This was an expedition cruise designed for people who wanted (1) to experience the solitary mid-summer cold and snow of endless Arctic mountains and pristine glaciers, (2) to see a polar bear, reindeer and perhaps a walrus, (3) to go where the sun shines for four months without setting.
Few of them expected to also (4) discover a puffin dog with an extra toe, (5) learn how to domesticate an eider duck for profit, and (6) get a whiff of thousands of cod hung out to dry.
Indeed, most of the 148 people came on this two-week Lindblad-National Geographic cruise seeking experiences unique to the very far north – from the Norwegian fjords to Arctic Svalbard and Longyearbyen, the most northerly permanent settlement in the world.