During our first day in Longyearbyen, we went on an excursion to Camp Barentz and visited the Svalbard Museum.
On June 25, our first day in Svalbard we left by bus after lunch for our first excursion: Camp Barentz.
Camp Barentz is located about 12 kilometers outside Longyearbyen at the foot of Breinosa Mountain, right below Mine 7, the only mine still in use in Svalbard.
On the outskirts of Longyearbyen, you will find THE sign that everyone wants to have their picture taken with. It means that from this point on, it is mandatory to carry a rifle because there may be polar bears around. Usually, they don’t come this close to town, but it is possible and it has happened in the past. In this desolate landscape, we were also introduced to the cutting Svalbard winds and became well aware of the temperature difference of some 30°C with Italy from which we had just traveled.
This is also where we saw the first reindeer. These are Svalbard reindeer that can be found all over these islands and are well adapted to the harsh climate.
In Willem Barentsz’s replica of Het Behouden Huys (The Saved House), we were told the story of how this Dutch sailor discovered the islands of Svalbard. In 1596, he began his third expedition in search of the northern route to East Asia. During this dramatic last voyage of Barentsz, he stumbled upon the archipelago he named after the pointed mountain peaks that stood out against the sky above these rugged shores: Spitsbergen.
Barentsz’s voyage with his ship Witte Swaen (White Swan) took him further east as he set out to explore the seas between Svalbard and Nova Zembla. In the northern part of Nova Zembla, the ship got stuck in the ice. From the wood of their own ship, they built a house known as Het Behouden Huys (The Save House). This is where Barentsz and his crew spent the winter under miserable conditions. In the spring, they built a sloop with which the seventeen survivors returned to civilization. Willem Barentsz died a week after departure. After all the hardships, only 12 sailors would return to Holland.
Replica of Het Behouden Huys.
Svalbard Museum
After this we visited. the Svalbard Museum in Longyearbyen that displays artifacts from the history of Svalbard and exhibits of local plants and animals. Here we learned more about Svalbard’s ecosystem, the history of mining, and local flora and fauna.
Now it was finally time for us to go to the ship….
