Kayaking Isle of Man - Polar Museum.

One of the very best attractions in Tromso is the Polar Museum. It contains all manner of polar historical information, obviously from a Norwegian point of view. There are accounts and historical artifacts from seal hunters in the Arctic, Arctic aviation and of course much coverage of Roald Amundsen's historic victory to be the first to trek to the South Pole, thus beating Captain Scott. Fridtjof Nansen also has a whole room to himself with accounts of his heroic attempt to be the first to the North Pole by allowing his ice bound ship to drift from east to west across the frozen northern icefields. He ultimatly left his ship the "Fram", and pulled a sledge on skies which also contained a kayak towards the pole. On the 8th August 1895 conditions became so bad that the kayaks were launched but he had to abandon his attempts to reach the pole and instead headed south. Nansen was ultimatly rescued and the polar museum contains a replica of his kayak as shown above. It is amazing to see how similar to modern kayaks it really is, with only the materials of construction differing, and of course there are no bulk heads.
One of the reasons we decided to explore Northern Norway was the BBC TV program featuring Joanna Lumley's search for the Northern Lights. She was ultimatly successful in her quest not far from Tromso. As you can see from the photograph below, she never left Norway and remains preserved in the Polar Museum for all time!
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