Nigerian Travel Writer & Photographer – Lola Akinmade is dreaming of adventure at the North Pole! Help Her Get There

Quark Expeditions, a leading organisation in Polar Adventures, will be sending a writer to the North Pole in June 2011 to document and provide engaging reports about the trip in June 2011. The top five (5) contestants with the highest number of votes will make it to the finals, after which one writer will be chosen.

Currently on the Number 5 spot by votes is Lola Akinmade, a Nigerian Travel Writer and Photographer, who lives in Sweden.

On why she wants to be Quark’s Official Blogger to the North Pole, she says of her childhood dream,

“Nigerians are known for traveling far and wide. I’d be honored to continue this tradition… I remember sitting in Mr. Kayode’s geography class (my favorite) in secondary school, an atlas in my hand looking at political boundaries; countries way beyond my reach at that time. I constantly joked about it with family and friends. “I will reach the North Pole,” I often said, oblivious to the fact that I was sitting in tropical sub-Saharan Africa and had never seen snow at that time. I never, ever in my wildest dreams would have thought I’d be a few votes and judges away from realizing that dream. Never.”

Here’s an excerpt from her entry:

“As an experienced travel writer, blogger, and photographer, documenting our polar expedition and documenting it exceptionally through engaging reports and vivid photography will be an absolute honor and (quite possibly) a once-in-a-lifetime experience for me and Quark Expeditions…

The wind will bellow in an eerie yet welcoming fashion. Frigid waves will trash against the ice breaker, intimidating yet slowly guiding us north… I will scribble “epiphanies” into a spanking new journal, filling its pages with dreams born along the west coast of the motherland and experiences leading up to this moment of grandeur. Oh…and I will blog, tweet, photograph, Digg, Reddit, StumbleUpon, Facebook like crazy too!…sharing this amazing expedition via both social and traditional media outlets with everyone who dares to dream beyond the status quo.

Finally landing on ice centuries old at the top of the world, I will scream at the top of my lungs… “I’m a loooong way from Africa!” I would sincerely appreciate your fair and honest vote to fulfill this “once unreachable” childhood dream.”

Let us assist Lola and help her win the dream trip to the North Pole. Your vote and support in promoting and spotlighting her entry would greatly boost her chances to make us proud and join the likes of Louise A. Boyd, James Clark Ross, John Rae, Alexander Mackenzie, and John Franklin, the great Arctic Explorers!

Visit her website here to get to know her better!

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How to Vote:

We encourage fair and honest voting by reaching out to family, friends, colleagues, and others in various travel/culture/social media networks.

1. Connect with your existing Facebook account or create a simple Quark account here – http://www.blogyourwaytothenorthpole.com/login

2. Click on Lola’s entry here and cast your vote at the end of the text – http://www.blogyourwaytothenorthpole.com/entries/15. Please make sure that the number of votes is incremented by 1 (yours)

3. Pass this on via Twitter or Facebook:

“Please send Lola to the North Pole! – http://su.pr/16OQzm – @quarkexpedition @LolaAkinmade #Arctic #Travel”