We also went on a fossilling trip. It turned out that a guy that had been on the cruise with us, Troels, manages the company we went with. His company, Arctic Adventures (www.arctic-adventures.no) does dog-sledding, skiing, and snowmobiling during the winter and dog-carting, hiking and fossilling during the summer. Troels is a great guide and we really appreciated his expertise.
He brought one of his dogs along for the hike to provide an extra set of eyes, ears and a nose to look out for polar bears. The dog was a seven-month old named Delta (Troels has 79 dogs, so Delta has a sister "Alpha" and a brother "Echo.") Delta was very friendly, disciplined, and loved to get hugs from Sidney.
The hike was above town heading toward Longyear Glacier. The glacial streams churn up the rock and expose the sandstone, and the fossils are what fell into an ancient stream bed 60 million years ago. There were ferns, leaves, grasses and bamboo. The fossils are everywhere, and a little chipping at the layered stone often reveals even more. We could have spent a few more hours there, but the time was up so we hiked back down.
Troels then was kind enough to take Sidney over to the city dog yard (working dogs are kept at a common kennel and not at homes for noise and other reasons.) Sidney was asleep for that part of the tour before our cruise, so we wanted her to see it. Troels knew some of the dogs there and introduced us to them.
I would say the fossilling trip is DEFINITELY worth the time and money if you have a morning or afternoon free. Troels is very professional, patient and provides a great time for participants.
We departed Longyearbyen for Stavanger the next day, and got home a little after midnight. It was a little odd to not have sunshine at that hour. It was also nice getting to sleep in our own beds in the dark!
A ship is in port next door. It is the Fennica, a FInnish icebreaker/service vessel. Notice how the paint is chipped tward the back side of the bottom of the ship - when it encounters heavy pack ice, it runs backwards to break it up!
Sidney and I are leaving tomorrow morning for our driving trip. We hope to make it to Stockholm in two days, then on to Helsinki, Tallinn, Riga, Vilnius and Warsaw. We will evaluate where we are time-wise at that point an decide where we will go next. After we return, we take Kimber down for her sailing trip, then return and meet Kimber again in Bergen for a day or two there. Kimber then goes offshore, and we depart for our house-hunting trip when she gets back. Where has the summer gone?!?
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