Episode 5 On this bright and sunny morning we found ourselves anchored off Herald Island, a small island off the north east coast of Wrangel Is. and another place the crew had not seem properly before as again it is normally shrouded in fog and often had lots of ice around it. Sarah, our expedition ornithologist had counted 49 polar bears along the cliff face. This island doesn't have much in the way of beaches where we could make a shore landing. However, t...

Episode 4 With both my lot feeling up to it they took part in the landing at Unexpected River (don't you just love these names) in the afternoon. It was still very rough and my lot got wet even before the zodiac left the ship, not good, but heck, they really wanted to make the most of this very expensive voyage. On shore D decided that he wasn't up to doing much in the way of walking but L decided she could manage the supposedly shorter walk that was only to...

Episode 3 Compulsory life boat drill was the first thing on the agenda the next morning after breakfast. First there was instruction in procedure in the lecture room followed by a practice run of actually getting into the life boats. David, despite being barely able to drag himself around, had to attend and L feels sure that him having to join the rest of us in the close confines of the lifeboat helped to spread the 'bug' about the rest of the passengers thoug...

Episode 2 I should have done this in Episode 1, but David didn't think of that. So, let me introduce myself, and 'my lot'. I am Benny bean bear, a professional stuffed toy, traveller extra-ordinay, and blogger. I am a Mr. Bean type bear and I was created by Lyn (L) quite a number of years ago. Although I am not the oldest of my family I am the only travelling/blogging bear amongst them, thank goodness. My number of siblings seems to be forever increasing an...

Episode 6There is the small town of Nevyansk about 100k’s north of Ekaterinburg with a leaning tower and a couple of other points of interest in the area so we headed off that way.This town was founded on the iron ore mined in the area around the very begining of the 18th century. An enterprising local built a smelter for processing the iron ore into cast iron. From then on the town prospered until the ore gave out in the late 1800’s or there abouts.T...