Trapper Lodge Longyearbyen

... takes us from ship to shore for excursions and were introduced to the staff. There were about 115 passengers on board and about 120 people work on the ship. In addition to the captain, crew, maids and restaurant workers, there were a biologists, geologist, historian, and a botanist on board. Everyone was incredibly helpful and friendly. The atmosphere was elegant and relaxed at the same time ...

... very low to the ground. The main attraction for tourists here is polar bears. There is a stable population of about 3000 bears in the Svalbard area and if you plan to venture from any settlement there are dire warnings about possible polar bear attacks. My hostel was on the outskirts of town and I wondered if it was dangerous to walk to town...never did see a bear there ...

... stranded on a sea ice field. The poor guy swims from floe to floe, but he has no idea which way the shore is. In this environment he has no chance.<br><br>"Thar she blows," -- someone spots our first whale after dinner. It is a blue whale &#8211; the world's largest animal that can grow to over 150 tons. A rare find we are told, this far north, the blue whale is the one I saw as a kid going to the Museum of Natural History in New York City. <br><br>This ...

... the 3.0 million square miles under the Arctic Ocean ice cap has not yet been explored for oil and gas. Since 1980, over 1.3 million square miles of summer ice cap has melted and the higher price of oil combined with advancing undersea exploration technology has led to a "black gold" rush by these countries to claim territorial rights. <br><br>Some models forecast that 300 billion barrels of oil equivalent lies under the ocean in this area &#8211; an asset that could be worth ...

... is a very different experience from the Antarctic. It definitely appeared colder, although temperature-wise, I don't think it was very different. The wild-life is harder to see - a lot of it is in the ocean, while animals on land aim to blend into their surroundings to avoid predators. Sometimes there is evidence of life in the form of tracks or droppings. The Arctic is a ...

... cycle). I can understand the attraction of constant daylight, but find it amazing that they happily live here during winter, when there is 24hr darkness for many months. It is said there are as many snow mobiles as people in the town, and it definitely seemed an accurate statement. I was actually lucky to make it to Longyearbyen with only a delay of a few hours. Our flight from Oslo went via Tromso ...

Breakfast was at 7:00am today - a bit earlier than usual. The plan was to head to Poolepynten, which is a point on the southeast part of Prins Karls Forland. Poolepynten is a known walrus haul out, with a good approach from land. Government rules stipulate that no more than 30 people can approach beached walrus at any one time. So, we were going to split into groups, make the landings, and approach on foot along the beach. I was in the last group to go out (not by choice - they ...

I was fairly sore in the morning from the hike the previous day. After breakfast we checked out of Guesthouse 102 and stuffed our luggage in the storage area under the building. The weather had turned for the worst and it was blowing and rainy. Definitely much colder than previous days, too. The day's activity was for us to visit Mine 3 and take a tour. A bus came to pick us up about 9:00am. We were not all ready. I thought John was going to have a heart attack he ...

Today was cloudy again. It was colder than yesterday, too. Yesterday, I signed up for a glacier hike on the Larsbreen and Longyearbreen. These glaciers are right behind Guesthouse 102. The tour guide came around 9:30. Her name was Martine, I think. Two other people were on the trip. Both were staying in Guesthouse 102: Naipa (from Thailand) and Martin (from the Netherlands). If you leave Longyearbyen, you are required by law to carry at least one rifle in the group ...

The library in Longyearbyen has free wifi, otherwise it is very hard to come by here. There are apparently 3 or 4 hotels that have wifi. Of course, we are not at one of them. There is zero Internet available on the boat. The prices are a little better here because there are no taxes like on the main land. If I can just make it to the ship, I can start a tab on the American Express. At least most of the shops take American Express here, unlike on the main land. I ...