Sally Wakelin – Studies in Creativity
Paintings, drawings, sculpture and writing
I had the amazing opportunity to visit this restaurant and indeed all the other fabulous places in Norway that I got to see because of my travelling companion Heather who researched so diligently. Without her hard work I would certainly have missed all the best stuff. She booked all the trips and decided which were the best things to do, what a champion. perhaps she might change jobs and become a tour guide/organiser. They even made the Heather Honey ice-cream in her name!
Taking a boat trip was the probably the best thing we did during our visit to Svalbard.
We sailed on MS Langøysund with our guide Stein (pronounced more like Stain) from Henningsen Transport.
Steaming off around the western tip of the mountain range to the north of the harbour, we saw a few Minke whales as well as lots of different seabirds, even Puffins. The land around seems almost barren with no trees but plenty of grass and moss and in a few weeks there will be colourful shows of wild flowers.
As we passed Bird Rock on the southern side of Sassenfjorden, thousands of birds were swarming, swirling in the skies and screaming into the wind. A sharp-eyed young man shouted out “there’s a fox” we could just make it out as it ran with a white bird in its mouth, seeking his foxhole for some privacy.
What a delightful town, we had a great time there, just for two days. In the Arctic Cathedral we attended a midnight concert of Norwegian folk songs to celebrate the summer solstice, sung by Harald Bakkeby Moe, accompanied by Hanne-Sofie Akselsen on flugelhorn and Robert Frantzen on piano.
Despite the poor weather we took the cable car ride up to the hill behind the cathedral with spectacular views over the town and mountains beyond. We were lucky to have a short-lived break in the clouds.
At the Polaris museum where we saw a great film about northern lights, all caused by gas escaping in bubbles from the sun and then interacting with magnetic force fields. Of course we didn’t see the lights as it was 24 hour daylight but the interaction still goes on, we just don’t see it.
Perfect beach weather for once, so we set off for Newborough Beach in Anglesey, sadly the narrow road was filled to the top with a queue of cars waiting to get into the car park, on a one out one in basis. So we drove on to the next place to park, near the estuary, a “kind” person told us it was an easy walk, just over a mile, to the beach. “Kind” person could hardly have been more wrong, it was in fact 3.5 miles to the beach. But then this!
Super clean beach and water, lovely ripples in the sand and water
A very small watercolour painting of an interesting rock formation near one of the glaciers. Not been able to find it on google street view yet! Though it is unique.
Sally Wakelin - Studies in Creativity 
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