Back to Longyearbyen

After the training it is back to Longyearbyen for a couple of days. The training has been useful and a fair bit of Krona is spent in the various outdoor shops to ensure that we are as well-equipped as possible for the Pole. I also managed to eat at the most NortherlyThai restaurant in the world and use the most Northerly cash machine!

Whilst we were on our training, the North Pole marathon has taken place and we meet a number of the participants and organisational team when we gate-crash their after party. The marathon is 9 laps of a track marked out around Barneo with the competitors having to run through a heated tent on each circuit for a break, refuelling or check-up by the medical team - including a rather lovely young lady called Beth.

 

We learn later that the only medical issue of any severity was some chap who got fairly badly frostbitten toes when he went for a barefoot run! It is not clear how much of the original incident or the retelling of it were fuelled by alcohol.

The following day is a struggle to get up (must have been a good party!) but we then hear about a nearby ice cave. Along with some vague directions, we receive a few warnings about the inherent dangers combined with a very strong recommendation that this trip should never be done alone. It won’t come as much of a surprise to any of you to discover that these warnings were roundly ignored – apart from the one about the polar bears and the need to carry a gun with you when leaving the town. Luckily, Guy, our Aussie / American friend, had been in the US army for a few years and felt more confident than the rest of us that he would not shoot either himself or anyone else in the group whilst carrying the gun and, perhaps more importantly, that he could shoot a bear if absolutely required rather than feeling sorry for the poor animal as it attacked me as I would no doubt have done!

We have a very enjoyable 1.5 hour hike up the steep valley that Longyearbyen is in with great views and an enjoyable mix of terrain.

The entrance is actually a bit of a surprise in that it is only a small hole in the ground which is just marked by two poles forming an ‘X’. 

I had to crawl in whilst lying flat on the floor and found a sharply inclined drop to the right which opens out into a series of small chambers that are connected by small passages that twist, turn and drop. The fact that we don’t have a guide means that there is a much greater sense of exploration as we progress through the cave – especially for me as quite luckily none of the others were keen to go first.

After this, we have out last night in civilisation for a while so we head out again to enjoy more of the Longyearbyen nightlife – in fact that is a bit of a misnomer as the sun does not set here and it is pretty strange wandering home from a bar at 3am in the sunlight

Taken at 02:50 am

– and have a really rather amusing night. The evening started out with Bourbon (despite the fact it was pretty expensive and none of us actually like it) and flirting with some masseuses (d'une certaine age) who had come up from Oslo for a conference (!?) and had taken the opportunity of a night out whilst their husbands had gone to bed early. We got some rather disapproving responses early on but by the end (and in no small way aided by alcohol) had managed to turn things around to the extent that I was told that if I was ever in Olso I had to call on one of them to meet her daughter!

From there we went to the 'local' bar in town only usually frequented by miners and the various seasonal staff. As we were to find out, this place is notorious for three reasons (and the combination can make it a pretty rough place to be at times!):
o   There are no windows – whether this is to stop the permanent sunshine or police to look in is not clear;
o   It has a legendary collection of whisky and other spirits – 10 shelves high and about 2 metres in length;
o   The alternative to quality is quantity and their special Longyearbyen Iced Tea is remarkably potent.

We were staying some way out of the centre of town and despite the 2am sunshine, a 30 minute walk home at -15c or so is never fun. Luckily there was a late night pizza / kebab shop nearby and I had the brainwave of ordering some food and getting it delivered with us in the vehicle at the same time – unfortunately the staff did not seem to think it was such a clever idea. My immediate reaction (and I have clearly spent too much time in countries that used to be under the Soviet sphere of influence) was to suggest a ‘delivery fee’ which increased by a few £ each time it was refused – much to the amusement of the rest of the shop but probably less so to the staff themselves. Unfortunately, Norway is a very law abiding and when this routine stopped being first productive and then funny, I apologised at which point they mentioned that they could, and would be happy to, book the Longyearbyen taxi for us!