Retrace 1926 Amundsen flight to the North Pole in a luxury airship
- The first undisputed visit was followed by disaster two years later, ending airship adventures to the Pole. Travel company OceanSky is reviving them
- The trips begin in 2023, and a two-bed cabin for the 36-hour voyage will set you back just under US$64,000
The first undisputed visit to the North Pole was made by airship in May 1926. Among several scientists and crew on-board were the famed Norwegian polar explorer Roald Amundsen, his American financial backer Lincoln Ellsworth and the Italian aviator and engineer Umberto Nobile. Flags of all three countries were dropped onto the ice below before the Norge continued on her journey from Norway to Alaska.
Amundsen, who had become the first man to reach the South Pole 15 years earlier, and Nobile fell out furiously, with the Italian believing that, having designed and piloted the airship, he hadn’t received enough credit for the venture. Nobile returned in 1928 with a similar airship, the Italia, to revisit the Pole without Amundsen, but crashed on the return journey to Norway. Ten men fell onto the ice, while six were carried away in what remained of the airship, never to be seen or heard from again. Nobile and seven of the original crew were rescued more than six weeks later, by which time Amundsen – who had surprisingly joined the massive international search effort – had gone missing in a spotter plane. He, too, was never seen again.
That, not surprisingly, was the last time an airship flew to the North Pole, though a Swedish company has plans to return in 2023. OceanSky intends to operate 36-hour, round-trip flights from Norway to the North Pole, with 16 passengers paying handsomely for the privilege of flying “low and slow” in splendid luxury. The airship to be used for the journey is the British Airlander 10 – aka “The Flying Bum” – whose prototype collapsed after slipping its moorings in late 2017. (The company’s publicity quotes, incidentally, seem only to mention Amundsen and the Norge rather than Nobile and the Italia.)
InterContinental Yokohama Pier 8 opens on the Japanese port city’s waterfront
The InterContinental Yokohama Pier 8 has just opened within the Japanese port city’s Hammer Head Project, a new cruise terminal development that received its first cruise ship – the Diamond Princess – this month. The 173-room hotel promises guests a “breathtaking panoramic seascape” from its exclusive rooftop area, and free boat transfers to the nearby Intercontinental Yokohama Grand.
Cruises from Hong Kong are likely to be calling in at the new facility, though perhaps not as frequently as they did when Yokohama was Japan’s most cosmopolitan city and a regular port of call for ships sailing or steaming between Hong Kong and North America. The hotel of choice for affluent travellers in those days was the Western-style Grand Hotel, which was destroyed by the Great Kanto Earthquake in 1923. It was replaced by the New Grand in 1927, which still stands, as the city’s oldest hotel, a few minutes’ walk along the harbourfront. This property is recommended if you’re cruising into or out of Yokohama and prefer to stay somewhere with a little more character and heritage.
Follow in the footsteps of Ernest Hemingway for a ‘literary exploration’ of the cities he visited and lived in
Fans of Ernest Hemingway will soon be able retrace some of his global adventures in the company of his great-granddaughter, author Cristen Hemingway Jaynes. From Paris to Venice to Havana and Hong Kong (where he stayed at the Repulse Bay Hotel), Ernest’s Way is “a guide and literary exploration to the cities Hemingway visited and lived in, both as they are now and as they were when he graced them”.
Deal of the week - a two-night Phuket package
A fair choice of hotels and resorts is offered with Tiglion Travel’s two-night Phuket package, with four properties available from the opening price of HK$3,790 per person (twin-share). These include the family-friendly Splash Beach Resort, the Millennium Resort Patong Phuket, Novotel Phuket Vintage Park Resort and the Grand Mercure Phuket Patong. Another HK$700 will get you into the Hyatt Regency Phuket Resort. Known for its striking sunset views, this property was the site of the Kamala Bay Terrace, which was wiped out during the 2004 tsunami, and lay deserted for 10 years.
