Longyearbyen, Svalbard

Trip Start Jun 26, 2007
1
8
60
Trip End Ongoing


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Tuesday, July 3, 2007

"It is freezing!!!!!" That was my first thought, "And what am i doing here?" was shortly followed after waking up in my tent on the first morning here. It is cold here because for some reason i am high up the Arctic circle and all because i wanted to visit Antarctica but couldn't really afford it so came here instead. Also blaming being cold on being tired after the long day of travelling the day before and the restless night sleep. A campsite near an airport is not always quiet and helicopters taking off at 4 am in the morning are not welcomed. 

Svalbard or where i am staying Longyearbyen is 78 degrees North and enjoys a temperate summer of 4 degrees C due to the Gulf Stream and 4 months of 24 hours of sunlight. It is difficult to describe Svalbard and i'll let the photos describe it better, but  the scenery is magical and almost seems out of this world, especially when  the weather is clear you can see over 30 miles across the fjord to glaciers and mountains on the opposite side Braided river flowing through Longyearbyen
Braided river flowing through Longyearbyen
 . One big advantage of camping here is that you are close to nature and on the first morning met my first Arctic Fox on my visit to the toilet (unfortunately i didn't have my camera on me at the time) and by the second day had seen three wild reindeers as well as the birds and their chicks. The towns in Svalbard are built around its coal mining history and can appear very ugly. So if you in this region you have to book some tours and get into the surrounding countryside.

For instance i booked a kayak tour, coal mine trip, 2 boat tours and 2 (glacier) hike. It can get expensive here due to the threat of polar bears and the need for a guide with a rifle for every trip.

The kayak tour is nice pleasant trip costing 590 NoK (i warned you it's not cheap) across the Adventfjorden, approx 2km wide where our hepful guide supplied us with lots of random information especially about reindeers. For example, in winter the female reindeers only have antlers but in summer it is vise versa. In winter reindeer poo is like rabbit or sheep droppings in little round pellets but in summer there is more substance and looks more like a human turd. Something to do about the reindeer with-holding moisture in the winter. However i am not taking a photo of faeces to show you an actual example for this blog.
The trip to Mine number 3 also costing 590 NoK is very informative but in my eyes is not worth the cost for a 3 hour trip. However it was good to experience for old manual way of mining in very tight spaces and the ice crystals in the mine shaft shining in the flashlight was also rememberable. Bear in mind the temperaute of the mine is minus 4 degrees and is home to the seed bank. A bank that holds lots of seeds ready in the chance of Armegeddon happening, also being so constantly cold it doesn't need electricity to regulate the temperature.
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