Longyearbyen, Svalbard, Norway 5 August 2015
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| Approach to Longyearbyen |
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| Lat-Long... |
Landfall in Svalbard, better known by the name of its main
island Spitsbergen, brought us to Longyearbyen, which is the world’s
northernmost town (not ‘settlement’ – Ny Alesund takes that honour) barely 1200km
from the geographic North Pole. It has the most northernmost church, ATM,
school, ‘shopping centre’, Toyota dealer, restaurants and university. Position
78.09.87 N and 013.53.81 E. The sun does not set between 12 April and 25
August, on the other hand it does not rise between 25 October and 8 March each
year. So one has to time one’s visit –depending on one’s preference to see
midnight sun or auroras borealis…whether to dog sledding with sleighs or
dogsledding with wheeled carts…
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| Satellite monitoring equipment... |
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| Prinsendam at Dock |
Sixty percent of the landmass is covered by ice, albeit that
diminishes each year as glaciers are retreating at full gallop. There are about
3500 humans on the archipelago of Svalbard, which is about the size of
Scotland. 4000 polar bears roam everywhere (warning signs point that out quite
succinctly), 10,000 reindeer populate the permafrost of the tundra, many
elusive Arctic foxes skip around, thousands of seals and herds of walruses hang
out on what is left of the pack ice, and hundreds of thousands of birds make
their home here at least during their breeding season. Cats are illegal – all
bird are protected, and cats – non-native here – would have a lot of murderous
field days if permitted to live here.
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| Arctic Fox |
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| Bears are everywhere in Svalbard.... |
By the way, dying here is complicated as well. Bodies have
to be flown out of Svalbard to be ‘processed’ somewhere warmer – permafrost
does not permit cadavers to decompose, hence instead of a hearse one needs a
plane for a funeral.
The archipelago is administered by Norway, however, anyone
who is a citizen of the countries being part of the Svalbard Treaty of 1920 is
allowed to settle here – Canada is one of them. For some reason, Thai nationals
have taken a liking to Svalbard, Thai restaurants exist here. One may study various
subjects at the local university, one of them is how to be an ‘Arctic Guide’.
In British Columbia, everyone has a brown bear/grizzly bear
story – in Spitsbergen/ Svalbard everyone has a polar bear story. By law one is
not allowed to leave any settlement without being suitably armed for last
resort self-defence, should one of the curious – and aggressive – giants cannot
be frightened off by flare guns. Our land excursions were strictly limited to
‘safe’ ground – meaning: with luck the
bears don’t turn up in the middle of the village during our stay. Bears do
visit the settlements frequently, some of them have been spotted in local bars.
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| Bear defense.... |
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| Memorial to fallen Miners |
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| Left Over Mining Structures |
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| Bronze Statue of Miner |
But – to Longyearbyan! Like most of the few settlements
here, it was founded , in 1906 by a coal company, this one under the leadership
of the American John Longyear. And, as
with many coal mining enterprises, fatalities amongst the miners in the end
closed down the mines a few decades later. Abandoned mine buildings and related
structures may still be seen in the surroundings.
Longyearbyan prides itself on quite a sophisticated cultural
scene – festivals, jazz, marathons of any kind, literature and concert
festivals, Octoberfest and blues sessions all happen throughout the year, with
Christmas festivities around Juletide.
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| Santa Claus Mail Box |
Jule is a Nordic word, I suppose it means winter solstice or
Christmas. After passing the largest mailbox ever – dedicated to the jolly man
in red who receives world-wide correspondence from trusting children everywhere
during ‘jule tide’ - I strolled down the main drag – road construction in
progress of course – it’s summer after all.
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| Longyearbyen |
As Lonyearbyen is the capital of Svaldbard, it has a
surprising number of amenities – hotels, stores, tourism offices, a respectable
number of good restaurants – not the least of it Huset, the world’s
northernmost gourmet bistro with one of Europe’s largest wine cellars.
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| Main Street |
I did not visit the global seed vault, also called the
doomsday vault, where half a million seed species are stored in concrete lined
caves dug into the permafrost – just in case things go wrong for good old
earth. Seems that seeds from arch enemy countries await the aftermath of ‘the
day of judgement’ in peace, sleeping side
by side in plastic boxes, cartons, various bags until they may be called into
action.
On my stroll, I dropped into an open shop – it turned out to
be an office to book ‘arctic excursions’ (sledding, trekking, whale and polar
bear watching, ski tours, caving, fjord touring etc etc).
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| Checking out the Polar Bears... |
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| Town Dog |
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| Arctic Cotton Grass |
I bought the last available ticket to the town’s dogsledding
trips. The big name musher outfits were sold out, and I secured a spot with an
outfit called Svalbard Husky which owns ONLY 60 dogs – cost 950 Norwegian Kroners, about 100 $US, for
3 ½ hours of hands-on enjoyment…somewhat
less than a ship’s excursion, which only offered dog-waggon rides (something
like small hay-waggons.) The ship listed no U-Drive adventures, probably due to
ever present insurance considerations. Somewhat more money than one would pay a
‘dog walker’ for three hours of fresh air exercising, but worth every single
cent.
