Sitting at the top of the world 3

We are in a very low wifi situation here so I’m having trouble posting. This is attempt #3 and I’ll try with just one pic and see if it works.

Well who’d have thought it? I’m writing this sitting on the balcony of Quark’s Ultramarine looking across the Arctic Ocean to the snow covered peaks of Svalbard. It’s about 1 degree, 9.30pm and the sun is at the same height in the sky as it was when we flew into Longyearbyen nine hours ago. It won’t change - daylight for 24 hours.

We had a couple of hours to explore Longyearbyen when we arrived. A fascinating little community of about 2000 permanent souls and a lot of seasonal workers. There’s also a new university there with students from all corners of the earth taking the chance to study Geology or Ecology in this unique environment. It’s huddled between tall snow-covered mountains half way along a fiord so relatively sheltered. The buildings are colorful and mostly quite new so the place had quite an air of hope and pride about it.

An excellent museum consumed most of our time with displays on the history of these islands geologically and socially and some cool stuff on the local wildlife. For over a century Svalbard’s main claim to fame was as a site for the mass slaughter of wildlife- mostly whales and walruses. It was also the stepping off point for several expeditions to the North Pole including a not surprisingly ill fated attempt by hot air balloon.

In more recent times, thanks to Mr Longyear, an American, it became a coal mining hub. That industry is on its last legs and tourism is now where the economy is focused. You can see the remnants of the old coal mining infrastructure collapsing on the mountain sides. What a brutal existence it must have been for both hunters and miners.
We were surprised when we arrived here that there was no passport control but were told that it was open to anyone and people could stay as long as they like! There’s quite a large Thai population here!

Did I mention it was cold? First priority tomorrow for me is purchasing a second beanie. We have been issued fantastic thick jackets and boots and a dry suit so I’m confident that the zodiac excursions tomorrow will be less freezing than the trip out to our ship earlier today.

Ultramarine is a gorgeous ship. An electric engine so very quiet. Only 150 passengers and at least that many crew- who are from all over the world and absolutely on their game. We’ve done our life jacket and lifeboat drills so are ready to go! Tomorrow morning we are hopeful for a shore excursion to a Walrus colony, but this being the wild, we will just have to wait and see. I will leave you with the first pics of this beautiful place. In fact I won’t as can’t upload! I’ll try pics laterRead more