Category: Svalbard

In the summer of 2019, Idun’s older sister Jorunn had another big birthday to celebrate. The celebration was a cruise with ‘Hurtigruten’ from Longyearbyen to the island of Moffen, 80 degrees north.

On day 2 of the cruise, we entered the Magdalene fjord north of Ny-Ålesund. Here it is wild and beautiful, and you can admire glaciers surrounded by pointed mountains.

Presumably this is where the name ‘Spitsbergen’ comes from. The fjord’s name is from the 18th century, named after the biblical Mary Magdalene.

On the south side of the Magdalene fjord is a headland with a fine sandy beach, one of the few places in the area where it is possible to a) disembark
b) bury corpses
c) have a bath

An English whaling station was built here in the 17th century.

During 200 years of whaling, many people were buried here, and the place is today called Gravneset (the Grave Headland) with Gravnesodden at the end. 130 graves have been found, many of them long after the whale station itself had closed down. The sailors preferred to bury the dead here, where it was possible to dig holes for bodies, instead of throwing the corpses into the sea. The graves are English, Dutch, but also many Basques are buried at Gravneset, they were skilled whalers. In the 1970s, you could still find bone remains in the area, dug up by foxes, polar bears and souvenir-chasing tourists. Today, Gravneset is protected, and large parts are fenced off to avoid wear and tear of the cultural heritage.

The guides had insisted for two days, that it was compulsory to have a bath at Gravnesodden, imaging that maybe 2-3 people would take the bait and actually have a dip. But that was a severe underestimation of the Løwø family. We ended up with 17 bathers from the ‘Birthday group’ – a new record!

And the bath itself? Absolutely gorgeous! A white sandy beach, crystal clear water decorated by ice cubes – and 3 degrees celsius.

In addition to the buried people, there was also an arctic tern (Sterna paradisaea) who wanted to see us leave Gravneset:

… so then we did. And as ice bathers on a cruise, this time we got physical proof of the bathing madness:

The Kings Bay (Kongsfjord) in the northwestern part of Spitsbergen is one of the most beautiful fjords in Svalbard. On the south side of the fjord you will find the researcher town Ny-Ålesund with the previous coal producing ‘Kings Bay Kull Company’, and on the north side you find ‘Ny-London’, a disused marble mining village.

The marble deposits on Blomstrandøya were discovered in 1906. Development of the site began in 1911 and was carried out by the English company ‘Northern Exploration Company Ltd’. The head of the project was Ernest Mansfield. Of the buildings that were erected here (they were supposed to house 70 men), some have been moved to Ny-Ålesund where they are still in use. But some houses remain, partly deserted and partly in use as cabins for the researchers in Ny-Ålesund.

The appetite for investments in the early 20th century was sky high. The best of the technical devices of the time were installed, including railways, steam engines, marble cutting machines and cranes.

The appetite for investments was continuously increasing throughout the First World War, and the share capital rose to over a million pounds. There were many people who made good money during WWI, and they needed something to spend their money on. The adventure in New London ended in the world’s first stock market bubble, which burst in 1920. Large amounts of money had been invested – without anybody knowing what the marble was actually worth.

When the first small cargo of marble arrived in England, 1912, it turned out that the large, beautiful marble blocks had been transformed into marble gravel due to frost bursting. There was no value whatsoever in the marble from Kongsfjorden. However, this did not stop the investments! Expectations of quick returns overshadowed common sense. Mansfield was fired, and the growth continued. The value was NOK 18 million in 1919. The following year it was 0, and the plant was abandoned.

After so much history teaching, time was just right for a bath, and in New London the bathing conditions are chilly, but excellent!

Here we found just the perfect type of sand, and not too shallow, either.

If we swam far? No, we did not swim across Kongsfjorden.

In the summer of 2017, we traveled to Svalbard. The purpose of the trip was for Knut’s mother to experience her daughter-in-law Idun’s place of upbringing.

After a few days in Longyearbyen, we booked a boat trip to the Russian ghost town of Pyramiden, which is located by Billefjorden, a fjord branch in the innermost part of the bigger Isfjorden.

The Pyramid City is named after the pyramid-shaped mountain of the same name. The town was founded by Sweden in 1910. Test drilling revealed coal deposits, but also difficult conditions due to faults in the bedrock. The Swedes therefore chose to concentrate on the Svea mine, and Pyramiden City was sold to the Soviet Union in 1927.

During the Soviet era, the town was developed into a model community with most facilities: Cultural center, swimming pool, library, school, kindergarten and cinema. Pyramiden also had both barns and greenhouses. At the most, some 1,000 people lived here.

The houses in Pyramiden were built with a desire for good aesthetics. The buildings (both wooden and brick houses) have nice details both outside and inside.

