHITE LAND OF ARCTIC CANADA Foreword Arctic Canada with its archipelago is the biggest high arctic area on earth. For thousands of years it has been inhabited by inuits,- specialists of human survival in the extreme cold climate of this land. For centuries […]
Svalbard in winter landscape
A story about a trip to east-Spitsbergen, Svalbard Svalbard Northwards again. The date is April 2nd, and the plane has just departed from Stavanger, Norway. It is a short year since I last time was on Svalbard. This high arctic archipelago was officially discovered by the dutchman Willem Barents in […]
