Photos from this day can be found here.
The ship was arriving in Longyearbyen as we got ready to begin our day. Joyce was very ready to get a break from wearing the sea bands. Alan had an early excursion so he went up to breakfast alone. Joyce’s excursion didn’t start until 10:45 a.m. so she had a more leisurely start to the day.
This cruise, for the first time, Alan and Joyce are going on some excursions without the other. A few days had two included excursions, but each guest could only go on one. Some excursions were of more interest to one of us than the other.
Joyce began her excursion, The Panoramic Tour of Longyearbyen and the Svalbard Museum at the pier. Our guide was originally from Germany, currently living full time in Longyearbyen. We first drove a small distance up one side of the valley to see what was left of the mining operations of mine 1 and mine 2. After whaling had decimated the whale population around Svalbard, the archipelago of islands, mining was started by an American man, John Longyear. He found and tested the coal of the area and found it to be a high grade of coal. He later sold his mining operations to the Norwegian government. While mining was not hugely profitable due to the expense of extracting the coal, and transporting it due to the arctic location, mining continued here until last year. The Russians still have a small mining operations in the archipelago.
In the early days, with many of the surrounding nations having various enterprises in the area, including Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Russia, etc, there was not an organized structure of laws. In 1920, after World War I, the Svalbard Treaty granted Norway full and unrestricted sovereignty over the archipelago of Svalbard, while ensuring all signatory countries have equal rights to engage in commercial activities. The islands cannot be used for war and troops and military bases are not allowed.
As we drove back toward the museum, we saw many pipes running above ground, because of the permafrost. The permafrost is also the reason people are not buried here as the freezing and thawing and shifting tends to pull the bodies to the surface.
The Svalbard Museum was small but informative and well done. We were given green plastic booties to put over our shoes to keep the outside dirt from coming into the museum. There was a wall of square cubbies to put shoes in if one preferred, using the plastic booties over your socked feet.
Medical care here is also basic, with no surgeries, etc. Pregnant women travel to the Norway mainland 4-6 weeks before their due date to give birth.
With the use of taxidermy, we saw the actual birds and mammals that make their home in this area. Joyce was happy to learn that the polar bear exhibited was killed last year when it attempted to break in to a cabin and would not be warned away with other nonlethal methods. Polar bears are protected in the area so a lengthy inquiry was conducted after the killing. This gave Joyce the opportunity to get pictures of many animals she may not see or see at a distance that pictures are not possible.
There were also replicas of cabins use by hunters in the early days. Included was an excellent interactive map display showing the entire archipelago, the protected areas and the polar ice melt for the years 1976-2014.
After visiting the museum, the tour included a drive to see the town, pointing out the supermarket, hospital, cafes, craft brewery, mining housing, university, student housing, to name a few. Our drive continues past the pier, where our ship was docked, past the airport, along the fjord. We could see glaciers on the tops of many of the surrounding mountains. We learned the Svalbard is an arctic desert. Larger amounts of snow falls mainly in December and January. Due to the cold temperatures, the snow lasts until the spring thaw in May and June.
We drove up into the mountains a small distance past the airport, driving by more former mining operations and the world seed vault. The vault uses a fortified and extended former mine shaft. This seed vault contains seeds from around the world, stored, at 0 degrees F, in the event of a global catastrophe to restart food production. The seed vault is secure, with no visitors. If a country wants to contribute seeds, they are sent a box for the seeds to be mailed to the vault.
With the ceasing of mining operations, our guide reported there is a little uneasiness with some longtime residence of the area. Currently the main industries in the area are tourism and research.
A humorous incident occurred as we made our way back to the ship. Someone asked our guide why we hadn’t seen a bank, She replied that the Norwegian society was basically cashless, with almost all payment done digitally. Another guest asked if that meant she couldn’t accept cash tips, to which she quickly replied, “Oh yes, I can!” There was laughter in the bus and you could see she looked a little embarrassed. She then said, “Tips are welcome, I have my ways!”
Meanwhile, Alan went to the dogs. We drove about 10 km to Camp Barentz in the remote Advent Valley. On the way to the camp, we made the obligatory stop at the “Polar Bears might kill you” sign for pictures and a brief cautionary talk about staying with the group, off the permafrost, and of the remote, but serious dangers of encountering a polar bear. Everyone who leaves the main town area either has to carry or be with someone who has a flare gun and a rifle. They are pretty serious about bears around here!
Once at the camp, we could hear the dogs barking as soon as we stepped off the bus. The camp itself consisted of just a few buildings, one of which was a replica of the house that William Barentz and his crew built to shield themselves during the winter after discovering Svalbard. The island we are actually on is Spitsbergen, a part of the larger Svalbard Archipelago.
One of the mushers struggled to get through her talk about the huskies, the sleds, and their life, laughing often as the dogs kept barking, impatiently waiting for their turn in the spotlight. It seemed that they were especially impatient this day!
The dogs are specially bred to pull sleds through the snow up here. They are a cross between Alaskan Huskies, Alaskan Malamutes, and Greenland dogs, as well as Greyhounds, German Shorthaired Pointers, and Salukis. Dogs here are built for power, stamina, and intelligence, different from dogs used in the Iditarod, which need more speed.
