23.06.2011 – 23.06.2011  5 °C

V early start this morning as we needed to catch a 9am flight to Longyearbyen. V unexciting flight (which is always a good thing!) and touched down in Tromso at 11am.. An unusual thing then happened in Tromso. We all had to get off the flight, collect our hand luggage and go into the airport for about an hour. Inside the airport we had to pass immigration! Svalbard is a protectorate of Norway but for some reason you need to have your passport checked and stamped for entry into Svalbard! I guess it is something like Norfolk Island.. you go on an international flight to get there even though it is part of Australia! I also think that it is a tax haven so maybe that has something to do with it!

Anyway the approach into Tromso was just gorgeous, huge snowcapped mountains dominated the view from the airport.. I’m betting our drive from Tromso to Kirkenes is going to be beautiful if the scenery around Tromso airport is anything to go by!

Eventually we arrived at Spitsbergen Island in Svalbard.. Wow-ee is the only way to describe the landscape of Svalbard… Probably some of the most picturesque landscape I’ve ever seen.. Huge black mountains capped with snow. No trees, plants, animals are visible.. just some fishing boats/ ice breakers and some birds flying through the air.. V sunny and clear, not actually too cold.. Great weather for hopefully taking some great shots! Very desolate but very beautiful.

Longyearbyen itself is a small town (somewhere between a Gladstone/ Smithtown sort of size).. V small, a population of about 2000 people reside in Longyearbyen. The buildings look quite similar to those you see in tourist magazines for Alaska.. small two story sized demountable type buildings all in bright colours! Longyearbyen must have had some sort of mining as well in the past as the mountains are strung with what looks a bit like lines from a chair lift but are actually lines strung with big wooden buckets that were obviously used for hauling (or maybe still are used) some sort of mineral out of the mines and into the waiting ships.

We waited in Longyearbyen for about two hours whilst we waited for our ship to begin loading, we were then able to get on our ship and discover the MS Expedition! Our boat has about 100 other passengers and is similar to a small cruise boat. We have cabins on three decks, a dining room, lounge, outside deck and bar, small library room, computer room, sauna, gym and tiny gift shop.

Our room is a triple, meaning bunk beds on one side of the room and a single on the other. Small shower and toilet, cupboards and a port hole! After settling in (and unpacking clothes in the case of mum and dad) we went for a tour of the ship.

Meals are served three times a day in the dining room. There is only sitting so we all eat our meals together. Breakfast and lunch is buffet and dinner is a-la-carte. All food is included we only have to pay for drinks (which thankfully are in US dollars, so we are back to paying reasonable prices for our drinks.. not 12 dollars a beer!). Went for a wander about the decks.. Temp isn’t too bad, probably about 1 to 3 above zero with a bit of wind chill.. Pretty good all round..

Before dinner we all had our emergency evac training and learnt how to get into our life boats etc.. Fingers crossed we don’t actually need to use our training!

We left Longyearbyen and took off south for the southern tip of Spitsbergen looking for polar bears! Early sleep tonight (probably most nights) as tomorrow we do our orientation training and get our suits etc for going out in the zodiacs!