Journey to the Top of the World

- PART 2

Life Matters News Digest No.075 October/November 2024

In the previous newsletter I shared Part 1 (new subscribers "Welcome" and catch up by reading the first part) of my journey to the "top of the world," and in this edition, we reach Ny-Alesund, the most northern part of our expedition.

The small town of Ny-Alesund is the most northern functional civilian settlement in the world and lies just 1200 kilometres (746 miles) from the North Pole. It is only habitable due to the Gulf Stream and the North Atlantic Current which wash the western shores of the island of Spitsbergen in the Svalbard archipelago and keep its harbour open for most of the year.

The town is owned and operated by the Kings Bay Company, now nationalised by the Norwegian Government. The remote town/village has a permanent all-year population of 30 - 35 and a summer population of around 114. It owes its existence at first to the whaling industry, then to coal and now to science and tourism. 19 research institutions from 11 countries are actively working here.

Most research centres on environmental and earth sciences, including atmosphere, glaciology, terrestrial ecology and marine research. The researchers benefit from the extreme latitude and easy access to pristine nature.

It looks quite bleak when you first arrive but it has a long history, as well as a museum, a hotel, a post box, an airfield and a rocket range owned by the Norwegian Government.

An English explorer, Jonas Poole, first discovered coal at Ny-Alesund on a whaling expedition in 1610. However, after several false starts, it was not exploited until the early part of the 20th century. By 1921 more than 300 people were living in the town, including 22 women and 23 children. It must have been one hell of a place to grow up!

The Nordpolehotellet (North Pole Hotel) opened on 3rd September 1939 but had to close a few days later because of the outbreak of WWll and the town's evacuation.

Mining recommenced in 1945 but over the years was never truly viable, with the port often frozen solid between November and April, and a series of fatal accidents in the mines which killed several dozen miners. Another explosion in 1962 which killed 21 miners, was known as the "Kings Bay Affair," and led to the resignation of the Norwegian Government in 1963. Mining was finally terminated the same year.

The museum has interesting photographs, including many of the mines and the mining families. The tiny steam train and the carriages that carried the coal down to the harbour are still there today.

When I wrote about our trip to Antarctica last year, I mentioned the Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen, who was the first explorer to reach the South Pole, which unlike the North Pole is a landmass and not frozen water. Well, Amundsen was also at Ny-Alesund.

On 11th May 1926 Amundsen left Ny-Alesund in the "Norge," an Italian-designed airship with 15 others on board, to cross over the North Pole the next day and eventually land in Alaska. At the Pole, Norwegian, Italian & American flags were dropped onto the ice, reflecting the expedition's sponsors, an argument later breaking out over the Italian flag being "bigger" than the others!

There were 3 other claims to have been the "first to reach the North Pole," one just a few days before Amundsen's crossing, but Amundsen's is the only one to have been verified, the others generally considered inaccurate or false. So in the end Amundsen was able to claim the title to both Poles, North and South and become the most famous Norwegian.

The tower to which the "Norge" airship was tethered (see below) is still standing on the edge of the town today, but you can only visit it with an armed guard as Polar Bears are still a real threat to visitors and residents. No one locks their doors in Ny-Alesund in case you have to seek safe shelter very quickly!

I would have loved to have seen a wild Polar Bear, but it was the wrong time of year.

A long time ago, when I worked at Bristol Zoo, they were recognised as the most dangerous of all animals kept there.

I remember once watching the vet and the keepers extracting a damaged or infected tooth from a Polar Bear when it suddenly overcame the anaesthetic and started to come around. I had never seen humans move so fast!

However, back in Ny-Alesund, while I was busy photographing a bust of Roald Amundsen, Tricia saw 2 Arctic Foxes playing on the Tundra vegetation at the edge of town behind the blue house, but too far away to get a decent photograph. There are also reindeer on the island and onboard the ship we also got long-distance views of Humpback whales, white Beluga whales and Orcas.

As you can see from the winter photograph above, cables and utilities are carried in above-ground insulated utility tunnels, the permafrost below ground being too inaccessible and too damaging to be practical for maintenance.