The sleds are pretty simple. They consist of a platform for the musher to stand on and several different braking mechanisms. These dogs want to run, and the musher told us that when she uses the brake, the dogs turn and look confused. “Why are we stopping?”
The dogs are also very socialized. So they were anxious for the talk to be over and to get the pets and cuddles they had been barking for since we arrived. We were let loose to go to each of the dogs to make new friends. Of course, some of the visitors had to learn to step carefully through the dogs’ area. Alan spent some nice time, especially with a friendly tan husky named “Fire”. He really wanted to not only get some nice ear rubs, but to stand up and give some kisses, especially when Alan stopped to look at other dogs or comment to one of the other guests.
From there Alan looked at the replica cabin and walked around the compound for a bit. The other main building had a wood fire in the center with some small tables surrounding it that held freshly made pancakes and delicious strawberry jam to dress them. We were also offered hot drinks. Alan selected hot tea, and was given hot water in an oddly shaped plastic cup from one of the kettles on the fire. Around the outside were low benches and tables, covered in animal pelts.
As we were finishing our snack, our guide turned into a speaker about polar bears. She covered their whole life cycle. From their birth as tiny creatures, just a few ounces in weight, they quickly grow, and in just a few months are bouncing around their mothers, whom they stay with for a couple of years. The mothers will eat well for about 6 months, with an adult normally consuming about 40 some seals. But during the bitter winter months, they basically don’t eat at all. (Part of that diet sounds great, but not the last part!).
While the polar bears can be deadly when crossed, there have only been 6 fatal bear attacks on humans in Svalbard since 1971, with about 50 serious confrontations. Contrary to popular belief, polar bears do not outnumber people in the archipelago: there are believed to be about 300 bears and 3000 residents.
Joyce returned to the ship about 1 pm, so we went up to lunch together in the World Cafe to enjoy lunch and share our morning experiences. As the day progressed, the clouds thinned and we could see more sunshine. After lunch we decided to take the shuttle into town. The shuttles were vans that could hold 8 people. We had a couple more than 8 people come up to the shuttle stop when the van arrived, so the driver took the first 8 people and called another driver to let them know there were people waiting. The drive was about 5 minutes with the driver pointing out various sites. The shuttle dropped us at the supermarket. We looked around the supermarket, which was more like a Target or Walmart with both food items and department store items. It is always interesting to go to stores in other countries to see items for sale you don’t see in your country, compare prices etc. We found a key chain to add to our Christmas tree commemorating places we have travel.
After the supermarket we walked down the hill toward the Svalbard Museum. There was some construction on both sides so we walked down a gravel path with construction fences on both sides. There was a gift shop area to browse without paying to enter the museum. Alan considered paying to go in, but decided against it. We browsed the gift shop and Joyce showed Alan the interactive map she so enjoyed during her earlier museum visit.
As we left the museum we checked out a small plexiglass dome not far the museum entrance. In the dome were two researchers with Polar Bear International answering questions and educating people about polar bears and their Arctic habitat. We enjoyed listening and learning and took some printed information with us. We learned polar bear cubs are born in the winter in the den. The mother and the cubs stay in the den until spring, when the cubs are several months old and have a nice thick coat of white fur. The mother doesn’t eat for approximately 6 months. Alan asked one of the researchers about some plants in a nearby area and she went with him to explore it and identified two plant species.
We were ready to return to the ship. Instead of walk in the wrong direction back to the supermarket to wait for the shuttle, we decided to walk back to the ship. It wasn’t that far, and we needed to exercise, especially after all the food we had eaten during the last two sea days!Walking back to the dock, we saw a metal sculpture of a polar bear that was used in a recent Polar X production. We didn’t see anything particularly exciting and it was a little chilly and windy, but the 15 – 20 minutes walk was refreshing.
Back on the ship we decided to watch the documentary, The Arctic Frontier with Simon Reeves. https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p0l9w783. The documentary begins in Svalbard, filming in Svalbard, Norway and Lapland. It is definitely worthwhile if one is interested.
At one point, Simon was with the Finnish military which, due to their long boundary with Russia, is very prepared for a possible invasion (especially after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine) and conducts many drills. Simon participated is a drill practicing what to do when skiing on patrol and falling through the ice on a body of water. The person that fell through the ice, takes off their backpack and skies, laying them on the edge of the ice, then, using their ski poles to dig into the ice and their legs to kick in the water, pulls themselves out of the hole in the ice. Simon commented to the military trainer as they watched the exercise, “None of them are screaming.”, to which the trainer replied, “It doesn’t help anything to scream.”
We ate at a sharing table this evening, with a couple from Sydney, Australia and a couple from Beaufort, South Carolina by way of Virginia. This was spiny lobster night, which our entire table chose for the main course. We were pleasantly surprised by the large size of the lobster tail and it was very tasty, served with asparagus. Alan and Joyce both chose the chocolate crème brûlée for dessert which was the best dark chocolate (70%) dessert we have had thus far.
We had an encore performance from the flautist from a couple of nights ago. Since Joyce played the flute in high school, she particularly enjoyed the performance. He is a talented musician and entertainer. He played a bass flute, which Joyce hadn’t seen or heard of before. We had a closer seat, and could see his instruments better tonight. His novelty flute was a tire pump this time.
No sunset tonight.
