The polar opposite

So... I think this is a first. Only days after making reservations for two trips a third pops up. Woops. It wasn't even planned - not this early, at least - but I realized that if I wanted to go within the next 1½ years I shouldn't wait too long otherwise the cheap tickets would be sold out.

I mentioned previously that the trip to Svalbard would be the priciest trip I will be going on by far. So what do I do? Find the only destination more expensive - because that makes sense. Luckily the travel agent lets customers split up payments otherwise it would not have been possible for me to make any reservations. Again a cool trip I have wanted to go on but you know.. Money available and price isn't always compatible. But now it looked like I might get a break so yes, it was unavoidable.

The trip isn't until November next year and because of that it isn't possible to get plane tickets as ticket sites normally won't let you purchase more than 364 days in advance. So the tour description will be a bit more vague than usual.

10th? - 11th of November 2016

Fly out of Copenhagen to Buenos Aires.

12th of November

After spending a night in Buenos Aires I get picked up and brought to the airport from where I fly to Ushuaia, the southern most city in the world. Here I get to spend the rest of the day taking in the sights of the end of the world.

13th - 23rd of November

In the afternoon we embark the MS Expedition (same one, actually, which will be bringing me around Svalbard) and sail south, crossing the Drake Passage followed by 6 days where we explore the wildlife and scenery of Antarctica around Antarctic Peninsula and South Shetland Islands. The goal is to be able to get ashore twice a day to get a closer look of penguins and generally keep an eye out for whales and seals feeding. After the 6 days we will be heading back north to the mainland.

24th of November

Arriving last night we have breakfast on the ship before disembarking. Flight back to Buenos Aires late morning or early afternoon.

25th - ? November

Flying back home from Buenos Aires, but as I have no flight plans yet I am thinking of maybe spending a couple of days in the city. We'll see.

There were surprisingly large variety of expeditions to Antarctica and some of them would be bringing us past by the Falklands and South Georgia and while it was tempting, there was something very, very sobering about the price. So, I'll take a limited edition of "only" passing by Antarctica, but I'm fine with that.

Polar stuff!

I have a list of places I want to go which is roughly prioritized. The trips the last couple of years have helped cleaning out some of the items on the list even if there still are new ones arriving never letting me empty the list (which I consider a good thing). One of the destinations have been there for quite a while, and relatively high up, too, but the reason for not going yet is fairly unique from the other trips; price. My treks, climbs and safaris have usually been cost efficient and I've felt that I have not been losing money on these trips, and while this one won't (hopefully) make me feel like throwing money down the drain it is... not cheap. But then again; supply & demand, the living conditions on the trip and the fact that the location is relatively inaccessible the price makes sense.

So - off we go!

12th of June

Flight out of Copenhagen via Oslo to Longyearbyen on Svalbard.

13th - 20th of June

After spending an extra night in Longyearbyen I board the travel company's ship in the afternoon and the following days we will be sailing up and down mainly along the western coast of Svalbard looking at wildlife, whether it's marine or land based. My main goal is to see polar bears but there will be chances to see birdlife, seals, walrus, polar fox, reindeer and much more. Chances are that there will be opportunities to take a zodiac and have a walk around on land getting closer to the animals. But otherwise we will be staying on the boat for the entirety of the trip.

We will return to Longyearbyen on the 19th in the evening and disembark on the 20th.

20th

Flight home, via Tromsø and Oslo.

Back to Nepal

With the trip to Ecuador and later Mexico in November being botched I considered saving my vacation days for some time next year, maybe combining them with Easter giving an even longer time off opening up for several possibilities to go on a long trip. But I had mentally prepared to go now in November and suddenly not having anything made it feel disappointingly empty.

So I had to find a remedy for that. How? By finding another trip!

Looking at climbs I realized that there were no real realistic alternatives for me that I hadn't already done so I started looking into treks instead. My attention quickly went to Nepal where I for some time have wanted to return since the Everest Base Camp trek back in 2012, and luckily there was a departure that perfectly fit my schedule. And one free spot left. Lucky me!

6th - 7th of November

Flight out from Copenhagen via Doha to Kathmandu. At least Doha has gotten a new airport since my last layover so the stay will be a bit less dull than the last time I was here.

8th of November

We will drive to Besi Shahar from where we will go on a short trek to Jagat and passing by beautiful hot springs on the way.

9th - 22nd of November

The itinerary is fairly limited on information other than "walk from [here] to [there]" so splitting the description on in a day-to-day basis as I usually do feels like a waste of time. Basically we will be walking almost two weeks along the Annapurna range in the western part of Nepal home of several summits, among them Annapurna I, II, III and IV (the imagination needed to name them!). Annapurna I is the only 8000m summit (8091m) in the range and is the 8000m summit with the highest fatality rate of app. 32%.

We will be having a couple of rest days on the way but most days we will be walking 6-8 hours bringing us through valleys, along mountains and over passes in some beautiful terrain and see amazing views. Hopefully the latter will apply, too, and the weather won't be acting up.

The highest point we will be reaching on the trek will be Thorung Pass of 5416m but normally we will be walking in the area of 2000-4500m.

For those of you who actually do know the geographical layout of western Nepal here's the route we will be following: Jagat - Bagarchhap, Bagarchhap - Chame, Chame - Pisang, Pisang - Manang, Manang rest day, Manang - Yakkharka, Yakkharka - Phedi, Phedi - Muktinath, Muktinath rest day, Muktinath - Kalopani, Kalopani - Tatopani, Tatopani - Sikha, Sikha - Ghorepani, Ghorepani - Pokhara. My spell checker is going into overdrive.

23rd of November

Drive back from Pokhara to Kathmandu where we will be spending the last night together.

24th - 25th of November

Flight back home, again via Doha. Extra happy with the new airport as I will be spending around 8 hours there this time. Nope, no better connections.