While we were out on the ice the weather changed and it became bitterly cold , but even with low-lying clouds it was strangely peaceful to experience one of the world ’ s remotest places . Despite this remoteness we saw a couple of seals resting on the ice , totally oblivious to our presence . A fog came down and the crackle of radios and the hissing of the ice were the only sounds . This was when we could appreciate the warmth of our parkas and more to the point , the comfort and excellent food waiting for us when we returned to the G Expedition .
Turning south we made for Ny Ålesund , another former coal mining settlement , but this time rather more attractive than Longyearbyen . Nowadays it is occupied by research stations of nations from all over the globe , but what kind of research is going on can only be assumed . The place is literally festooned with satellite dishes , all pointing directly upwards , aimed at polar orbiting satellites , collecting data worldwide . amounts of money . With it he built railroads , surface buildings and cranes , but unfortunately for him and his backers , the Svalbard marble had been badly weathered by the permafrost and proved worthless . The first shipment expected to be worth £ 20,000 crumbled into gravel when it arrived in England .
Much remains of this site of failed industry , with two houses and several industrial remnants dotting the landscape , together with the original quarry . This was just one of the free-for-all that once existed in Svalbard when the place was like another Klondike . Along with coal , lead , copper , iron , zinc and even gold have been found in marginally exploitable quantities . Oil and gas trial boreholes were drilled between 1963 and 1994 , but so far no wells have been sunk .
As the captain facetiously put it , we sailed overnight into what he called ‘ the Tropics
of Svalbard ’, in other words due south along Forlandsundet . Our final day of the voyage began under blue skies patch-worked with a multi-layered tapestry of clouds . However , winds were strong from the northwest and so the G Expedition turned to port and into the protected waters of Trygghamna and dropped anchor off the impressive peninsula of Alkhornet . A rock monolith , which is the area ’ s centrepiece , towers above the surrounding tundra , providing a mighty windbreak . Within its shelter , landing would not be a problem .
With the sun pounding down we made it to the shore in our faithful Zodiacs and began to explore the verdant carpet of luxurious mosses and flowering plants . Soon after landing a group of reindeer commanded our attention while they casually grazed the gentle hillside . Further on , a couple of arctic foxes emerged from their den amidst rocks on the Alkhornet plain . Such is
In the early days of powered flight several attempts to fly fixed winged aircraft over the pole failed with tragic consequences . The first successful flight was when the Norwegian polar explorer Amundsen together with the Italian aviator Nobile and American associate Elsworth flew the airship Norge 1 in a seventy hour flight from Ny Ålesund , over the North Pole to Alaska . The pylon from which Norge 1 departed is still there , looking for all the world like part of an abandoned power line , together with a plaque commemorating the epic journey . All around is the semi-bog-like tundra that looks strangely like the summit ridge of Bleaklow in the Dark Peak .
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Half a century of exploiting the rich coal seams in this part of the Kongsfjorden ( King ’ s Fjord ) led to the establishment of several buildings , including a railroad , a hospital and school . Originally it was home to seventy-odd miners and their families , until a tragic accident killed twenty two of their numbers in the early 1960s , when mining ceased for good . Now home to a mainly scientific community primarily studying atmospherics , 30 people live at Ny Ålesund all year round with the number rising to well over a hundred souls in summer , to say nothing of the keen adventure travellers who come to study the wildlife . There is a small museum , the most northerly post office in the world and also a large team of sledge dogs idling away time until the snows return .
In the afternoon we sailed across the fjord to Ny London ( New London ), the site in the 1920s of a failed attempt to quarry marble from deep within the hillside . A rather shady London businessman named Mansfield decided he could make a fortune from this scheme and persuaded others to invest considerable
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