Days 21 & 22 - From intrepid explorers to traditional tourists

We left Spitsbergen very early yesterday. We were up at 2.30am, after a rather inadequate 2 hours of sleep, and flew to Tromso and on to Oslo. We have made an easy transition from explorers to tourists and have generally been wandering around, living the typical tourist life and enjoying doing normal things. That said, we are still boasting our grizzly beards. We fitted in a spot of polar history yesterday and went aboard The Fram, the ship Amundsen used to go to the South Pole.

We are fairly tired now and it has been great taking it easy for a couple of days. Our first sleep in a bed last night was also nothing short of divine. We are in Oslo today, soaking up some sunshine and playing on our new found toys –rented bikes this time. The three of us are in a bike gang and having a lot of fun riding around, scaring people. We think we are cool, even if everyone else doesn’t.

We did have to visit the doctor this morning. David has a bit of a problem unfortunately. It has been officially confirmed that he has frostbitten hair. His condition is quite advanced, so we have made an emergency appointment for him to see Dan’s doctor on Monday morning.

We would like to say a huge thank you to you all for your kind messages of encouragement and support throughout the expedition; you have helped make it an even more amazing experience. We are landing in London in a few hours time and look forward to seeing you all very soon.