We had no idea what we were to encounter inside the Polar Park, at the WolfLodge in Bardu, near Tromso, Norway, over 200 miles above the Arctic Circle. Polar Park was the word’s most northerly wildlife park, and we were told was that we might be, in the words of our Northern Norway Board Representative, […]The post In Norway, Kisses, Not Dances, With Wolves appeared first on Pursuitist.

We had no idea what we were to encounter inside the Polar Park, at the WolfLodge in Bardu, near Tromso, Norway, over 200 miles above the Arctic Circle. Polar Park was the word’s most northerly wildlife park, and we were told was that we might be, in the words of our Northern Norway Board Representative, ?kissing wolves.? And that was all she would say. This was our last Midnight Sun adventure on this trip, and though we were all seasoned travel journalists, none of us had ever done this or even thought of it.Timber Wolf, outside WolfLodgeAs we traveled to Polar Park, I began thinking of my own few experiences with wildness, and how the caprice of circumstance and timing controlled these things. The most surprising ones were in water, not on land: once, swimming in the Pacific, I was joined by a seal, whose face reminded me of a dog?s; another, of my encountering a 350-pound Bottlenose Dolphin, who looked at me, then just swam away, and finally, in the warm waters of Baja, and again swimming, a Giant Manta Ray leapt from the water and then dove back again into the deep blue. ...