Frank Todd and I took a Polar Expedition to the Artic that included stops in Svalbard, the Northern most inhabited place on the planet, where we saw polar bears, seals, whales and a variety of seabirds including Kitiwakes. From Svalbard, we sailed West to Greenland and down the entire East coast, visiting an Inuit village at the mouth of the world’s largest fjord, finally ending up in Iceland.

We spent 1-week in Reykjavik, rented a house and explored the island. We also had the pleasure of seeing puffins and many ducks such as the Harlequin as well as the Iceland pony. No one can import other horses because they do not want them to interbreed with the Iceland pony.

The restaurants in town offered many of the birds we enjoyed seeing in the wild such as: Puffins, Guillemot, and Short-billed Murres as well as a variety of different whale species. The landscape is devoid of trees, it was all grasslands. Iceland is a volcanic island with many hot springs and steam vents. Most of their electricity comes from geothermal activity. Iceland straddles the mid-Atlantic ridge and you can see the split, which is funny, because part of the island is moving east and the other moving west.

The people were very friendly and beautiful. I believe it’s because they’ve lived there uninfluenced by other ethnicities. I would do this again – a trip recommended for an adventurer.

[cws_gpp_images_by_albumid id= 6464614132642027489 theme=grid show_title=0 show_details=0]