ON TOP OF THE WORLD

Magdalenafjord vista

It seemed unnatural that at 2 a.m. the sky was bright with the sun beaming down on our terrace.  

We were in a zone where even the ship’s navigator was reporting on a daily basis that the time of sunrise and sunset was no longer applicable.

At 80 degrees latitude we had arrived off the west coast of Spitsbergen, the largest island in the Svalbard Archipelago.

Sunshine, Wind and Snow all at once.
Remote and Beautiful

750 miles from the North Pole, Spitsbergen has the distinction of being the northernmost place on earth where people live year-round.  These people must be made of very stern stuff.

A long way from home

To gain some perspective we consulted the Atlas.

We confirmed our position at a latitude with the northernmost tip of Greenland but high above Alaska’s northerly border and the Beaufort Sea.  

With Iceland well below us we followed the Arctic Circle around the globe, finding ourselves on a latitude with the Severnaya Islands - Siberia and the Barents Sea to the south.  

Looking at Canadian boundaries, we were well above Nunavut, Canada’s northernmost Territory, Victoria Island and Baffin Bay but on a similar latitude to Ellesmere Island. A moment to be sure when we held pause to consider our remote position.

Blessed once again with picture perfect weather, at 0700 we cruised slowly into Magdalenafjord to craggy snow capped mountains and snowfields with glaciers that swept majestically down to the sea. It was a balmy -7 degrees and as the ship slowly turned in the fiord, an icy blast swept across the bow.  

The weather was in a constant state of change - bright sunlight created beautiful reflections in the water while the wind swept puffy clouds briskly across the sky.  Blinded by sunlight one moment, we pulled our hoods up tightly as snowflakes brushed our faces the next.The fiord was awash with sea ice that crackled like crushed cellophane.  Birds swooped down with curiosity, the only sound that interrupted the silence.  This harsh landscape was breathtakingly beautiful - its starkness accentuated as a reindeer sauntered across a barren snowfield.

This is the Great White North

We left Magdalenafjord with a heading to Ny Alesund, a research station established in the 1960s and home to the Arctic Marine Laboratory and the Global Atmosphere Watch.

Not your usual port of call, Ny Alesund can be summed up as a community of scientists with rifles, sled dogs, skidoos, sophisticated communications with the odd concrete bunker set amongst the colourful wooden homes of the residents.

Sled dogs watch their masters carefully

Packing serious heat

The boundaries of the village were posted with “do not cross” polar bear warnings - unless of course you had a weapon. It felt a little surreal and putting our imaginations to the test, we wondered if Ny Alesund was all that it appeared to be…….

Our onward journey takes us south east to North Cape on the Norwegian mainland, the northernmost point of the European continent, and hopefully a few degrees warmer.

Who are these tourists anyway?