Preface

Seven years ago, I declared that I was going to take an adventure trip every year and go to those places I had read about all my life in National Geographic.  I made a list and began my trips - Alaska, Peru, Patagonia, Polynesia and along the way I also completed my desire to visit all 50 states.  This year's trip will subtract one more from the long list of things-yet-to-be-done.
Polar bears have featured in many issues of the Geographic and they are always one of my favorites at the San Francisco zoo; but seeing them in the wild has to be something special.  The Churchill site in Canada looks interesting but it is a bit contrived.  The National Geographic icebreaker Explorer trip to Svalbard has to be the ultimate (short of hiring an Inuit guide and dogsledding to the North Pole).
Svalbard is an island group 500 miles North of Norway and about the same distance short of the North Pole.  The main island is Spitsbergen and the capital is Longyearbyen.  It has been the starting point for many of the famous Polar explorers.  To get there one flies 800 miles North from Oslo.
The ship looks pretty posh but the landscape is certainly authentic.  The "expedition" only lasts a little more than a week so I'm hoping the bears are ready to pose.  We'll see.