Five years ago today we were keeping cool and actually trying to stay warm.
We were on a cruise headed to the “Top of the World”. The ship was sailing by Bear Island. Everyone was looking for polar bears.
Bear Island is in the Barents Sea, half way between the North Cape and Spitsbergen. It’s the southernmost island of the Svalbard archipelago.
Dutch explorers William Barents and Jacob van Heemskerk discovered the island on June 10, 1596. They named the island after a polar bear that was swimming nearby.
While various people have tried to establish settlements here, none lasted more than a few years.
Bear Island is now uninhabited except for personnel working at the island’s meteorological station Herwighamna.
Bear Island was considered terra nullius or ‘belonging to no one” and “no man’s land” until 1920 when the Spitsbergen Treaty put it under Norwegian sovereignty.
It was quite cool outside on deck as the evening rolled around, although the sun never sat.
So if you are tired of unending hot weather this summer, you know where to be next July or August.
Here’s to staying cool where ever you are today.
Where do you like to travel to stay cool in August?