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I Am A Polar Bear

Travel, adventure & wellness with plenty of snow

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Category: Land

My winter glamping packing list | iamapolarbear.com

My winter glamping packing list

December 10, 2023

I love a packing post, I really do. Almost as much as I hate actually packing. I planned to do a bit of a photoshoot on my glamping trip to show what I packed but it rained most of the weekend and frankly, I didn’t have the time to put on all the things I … More My winter glamping packing list

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Sparkle & Ice 2023: the biggest one | iamapolarbear.com

Sparkle & Ice 2023: the biggest one

December 8, 2023

I love Sparkle & Ice. I haven’t missed a single year, not even 2021, when it was cancelled because of some killer mutant virus. I took a mix of Guides & Rangers in 2017, just Rangers in 2019 and 2020, volunteered in 2018 and 2022 and I’m taking my new Rangers this year. However, this … More Sparkle & Ice 2023: the biggest one

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Winter camping tips (for Sparkle & Ice) | iamapolarbear.com

Winter camping tips (for Sparkle & Ice)

November 16, 2023

With Sparkle & Ice 2023 only about ten days away now, it’s either a bit tight for time with advice or it’s perfect timing because you’re just reaching last-minute panic. I know at least one local leader has read my previous Sparkle posts and maybe I can become the authority on how to survive Girlguiding’s … More Winter camping tips (for Sparkle & Ice)

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The camping kit I use in Iceland | iamapolarbear.com

The camping kit I use in Iceland

November 9, 2023

Is November the optimum time to be publishing a post on camping kit? Nope! But I had other things I wanted to talk about first and this will be in place and waiting for you to take an interest again next summer. I wanted to show you and talk a little bit about the kit … More The camping kit I use in Iceland

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A solo logbook walk on Dartmoor | iamapolarbear.com

A solo logbook walk on Dartmoor

October 16, 2023

Girlguiding SWE and LaSER always have a Dartmoor training and leisure walking weekend the weekend of the 20-somethingth of September. I usually go. I did my training in 2014 and I use the leisure weekend to build up my logbook. You used to email them and request a place and now there’s an event site … More A solo logbook walk on Dartmoor

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Iceland campsites review (summer 2023 edition) | iamapolarbear.com

Iceland campsites review (summer 2023 edition)

October 2, 2023

I think this is a thing I’m going to try to make a regular feature – depending on how much time I spend camping in Iceland in future. Anyway, last year I talked about the campsites I stayed on and I want to do it again. Did I go round and take photos specially for … More Iceland campsites review (summer 2023 edition)

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What I did at Camp Wildfire | iamapolarbear.com

What I did at Camp Wildfire

September 21, 2023

I’ve had my eye on Camp Wildfire for a while and last year, I got an unexpected last-minute opportunity to go as crew. I enjoyed it so much that eventually I talked myself into going as a paying customer this year. If you’ve not come across it, Camp Wildfire is a festival inspired by Scout … More What I did at Camp Wildfire

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Organising a Ranger camp | iamapolarbear.com

Organising a Ranger camp

August 7, 2023

This post has already been through several drafts, with titles like “I got my Going Away With licence!” and “I nearly got my Going Away With licence!” but the reality is… I nowhere near got my Going Away With licence. I did organise a Ranger camp single-handedly though, and I’m going to tell you all about … More Organising a Ranger camp

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My Outdoors: A night on the water | iamapolarbear.com

My Outdoors: a night on the water

July 20, 2023

Last summer, I set off to Purbeck intent on a weekend of “adventure”, which I spent at Norden Farm Campsite, exploring Corfe village in the pouring rain, doing my first sea swim and getting to jump into the cab of a heritage steam locomotive. This year I found myself back there for the “My Outdoors” … More My Outdoors: a night on the water

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Can camping heal the soul? | iamapolarbear.com

Can camping heal the soul?

June 29, 2023

It’s Sunday night and I’m fresh from the bath, with face, hair and feel all scrubbed and made soft after feeling like a disgusting camp goblin for the last few days and I’m so much more chilled and calm than the creature who loaded up a small car and set off on Friday. I have … More Can camping heal the soul?

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Who am I?
I'm Julie, a travel, adventure and wellness blogger. I love Iceland, I love jumping into hot water and I do love a bit of snow.

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Most popular posts

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While I’m doing Iceland’s spectacular blue water, I’m also going to do Iceland’s orange majesty - the time I hiked out to Meradalir to see the second Reykjanes eruption back in 2022. It’s still one of my favourite things I’ve ever done. Seeing a real life volcano is incredible - I think the highly intelligent thing I said on my first glimpse was “it’s so red and hot!” and I’d love to see another but it hasn’t worked out since (and if it never does, at least I saw this one!) ♨️ Which is the best geothermal lagoon / pool / tourist-oriented experience in Iceland? As a student I visited Chateau de Chillon and somehow managed to believe that Lord Byron wrote a famous poem about his time as a prisoner - well, he was “mad, bad and dangerous to know”. Of course he’d spent time in a Swiss dungeon. But of course, he hadn’t. He’d visited a castle while on holiday, written a poem about an actual prisoner and turned the place into one of Switzerland’s biggest tourist attractions. And I do mean big - there are 48 rooms detailing its history from Savoy to today via Bern and Lausanne, as a defensive structure, a luxury lakeside residence and yes, a tourist attraction. I was at the station in Lausanne, thinking about the old days when I lived here with my “triplets” 20 years ago and then five minutes later, one of them messaged me. This selfie, by the way, is one I took to send to her down by the lake, hence the awkward wave. Because it’s 2026, I’m calling this Switzerland in analogue instead of on film. This is the result of taking my film camera with me and actually getting through a full roll (last year, I managed 24 photos between May and December and carried that thing around far more often than I actually used it). It’s a mixed bag in which you only get to see the better ones. The blog from Thursday also features the film photos, plus a few of the nearly-terrible ones, in case there aren’t enough brown grainy pictures right here. #analogue #analog #35mmfilm This one was on the blog almost before I got back to Switzerland but it’s time it went on Instagram too. I went snowshoeing! It was in the dark, following a trail of lanterns through a snowstorm and finished up in a mountain restaurant with traditional fondue or rösti before taking the cogwheel train back down to the lake. I love cathedrals and I especially love Gothic cathedrals, so Lausanne’s was the first thing to do when I arrived. I went there as a student and didn’t appreciate it. I thought the couple of photos I took then were a bit dark but it turns out Lausanne’s 13th century cathedral really is a bit dark. It’s very beautiful and has some amazing stained glass (including some hiding right up high in the crossing!) and my only complaint is that it’s far too hot. Cathedrals tend to be cool, cold places, especially when there's a snowstorm raging outside but this one has big heating vents keeping the place at approximately sauna temperature. It took a while to decide where in Switzerland I was going to go but it was really the Hotel Swiss Chocolate in Lausanne that swayed me to Lac Leman. 🍫 This was on the blog yesterday but it gets an Instagram post too - I went to a Swiss chocolate factory and did a chocolate workshop! The actual chocolate work was very easy but I really enjoyed the little lesson on tempering chocolate while our creations set enough to take them home.

About Julie

I’m a blogger, adventurer, lover of hot water, amateur paddler and polar bear who wilts in hot weather.

Time (by day, I’m a researcher) and funds keep me within Europe and I make regular trips up to the north, especially to Iceland. I like the occasional adventure across Europe by train and I’m starting to make use of my weekends for 48-hour adventures.

This isn’t my only creative outlet – I’ve written two travelogues with a third and fourth being (not to much) written simultaneously right now.

Blog at WordPress.com.
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