Reindeer Blog

Due to the capricious nature of registered mail in Norway - i.e. that it travels to distant centres to be ‘registered’ before going to its destination, the passport of ICR employee Philip Burgess, who was travelling to Nadym to webcast the proceedings was lost in transit. Instead of going straight from Guovdageaidnu to Kirkenes for the necessary visa, it went to Tromsø and then disappeared. It may seem  like a simile for more remote regions - large national systems that exist in the North (roads, mail, airlines, buses, you name it) are designed to service large population centres, that tend to be in the South. Despite the valiant efforts of Svein Mathiesen and Elna Sara and various travel agents, this is one webcast that will have to wait…Philip stood in Alta for the day looking for a way from there to Nadym in the Yamal Peninsula. Difficult without a passport. Wouldn’t you rather go to Spain, the travel agent kindly inquired?

The ICR team and several Ealát researchers and participants are travelling to Nadym for the 10th Anniversary of the World Reindeer Herders Association. This is also the the first Ealat workshop to be held in Russia where Ealat researchers from Scandinavia and Russia will make presentations, fittingly, the day after the launch of the International Polar Year. The intention is to webcast the workshop, meetings and cultural events, a first from Nadym - host to Gazprom’s largest single gas field, and energy lifeblood to much of Western Europe.