On Crosby beach north of Liverpool 100 cast-iron, life-size figures stand looking out to sea. The figures each weigh 650 kilos and are made from casts of the artist Anthony Gormley’s own body.
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Sakkotai Cape, located near the town of Point Pedro in the Jaffna District, is recognised as the northernmost point of Sri Lanka. A short jetty marks the exact spot with a sign bearing the national flag.
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I think we tend to think of ice as clear, or maybe white like snow; the images in this gallery will show that it is anything but! There is a scientific reason for this. Dense, pure ice appears blue to our eyes because it absorbs longer wavelengths of light (including red and yellow) more effectively, while scattering and reflecting shorter blue ones back to our eyes.
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As we start a new year of Monday Walks I want to look back to one taken right at the end of last year, on New Years Eve. We were staying in Newcastle over the new year holidays with bright if chilly weather, perfect for a walk by the sea. So we took the Metro to Cullercoats and set off on the short but always lovely stroll to Tynemouth.
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On the final day of our expedition cruise we enjoyed enjoy a final walk on Spitsbergen and, as on every day of this trip, some special wildlife sightings. Our last full day on board started well, with a sighting of a large pod of beluga whales off the port bow.
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Overnight the Ocean Explorer had left the smaller islands of Edgeøya and Barentsøya and returned to the main one in the archipelago, Spitsbergen. We rounded its southern tip to moor in the fjord of Hornsund. The landscapes were particularly stunning but for me our arrival here was tinged with a little sadness as it felt as if we were on the home strait back to Longyearbyen.
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On an expedition cruise not everything that is planned can work out quite as expected. We had already seen yesterday how fog could create a change of plan, as we’d been unable to land at Andréeneset on Kvitøya. Today another force of nature was to have a similar impact; not weather but bears!
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A more low-key day today, after the excitement of yesterday's polar bear encounter. But there were no dull days on this trip and today’s highlight was ticking off another of my Arctic wish-list animals, walruses. The ship travelled south-east during the night to the small island of Kvitoya, the easternmost one in the Svalbard archipelago.
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When we decided on August for our Svalbard visit I wasn’t sure whether we would see any pack ice. As the summer progresses the ice retreats northwards, beyond the area our itinerary was scheduled to cover. But on an expedition cruise the planned itinerary can often be abandoned because of weather conditions, wildlife viewing opportunities or other factors.
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Anyone who thinks of the Arctic as a bleak and desolate place, devoid of life, needs only to visit the bird cliffs of Alkefjellet to dispel that illusion. I have never seen so much activity, so much life, concentrated in one small area.
