The final day.
I was so determined to find somewhere to hide on board and simply move in.
Sadly, no such luck.
Cases had to be outside the cabin before 0700, when collection began. The whole ship was gifted lovely new luggage tags, a small touch that summed up the level of thought across the whole trip.
Breakfast was served between 0700 and 0830 in Two Seven Zero. The day before we had been allocated a coach number from one to three, and we then disembarked when called. We were coach two. The three coaches covered the entire ship, and none of them were full.
Luggage was taken directly to the airport for us to collect later, with day bags kept to a minimum. With limited coaches available on Svalbard, our coach was needed for other tours during the day. A lot of logistics behind the scenes, but for us as guests it was utterly seamless.
We said our goodbyes and prepared for a dayβs sightseeing around Svalbard. Because the flight is a charter, the same plane brings the next set of guests from Oslo to Svalbard arriving around 1530, before turning around and flying us back at 1630.
Our guide from Hurtigruten Svalbard took us first to the North Pole Expedition Museum, which is genuinely fascinating, with a lovely little shop on site for souvenirs.
From there we were driven to the famous polar bear road sign for the obligatory photograph, and then out of town to Camp Barentz.
Camp Barentz sits in the Adventdalen, just outside Longyearbyen, and is a small cluster of cabins named in honour of Willem Barentz, the Dutch explorer credited with discovering Svalbard in 1596. One of the buildings, Barentz Hus, is a faithful copy of the cabin Barentz and his crew overwintered in on Novaya Zemlya after their ship became trapped in the ice that same year. It is a remarkable little spot, and visiting it felt like a fitting bookend to a week of Arctic history.
The real highlight at Camp Barentz, though, was meeting the beautiful dogs from Green Dog Svalbard. They were such a joy, full of personality and wagging tails, and we got to chat to one of the mushers about what life is genuinely like for the dogs up here.
From there we headed to Huset Restaurant for a four course lunch. Wine pairings were available, or a wide selection of soft drinks. We started with Norwegian scallop tartare with chive emulsion, apples, cucumber and ginger. Then thinly sliced Svalbard reindeer with rye bread, mushrooms and lingonberries. Local Svalbard cod followed, served with baked celeriac, shellfish bisque and trout roe. To finish, a beautiful brunost pannacotta with Norwegian brown cheese and sea buckthorn.
A really lovely send off.
Then to the airport.
We collected our cases and headed to check in, with a short queue and the only flight leaving being ours back to Oslo. There is a small shop in departures for last minute treats, and I treated myself to a Svalbard woolly hat. Exactly what I needed flying back to 30Β°C plus heatwave in London!
The flight was pleasant, and I dozed on and off. Dinner was announced by our wonderful Hotel Director Sebastian over the plane tannoy, as he happened to be on board heading home for some time off. A lovely full circle moment.
In no time we arrived in Oslo, cleared passport control and luggage reclaim quickly, and made the short covered walk to the Radisson Blu hotel at Oslo Airport, where National Geographic Lindblad Expeditions had put the whole ship up for the night. A Lindblad rep was waiting with our pre checked in key cards. So organised, right to the very last step.
We headed up to the room and I can honestly say we both passed out. Proper beauty sleep, waking up just before breakfast finished the next day. A leisurely midday check out, then a relaxed flight back to London later that afternoon.
The end of the most epic, once in a lifetime trip. I will keep sharing little bits about this expedition over the coming weeks. I hope you enjoy reading along as much as I am loving reliving it.
Thank you so much for following along so far!
Lois : π½π π²πππππ π²ππππππ 
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