One of the best things about expedition cruising is the educational component. Each of the guides on board has a different area of speciality and can answer questions and help passengers learn about the history, natural history, animals etc. of the destination . I’m a huge rock nerd. I took every single Geology class my college had to offer, and spent three months in Mongolia on a geology-focused study abroad. So it's no surprise that I was thrilled to learn what an incredibly diverse and geologically exciting place Svalbard is. In fact, there is no where else in northern Europe where you can see examples from so many geological periods. The process of mountain building has always fascinated me. And let me tell you, the mountains of Svalbard are spectacular, dramatic and bald. Which means lots of rocks! Since there is such little vegetation to hide the rocky outcrops, it is easy to see the good stuff.
We were lucky enough to have a glaciologist as one of our guides, who excitedly shared with us information on basement rocks, moraines and glaciers. During our single sea-day, a day we spent completely on board the ship, she gave a lecture on geology of Svalbard. One of my fellow passengers joked he felt bad for her, and that no one would be attending a talk about rocks. It's true- the crowd was smaller than the lecture on whales, but I was there in the front row scribbling away in my note book.
Every place we stopped was geologically diverse. We saw excellent examples of Svalbard's igneous and metamorphic basement rock, the oldest rocks, particularly in the northwest of Spitsbergen. We saw mountains made of sedimentary limestone and sandstone deposits. These were once under water, 400 million years ago. We also saw many relatively "recent" deposits such as moraines, scree fields and fluvial deposits that were from the end of the last ice age 10,000 years ago. I was delighted that we were able to see so much diversity and so much of the archipelago during our trip.
The trip was not only memorable for the amount of animals we saw but also for the people and accommodations at the two camps where we stayed. Our first guide, BK, was a wealth of information about the animals, landscape and down to the plants and what they were used for. Everyday out was a learning experience with him. All the people at the camps were gracious and the food was excellent.
Our second camp in the Okavanga was just as good as the first as far as the staff, accommodations, food and animals. After our experience at the first camp we amazed that the high quality remained the same. Our guide, G, made sure we were able to enjoy every experience including a rush through the bush to witness a cheetah and an ensuing hunt that he heard over his radio.
In both camps there were enough guides out that if they saw something the other guides were informed which helped in seeing as much as possible. It was also nice that the concessions were large enough that we did not have vehicles following each other throughout the day.
Normally there is always something in a trip of this length that we think could be improved upon but this is the rare case where we cannot think of anything. From the time we left the States to when we returned it was one of the most hassle free vacations we took.
Perhaps emphasizing the use of the laundry facilities at the camps would be useful because of the luggage restrictions would be the only thing I can think of as an improvement to future clients.
Kenneth Dropek
2 days ago
Mary was so pleasant and professional. She made sure all of our questions were answered.