Heavy fog meant that no planes could land at the Longyearbyen airport today, so most of the excursion's shipmates have yet to arrive. I met five of them today, though, along with our guide Sarah. They come from Germany, Singapore, Canada, France (via Hong Kong), and the U.S.
After a quick meet-and-greet, several of us went on a hike up to an acceptable safe-area destination: one of the abandoned mines that dot the mountains. Coal was Longyearbyen's first raison d'être--an ironic contrast to Svalbard's current focus on eco-tourism and green living.
After a quick meet-and-greet, several of us went on a hike up to an acceptable safe-area destination: one of the abandoned mines that dot the mountains. Coal was Longyearbyen's first raison d'être--an ironic contrast to Svalbard's current focus on eco-tourism and green living.
This used to be a reindeer, maybe. I'm sure it died peacefully of old age.
Getting to the mine involved really quite a lot more scrabbling than anyone had bargained for. The grade was steep, the snow was slushy, the rocks were loose, and the "trail" we'd heard about was a vague suggestion at best. Our admiration for the miners who built this sucker in the age before Gore-tex had grown considerably by the time we got there.
But afterward we got to see the magic hour illuminating the tail end of a glacier. So that's all right.
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