Hello and welcome to today's independent travel podcast with me Simon Calder. It's Friday the 17th of

April. Well, I'm back in Wimbledon. Yes, in the very good weather spoons. The reason I'm here is because

I'm meeting a famous Wimbledon resident Paul Goldstein, adventurer, tour leader, photographer, you name it, he does it.

But he also does it in pretty uncomfortable conditions.

Paul, you're just back from a trip called Spring, polar bears and icebergs of Baffin Island.

Spring, that sounds encouraging.

Yeah, it's spring, well, it has been spring every year I've done it since 2018, but this year, spring was kind of in hibernation. It was a very

late freeze. They normally freezes around in November, didn't freeze until January,

so everything was knocked forward. And yeah, temperatures, when you see the Inuit, we're not going out because it's too cold, you kind of realize, but what, it was ferociously cold, dangerously cold. You know, frostnip is a very real risk in those temperatures. So your extremities need to be, and need to be husbanded.

There you are in Baffin Island, within the Arctic Circle, the biggest

island which is part of another country. I do believe, though, do let us know if you've got

another candidate. Why on earth would you be there? And in, well, April, it's not exactly

going to be balmy, is it, in the best of years? When you do what I do and you take a load of people, often many times, to various parts of the world,

to take photographs, to enjoy wildlife, generally the most extraordinary encounters are in the most extraordinarily remote places that take a bit of work getting to.

And this would probably top the table.

It's probably three, maybe even four flights from the UK.

But you have the chance of seeing polar bears way above the tree line

and with Cubs just emerging from their dens.

So yeah, that's a pretty strong seducer.

Throw in some Arctic fox, Arctic hairs,

and, of course, the Aurora with zero light contamination.

Yeah, that's a pretty decent cocktail.

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