Arriving in Longyearbyen, gateway to the Arctic

Exploring the town at the top of the world

The capital of the Norwegian archipelago of Svalbard, Longyearbyen is the world's northernmost town and the Norwegian gateway to the Arctic Circle. Being so far north, Longyearbyen has bragging rights for the world’s northernmost kindergarten, school, university, church, post office, museum, commercial airport and gourmet restaurant.

Longyearbyen is situated in the bottom of a valley with impressive mountains on all sides. Once a small mining settlement, Longyearbyen has evolved over the years into close-knit, self-sufficient community that is very much in tune with the richness of its past and the pristine nature of the environment. 

As we soon discovered, in Svalbard, people remove their shoes when entering many restaurants, hotels and public buildings like museums, the hospital and the library and leave them near the entrance.  This tradition goes back to the old days when people removed their shoes to avoid spreading coal dust everywhere. Many places have preserved this tradition and you can either borrow slippers or bring your own. In any case, it’s a great way to feel at home!

As the land of the polar bear where polar bears outnumber people, Longyearbyen residents are extremely aware of the presence of these powerful creatures. In fact, according to section 30a of the Svalbard Environmental Protection Act, you aren’t permitted to leave the settlement without at least a 0.308 Win calibre rifle to protect against polar bears. 

While there is a small graveyard in Longyearbyen (which we came across on our explorations), no burials have happened here for over 80 years. This is down to the fact that the icy conditions and the permafrost prevent bodies from decomposing.

We stayed in Longyearbyen just one night but we managed to explore much of it and take in its unique atmosphere.

Some highlights of our time in Longyearbyen

• The extraordinary views of Arctic mountains and glaciers from the plane as we flew over the south of Svalbard.
• The stuffed polar bear at the airport: our first polar bear sighting!
• The chill in the air as we left the airport - although it wasn't as cold as we expected. Actually lovely and refreshing after humid Singapore.
• The hotel where we stayed - very warm and cosy with a lovely bar and restaurant, and yet another stuffed bear in the lobby.
• Discovering to our delight that SAS airlines had definitely not cancelled their flight into Longyearbyen (on which many of the Aurora passengers were booked) as originally planned due to striking pilots and that our expedition would be leaving on schedule.
• Walking into town to find food. We started off in the wrong direction, but this helped us get a great idea of the architecture of the town - multicoloured buildings all made of wood. There were inactive snowmobiles everywhere which is the primary transport in winter.  The roads had no names: only numbers.
• A cosy restaurant in town that did great pizza and other dishes - although not exactly cheap!  Norway is certainly not a place for a cheap holiday.
• Our first experience of the Arctic silence.  In Longyearbyen, there is no underground, ring road or traffic noise. Bliss actually.
• Our first experience of non-stop daylight. We left the restaurant at 11 pm and it was still bright outside. In fact, at this time of year, the sun never sets.  Thankfully the hotel had thick blinds but this caused me to oversleep and miss breakfast!
• A lovely exploratory walk with Gavin in the morning to the outskirts of town to an old graveyard on the slopes of a mountain. We climbed the slope for awesome views over the town.
• A tour organised by Aurora that took us to Camp Barentz where we cuddled friendly sled-dogs and tucked into the world's most delicious wrap, and visited the Svalbard Museum where there were yet more stuffed animals and some fascinating information to add to our lessons.
• Being dropped off at the port after our tour and embarking for the Greg Mortimer, our expedition ship, by zodiac.  Needless to say, our excitement was palpable!

Leaving Oslo for Svalbard

Departing Oslo airport

Gavin and Richard united by the same vision:  Empowering children to change the world

Flying to Longyearbyen

Gavin wearing his Norwegian beenie to get into the Arctic spirit

Our first wondrous sighting of the Arctic from our plane window

Rugged, wild and stunning

Arriving at Longyearbyen airport

After an epic journey, we are in the Arctic at last!

14,647 km from Sydney!

Our first walk around Longyearbyen (in search of food!)

Bicycles may be useful to get around in summer...

... but in winter, snow-mobiles are king of the road

Norwegians are understandably very proud of their Arctic pioneers and explorers

Our first drink in The Arctic

It was late at night but look at the light streaming in from outside!

Our first sightings of polar bear (all of them stuffed!)

In fact, there were polar bears wherever we looked!

Furry toys, ornaments, chocolates...

...and even a polar bear in the playground!

Gavin and I go for an exploratory ramble on the outskirts of town

We crossed a river draining from a glacier...

...to discover a little graveyard on the slopes of the mountain.

Like the intrepid hikers we are, we climbed the slope...

... for great views over Longyearbyen

Our first sighting of tiny Arctic flowers

Gavin's first video in the Arctic

Tour around Longyearbyen

Awesome scenery from the bus window on the tour organised by Aurora

Polar bear warnings!

More polar bears than people in Svalbard!

Warming ourselves in the cosy hut at Camp Barentz to hear stories about Longyearbyen's past

A great museum where we found fascinating information for our lessons and yet more stuffed critters to whet our appetite for the live sightings to come

Beautiful sled dogs

The dogs were very friendly and allowed us to pet them.

Embarking for the Greg Mortimer by zodiac

Needless to say there was great excitement all round!

All excited about embarking

We got to the ship by zodiac - our first zodiac experience of many

 

And thus began our Arctic adventure!

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• Our Arctic adventure: A list of posts