Across the bay from Ny-Alesund ("New Alesund") is the island of Blomstrandhalvøya with an abandoned mining settlement called Ny-London ("New London"). The settlement was established by another Englishman, Ernest Mansfield, in 1911. Mansfield had discovered marble on the island, describing the deposits as "no less than an island of pure marble."

In 1912, Mansfield shipped a large quantity of marble to England hoping to extract a large sum of money from investors. Unfortunately, the marble had been subject to frost weathering and disintegrated when it reached a warmer climate, another great project biting the dust!

In the afternoon, we returned to the ship and the ship was soon heading south again, passing the mist-shrouded Bear Island and treating us to more endless sunsets of the Midnight Sun. Within 24 hours we were back near the islands and the mainland that make up Norway's long and distinctive coastline, passing small communities perched on the edges of fjords and the ubiquitous salmon farms. One village welcomed us by pumping a 25-foot water jet into the air.

Our first stop travelling south was at Senja, Norway's 2nd largest island, connected to the mainland by a bridge. We took a tour of the island with a guide whose commentary was repetitive but the views were stunning, with mountains reflected in pristine, tranquil lakes and bays.

We even spotted the odd reindeer, and visited the infamous "golden toilet", a piece of artwork erected at vast cost, but totally impractical because it only accommodated one person at a time.

After Senja, we stopped briefly at Stokmarkness with its very modern buildings, including one built entirely around one of the early ships, MS Finnmarken, that plied the coastal express route moving passengers, mail and freight up and down the Norwegian coast.

One of our treats on the way back was to enter the very narrow, but very deep, Trollfjord, after which our ship, the MS Trollfjord, is named. Making our way slowly to the end of the fjord, with its 1,000-metre peaks on either side plus a few houses and several waterfalls, the enormous ship manoeuvred cautiously, in a very confined space, to turn around and come back out again.

As always, the coastline of Norway continued to impress. Water that looked sub-tropical in places, as well as pretty and colourful wooden houses, hundreds of cod-drying racks, monuments, and historic statues. At Henningsvaer we docked for a while and wandered around the village, much of it built on stilts and watched a professional glass blower apply her trade.

As we wove our way through various islands, giant mirrors reflected the ship as it passed by Brønnøysund and under a road bridge with less than 18 inches to spare, sailed by a small island with a huge mountain with a hole right through it and at Alesund met the Cunard liner Queen Mary 2 in the harbour. The Queen Mary 2 is still the world's largest ocean-going liner at 1,132 feet (345.03 metres) long and in 2016 was refitted for $132 million.

Another day's sailing took us from Alesund back to our point of departure, Bergen. When we arrived, I regretted having to get off the ship! The cabin was so comfortable, the food, the crew and the service were great and the journey was a revelation. Just 370 passengers and 100 crew on our ship, so it never felt crowded.

As we disembarked, I noticed Tui's latest monstrous cruise ship, "Mein Schiff 7" creeping into the other side of the harbour.

Checking it out later I discovered it carries 2,896 passengers and 1,447 crew! No thanks!

We prefer the intimacy of Hurtigruten ships any day. So thanks to all their staff, they did a brilliant job, we had a wonderful trip, and I hope you enjoyed "coming along" with us.

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Huskies Revisited

In Part 1 of "Journey to the Top of the World," I put in a video of a wagon ride pulled by huskies. Although it worked for me, the video apparently did not work for everyone else! So, I have changed the link and it should now be working for all to watch. I have also included it below.

Since returning from that trip, I have watched a film about a German who went to Svalbard to "find himself." I am not sure if he found himself, but he certainly lost me as I did not understand what was going on a lot of the time!

However, most of it was filmed in and around Longyearbyen in Svalbard where we had the experience with the huskies. In fact, in one scene he was driven down the same road that we had travelled down with the husky wagon.

When we had stopped there to allow the huskies to rest and drink some water, there were several signs warning visitors to stay away from the surrounding tundra where Arctic Terns were nesting on the ground and get very protective if invaded.

