We arrived in Longyearbyen this morning at 7.00am. Longyearbyen is the capital of Svalbard, and is the most northerly inhabited town in the world !!! wow !! and we were here !!! This was in the Daily Program : “ ATTENTION: Due to the possible presence of Polar Bears, guests are invited to walk always on the main streets and to take paths only if escorted by a local ranger. “ Our excursion for today is “A Pant in the Country - The Amazing Dog Sled Tour”. We left the ship at about 11.30am and were driven in 4 Wheel Drives into the country. On arrival we needed to change into something similar to boiler suits, except they were in bright safety green - very becoming !!!. While changing one of the assistants asked where we were from ! On finding out we were Australian, she broke into typical Aussie talk, and explained she was also Australian and had been working in Sweden with dogs previously, but that it wasn't far enough away from family, so she moved to Longyearbyen, where she had been for the past 3 years.
They then started preparing the dogs and sleds - more like small wagons that were on wheels, due to the fact that there wasn't any snow on the ground as it was summer. It was about 7-8 degrees, which is apparently a hot day for the dogs !!. 14 Husky dogs were harnessed to the front of each sled, which contained 6 people and the guide, who was equipped with a rifle and and a survival pistol just in case there were any Polar Bears - eeek !! We were pulled along for about 2 klms, before we stopped to water the dogs, this happened at regular intervals, as it was hot for the dogs. We learned that the dogs work best at -14 deg, when the snow is firmly packed
During dinner that night, an announcement was made, that due to the nice weather the Captain had obtained permission to leave to planned route and sail further up the fjord to Pyramiden, where there was a glacier, and that they would launch the tender and collect a large piece of an iceberg. It took approximately 90 mins to reach the Glacier. Wow !!! It was amazing !!!Which would then be bought on board the ship and displayed in the Pool area tomorrow. We watched the ship sail towards to glacier with Vanessa and Richard (from Canada) in there suite until after midnight,and then went to Deck 14 as the ship started to turn again.
Another very late night, or should I say early morning, but what an experience with more incredible scenery !!!
After the Tender returned to the ship, we started our journey towards the North Cape, with more spectacular scenery
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