"I've got an Antarctica cruise coming up in Feb 2018" - so says OP Yusuf Hashim

Apologies:

This posting is unlike the usual Haibun Mondays. It is a wee bit too long. However, it is necessary in view of the many photos within. Remember OP Yusuf Hashim, the Modern Day Explorer? (here) Yusuf is just back from his PhotoSafari at the North Pole. His FB posting is datelined Sept 15,2016 and Hank just cannot pass off this opportunity to share his latest set of photos. To make this a legit Haibun, Hank posted a haiku to accompany the images. As this is unusually long, you may skip some parts at your convenience.

All photos are attributed to Yusuf Hashim

All narrations in italics are attributed to Yusuf Hashim

Image:1  OP Yusuf Hashim  -  ever on Top of the World

The Haiku:

See to appreciate

Feel the cold reality

Touch but to conserve

The Prose

Yusuf Hashim says:

Just arrived home from a month in the Arctic Ocean sailing in Greenland and Svalbard near the NorthPole. Lots of pictures shot and don't know which to share here. Here's a couple I pulled out just before going to bed. I can still feel my bed swaying and rocking like I'm still sailing in the tallship Antigua. It was a gypsetting expedition like no other.... — at 79°7'31" N 11°51'14" E

Image: 2
Yusuf Hashim says:
Sailing in the Arctic Ocean Near the North Pole.
The Antigua, sailing close to the face of the Monacobreem Glacier in North West Svalbard at 79°31'5" N 12°30'15" E.

Image::3
Yusuf Hashim says:
We used these Zodiac boats to go from ship to shore daily ... for hikes and photography shoots. We were told to be very careful about where we put our steps ... because all the moss and lichens were more that 50 years old and the shrubs grow less than 1 mm each year.

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Yusuf Hashim says:
Some of the gypsetters who were with me on the Tallship Antigua sailing north of Spitsbergen searching for Polar Bears and Whales in the Arctic Ocean near the North Pole .... all wrapped up against the bitter cold. Sitting on the right in the back row is Dr Nikita Ovsyanikov, who was one of our expert guides.

Nikita has spent much more time in the high Arctic, and around Polar Bears, than most people on the planet. With a PhD in zoology and as a Doctor of Biological Sciences, but perhaps more importantly, with countless months of field experience, he has a deep insight into the lives of carnivores such as the Arctic Fox and the Polar Bear, but also of the ecological contexts they occur in.

Image: 5

Yusuf Hashim says:

Checking out an iceberg, in a Zodiac in the Arctic. Icebergs are KLCC sized chunks of ancient ice which calve off the face of a glacier. Most of this compressed ice from calving glaciers are >30,000 years old

Image: 6

Yusuf Hashim says:

Collecting 30,000 year old iceberg melt water to refill my drink bottle. What crossed my mind was ... hey, this is a great marketing opportunity ... bottling and selling 30,000 years old iceberg melt water to people who are prepared to pay RM 5 per bottle for Evian water compared to RM1 for normal bottled tap water at petrol service stations.

Image: 7

Yusuf Hashim says:

The supreme predator of the Arctic, the Polar Bear, had just pounced on a hapless seal....
Almost finishing his meal ... at 80°54'22" N 23°2'42" E

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Yusuf Hashim says:
We observed this lone polar bear till evening when the setting sun threw a golden tint in the sky. Mr bear must have spooked these terns as sometimes they forage for eggs and the terns would gang up and attack the bear. — at Arctic Ocean 80°8'31" N 28°0'39" E.

Image: 9
Yusuf Hashim says:
Mr Walrus popped his head out of the water next to our Zodiac and said "Hi !! Whatcha doing in these parts ?" "Looking out for you, of course." Said I. "Now YOU watch your back. Mr Polar Bear is somewhere around and we dont want him to pull one of you into the water, would we?" said Mr Walrus . With that he dipped below the water and was gone.... Hee hee , 

I could have extended my arm and grabbed his tusk ...... he was THAT close. — at North of Svalbard 80°8'39" N 27°58'22" E.

The Antigua, our home for two weeks in the High Arctic, sailing among ice floes, observing Polar Bears, Walrus, Seals, Whales, Reindeer, Foxes, Icebergs and glaciers .... what a rush. We had almost gourmet food on board. Easily a highlight in anyone's life. Doe it not stir you to do likewise ? 

I've got an Antarctica cruise coming up in Feb 2018 and more than half the men and women on the Antigua is signing up. Only fifteen cabins and 42 potential gypsetters. Contact me with your deposit by 15 Oct and get a US$1000 discount off the published rates. — at T 79°30'38" N 12°26'47" E.

Note: You may wish to check out the previous postings
to know more on OP Yusuf Hashim's great adventures
(3 given below through linkwithin) 

For Toni's Haibun Monday at d'Verse
- winds of change
Marian's The Tuesday Platform at Real Toads