Pyramiden was suddenly abandoned in 1998. This happened during a period of economic downturn in Russia. But it was also connected to the aftermath of the plane crash in Mount Opera near Longyearbyen in 1996, where 141 people died. Many of these were Ukrainian miners working in Pyramiden.

Today, Pyramiden again has a permanent settlement, but the population is slightly reduced – to around 10 people. Hotel Tulipan started up in 2015, and guided tours are organized from Longyearbyen by boat in the summer and snowmobile during winter time.

And the bath? Knut grabbed the chance to do his northernmost bath to date: 78°39′ north. In order not to stress the guide unnecessarily, it was a dip in the harbour. When Pyramiden was built, a distinction was made between the technical installations and the housing. The bath in the harbor therefore did not take place in an idyllic Soviet living- and bathing area.

And after the bath? Then it was just a matter of standing in line to enter the gangway.

The highlight of the return trip was the visit in front of the Nordenskiöld glacier, and the many beluga whales that were swimming in the foreground.

With this sight, it doesn’t matter if the weather is foggy!

In 1999, Idun’s older sister Jorunn celebrated her birthday at Spitsbergen, where the 5 ‘Løwø Children’ grew up.

The first part of the program was a guided bus tour in Longyearbyen, where the guides were ‘The Løwø children’ themselves.

The birthday dinner took place at ‘Huset’, and the following day we went to the cabin at Kapp Laila. For many years our mum Kari and dad Fridtjof had a cabin in Adventdalen (below Operafjellet), but it was inaccessible all summer because of the big rivers. In 1982, they took over a working barrack from Birger Pedersen, and this was to become the new cabin – at Kapp Laila, midway between Longyearbyen and Barentsburg. The cabin was therefore ok. But how to move it from Longyearbyen to Kapp Laila?

The answer was: On a raft! After all, they had a 16-foot boat called ‘Hårek’ with a 50-horsepower engine in the back. No problem, right? Extra muscle power was hired via their youngest son, Frode. However, he was tired after working double shift in mine 3, and needed rest. And he got that – on the coach in the cabin while it was on tour. The towing took 24 hours. Conveniently enough, there was a wood stove in the cabin, so they could even make coffee on the way.

Kapp Laila is accessible both summer and winter, but there is a ‘but’ during summer season. The cabin is located by a lagoon, which is so shallow that you have to plan arrival and departure times according to the tides.

We stayed and celebrated our sister at Kapp Laila for a whole week, and it was splendid weather every single day. So we rigged some driftwood as benches, and barbecued by the sea every afternoon. Fabulous! The first night we were so many guests that there wasn’t room for everyone indoors (Jorunn had also rented two neighboring cabins). Idun and Knut therefore slept in tents outside, as Idun’s eldest brother Asgaut also did. ‘What about the polar bear risk?‘ Knut asked. ‘There’s no risk‘, Idun replied: ‘The Løwø family never sees any polar bear‘. And with some red wine in the body, it was easy to fall asleep in the midnight sun… and just as suddenly wake up the next morning to outside noises. Idun jumped up and picked up the rifle that was hidden under the sleeping bag. Was it actually a polar bear? The zipper in the tent was carefully pulled down, and Idun looked out: ‘What’s going on?‘ It was Asgaut who had crawled out of his tent: ‘I don’t know if I’m most afraid of polar bears or lying on top of a gun – there will be no more sleep anyway!‘ The next night we moved into ‘Bikkjebu’, the dog club’s cabin , and felt safe there.

One night after playing ‘Mattis’ (card game) for hours (in traditional student way, the looser (‘Mattis’) from the previous round had to wear a funny headgear, read: a sleeping bag cover), we found out that time was just right to swim in the lagoon. It was a wonderful midnight sun night. What could go wrong? Well, the tide could obviously be of the wrong type… This night water was definitely low, and we realized that at low tide the lagoon consisted of equal parts (15 cm / 15 cm) water and mud. We had a dip, but this bath is not really recommended by ‘Tobatheornottobathe’. But sunbathing in the midnight sun? Yes, that is something we will recommend! Doesn’t do much for the tan, though…

And the polar bear? A bear mother with two cubs attacked the fridge (= a tub with food under the balcony at the north wall) one week later. Tobatheornottobathe had left Svalbard by then, but those relatives remaining are still talking about the incident.

Depending on the mood, it doesn’t need a door either, the polar bear can just as well punch itself through the wall. And why does it do that? In search of food, of course. The polar bears are very fond of chocolate, but not all kinds of food are appreciated, as you can see in the next photo (also from the cabin at Kapp Laila, but not in 1999).

In 1999 the three bears broke into cabin after cabin, but were shot as they arrived Barentsburg. The Russians don’t let the bears rule their lives.