Promptly at 2 p.m. after finishing a slow exploratory stroll
through the entire town, a mud covered jeep turned up at the pick-up point, the
local Radisson Hotel (yes, there is one,) and drove us out a few miles along a
gravel road (dry, not muddy today) into one of the vast valleys just outside
Longyearbyan to the ‘dog place’. Being perma-frost Tundra, there is neither a tree or bush as far
as the eye can see. Lichens, mosses, and, tufts of cotton grass, nothing more
than a few centimeters high, cover the lower slopes of bald mountains and
valleys with a multihued carpet of vegetation. (Listen to Edvard Grieg’s
Holdberg Suite).
We were eight ‘mushers’, including two children under
twelve, all passengers of the Prinsendam,
guided by one statuesque blond Viking girl, who played both roles, that of guide
and that of dog and wheeled sled manager.
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| Sled Dog Puppies |
After doing the ‘admire the cute puppies’ thing, we received
a few minutes of instructions as to how to help dressing the dogs in their
harness (a motley crew of all mixes of Husky derivatives) and hooking them up
to the traces of the sleds (lead dogs first). We rigged four sleds, each with
six dogs. Being inexperienced ‘dog
handlers’ it made for some watch-worthy incidents, but all – even the children
– prepared their team dogs.
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| Awaiting work from his doggie hut... |
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| Dog Pen and raised huts |
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| Harnessing up...Charlie at left, and Bender closest to the sled |
I got a couple of the
eager creatures ready, which is not difficult, they ‘help’ putting their legs
through the harness and pushing their heads through the collars without any
coaxing – except they are so excited about the imminent run, that one needs the
strength of a Hercules to just take them from their huts to the sled without
being dragged like a break-less sled oneself. The trick is to lead them on ‘two
legs’ lifting up their front end by the harness – try that with a hundred pound
dog who is raring to go.
They are all VERY WELL trained. We figured out which of us
would ‘team up’ with whom for each of the wheeled sleds (I selected to travel
with the guide. I sat in the sled, she drove).
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| The BARKER to the left... |
We received some verbal instructions as how to steer (and
stop) the rig, standing up on a little platform and hanging on to a
‘bicycle-handles’. We were off – IN DOG WE TRUST. I would have liked to drive,
but did not have enough squeezing strength in my hands to put on the brakes –
like bicycle brakes, but stiffer. I enjoyed an unexpectedly comfortable ride reclining
in a reindeer pelt covered low seat, with my feet propped on metal tubing, and cradling
water-bucket and doggie bowls with my legs.
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| Rolling across the tundra |
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| ...and rolling along the gravel road |
Exhilarating is an understatement. The dogs are happy, eager
and pull with all their might. They bark incessantly until they sense, that the
brakes are coming off. But as soon as
they are running freely, they concentrate silently on their job. They are
incredibly fit (not fat). They demonstrate their individual personalities: one
lead dog barked furiously as soon as the sleds braked for a pause, sounding
like a car horn at a red light (what’s the hold up?) Charlie, my lead dog, ignored all but his commands – left, right,
stop, go – keeping his nose to the grindstone at all times; Bender, closest to
the sled and senior citizen dog, took
advantage of every stop to lay down; John, still a youngster, ‘jumped’ his
traces to play with his team partner, who was not amused – but they work
together, as a team, with all traces to the sled equally tight.
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| Airplane wreck - WWII |
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| Watering Pause |
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| And off again... |
We jogged along the gravel road first (only oneroad, and
when that runs out – only snowmobile trails), then headed off into the tundra
and stopped a couple of times at fresh-water ponds amidst bogs to give the dogs
a refreshing drink and a short rest.
No mishaps occurred, all dogs behaved perfectly, albeit a
couple of teams wanted to take a ‘shortcut’ around a corner and their sled had
to be pulled away from an embankment. The bicycle handle type ‘steering’ turns
the front wheels of the sled (maybe… no power assist here), however, the lead
dogs obey verbal commands (if they are forthcoming, that is) as there are no
‘reins’ attached to them.
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| Reindeers grazing in the tundra |
We stopped to watch a couple of Svalbard reindeer, stocking
up on winter-fat. They are short legged and full bodied, which makes the locals
compare them to tundra pigs (their meat turns up in many local specialties). We
rolled on and enjoyed a thrilling ride through Adventfjorden valley, opening up
on the edge of town, offering stunning scenery and vast expanses of mountains,
flatland, and slopes. Temperatures….relatively balmy, if one was appropriately
and warmly dressed. And there was neither rain nor fog – marvellous!
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| Don't get too close to my home... |
Upon return to the dog ‘farm’ we unharnessed the somewhat
more subdued animals. However, it was dinner time for them – and now they were ready
and more than eager to get back to their stilted dog houses (without getting to
close to their neighbours – the doggie friendship ends there). We carried tin
bowls filled with a pink watery slop of raw boneless chicken bits and water to
their huts, put sleds and harnesses in order – and made it back to the ship
(the Viking girl dropped us at the ‘security’ gate) with a few minutes to
spare.
A unique and unforgettable experience - and I hadn’t planned
for thing to do here in Longyearbyen….