In the film, the man was allowed to get out of the car at one of these points and was immediately attacked by angry Arctic Terns who dive-bombed him and pecked him on the head. Quite right too! The director obviously thought this was "great cinema!"

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Previously, I had said I was unsure about the dogs pulling a wagon as I was concerned about their welfare. Here is a bonus video showing the dogs enthusiastically raring to go.

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Tethered Caps

You may have noticed recently that bottle and tetra pak carton tops are now attached to the container. I find it a bloody nuisance!

The attached caps get in the way of pouring and you have to put the container down and pick it up again from a different angle or move the top around.

Apparently, these are called "tethered caps" and have been compulsory since July 2024 following EU regulation. So many people discarded the tops on beaches that it was becoming a hazard to marine life and tethering the caps to the containers will decrease plastic pollution by 10% they claim.

I am all for environmental awareness, so I hope it works, though I expect many people will continue to discard the whole bottle on the ground - cap and all. I certainly pick up plenty when walking each day and doing my bit to improve the environment locally.

You will be "fascinated" to learn that there are 3 types of tethered caps: "film hinge caps" which will lock open at 180 degrees, "lasso caps" as in the picture above (the most common and the cheapest), and shortly "shift caps" which will lock into a shape on the packaging and keep out of the way. Bring on the shift caps say I!

In the meantime, I will cut off the damn things and put them in the recycling with the bottle when it is empty!

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Tree Alphabet

Here is an interesting and fun idea. Back in 2019, Katie Holten, the artist-in-residence at the time for New York's park authority, dreamed up the idea of a tree alphabet, each letter represented by an illustration of a tree found in New York County.

For example, the letter A is pictured by a drawing of an ash tree and the letter O is represented by an oak.

The alphabet may vary of course, depending on the country or area. Tulip trees, representing T and Dawn Redwoods representing D, are not too common in the UK or France!

The park authority warmed to the idea, invited citizens to send in poems, love letters or short messages, and then set about planting groves of trees to relay the letters in the correct order and with the appropriate spaces. Here are a few examples:

Katie Holten has since created a tree alphabet in Ireland and written a book called "The Language of Trees." You can find more about her art, work and environmental activism on her website.​

So perhaps get your local council to design a message based on an alphabet of your local trees?

Credits: My thanks to Karen for the input, and Tricia for input and especially the adventure! Photo Credits: Peter Clifford & Tricia Dair x 41, Sigvald Moa/Riksarivet (National Archives of Norway)/Flickr/Kings Bay Company/Wikimedia Commons, Nasjonalbiblioteket/Flickr, Harvey Barrison/Arsenikk/Wikimedia Commons, Franz Clemens/Wikimedia Commons, Corvaglia.com/Katie Holten/New York City park Authority/My Modern Met x 5

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END PIECE

As usual, I had hoped to get this newsletter edition out by the end of October, but with only a few days left after returning from another trip, that was impossible. So, rather than rush things I decided to take my time and do a good job instead of scrimping and trying to do things too quickly.

It takes time to order your thoughts, research and check that information is correct, find the right pictures and process them, put it together in some coherent order and then finally, check it for mistakes or possible improvements before sending it out. I hope you have found my efforts worth the read!

The appalling situation in Gaza continues, now with more than 43,000 dead plus another 3,000 killed in Lebanon. The UN says that its analysis in Gaza over six months shows that 70% of verified victims were either women or children. Most of the children killed were aged between 5 and 9 years old.

Whatever Israel's justifiable anger over the murder and kidnap of 1,200 of its citizens, genocidal revenge on this scale cannot be justified.

Well, much to the dismay of most of the Western world, Donald Trump did it again, scoring a decisive victory against his Democratic opponents! Whatever you think about the man, you must admit he is a master at convincing people that he is the man for the job.

Like many of you, I still don't understand how he manages to pull this off! What worries me most is that he seems easily persuaded by those around him and some of those autocratic voices, whose only concerns are power and money, may lead him into terrible actions that harm or destroy the lives of tens of thousands of others. Time will tell.

Until the next newdlatter, take good care of yourself - and be kind caring, generous and patient with those less fortunate than ourselves.

All good wishes,