Svalbard Kingdom of the Ice Bear Expedition Report

July 6th - July 15th, 2022

In July of 2022, I ran my annual expedition to the high Arctic of Svalbard in search of Polar Bears and other Arctic wildlife. This expedition was originally scheduled to run in July of 2020, but the COVID pandemic saw us delayed until 2021 and then finally until 2022. As it turned out, this was not the only incident to cause delays for this expedition. Due to the snap SAS airline pilot strike two of the participant photographers were regrettably and unavoidably delayed in Oslo, Norway, and unable to make it to Longyearbyen, Svalbard in time for the expedition departure. This saw our group size drop to ten instead of the usual twelve. Just as an aside, it is because of situations such as this (that are out of everyone's control) that I strongly recommend all participants always take out high-quality travel insurance (in addition to evacuation and medical insurance). You just never know when your travel might be curtailed by circumstances outside of your control. There really is nothing more frustrating than being unable to reach a planned destination in time.

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Polar Bear Mother and Cub