The Arctic

The islands of Svalbard will stay with me forever. It is absolutely a magical place of extreme quiet and peace... all while maintaining the safety and comforts that we are familiar with. There is one primary town here called Longyearbyen, with approximately 2000 residents and one airport with only one arrival/departure per day. The three main industries here are research, mining, or tourism. The people are extremely friendly and happy to have conversations. It seems that in general no one lives here indefinitely. The average is about 3-4 years; making the population very diverse with nearly 40 nationalities represented.

LongyearbyenThere is a Radisson hotel, several guest houses, and excursion companies. You can take day trips or longer trips into the wilderness. There are a lot of activities depending on the season; either over the snow or on the water. The most notable inhabitant here is the Polar Bear, but that is more on the East side of these land masses... and it is actually rare to see them anywhere near the town, you are even lucky to see them on an excursion. They generally like to hang out in the water or on floating ice. Guns must be carried anywhere outside of the town limits (you can rent them at the town hall). Svalbard also has arctic fox, seals, whales, walrus, and masses of birds and geese; and lets not forget the reindeer.

I've been told that Santa is currently on holiday in Finland, so we won't be seeing him on this trip. But we DID go dog-sledding on Thursday. The dogs used here are a mixture of Husky and Greenland Dog. That was a life event that will bring me a smile for the rest of my life. I'm so delighted to be able to share a few moments of that with this small film.

Yesterday we went on a 10 hour boat trip, and were rewarded with scenery, glaciers, sea-life, birds, and an isolated Russian coal mining settlement called Barentsburg where 400 Russians live. I'll share all of that with you soon. Does anyone like Walruses? You are in for a treat!