Svalbard
I have a strange fascination with snow and ice, so it’s no surprise that I have visited Svalbard twice so far. The first visit was in March 2017, when daytime temperatures never rose above -24ºC and plunged as low as -45ºC at night. The second trip was in late summer of 2019 when my son Max and I circumnavigated Spitsbergen, the largest island in the Svalbard archipelago.
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Ship of the desert - Augustabukta. Click HERE to visit shop. ©Adrian van der Lee.
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I am the walrus coo-coo-ca-choo! Click HERE to visit shop. ©Adrian van der Lee.
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Slowly, the massive beast raises its head. Click HERE to visit shop. ©Adrian van der Lee.
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Arctic Tern eggs are laid on open ground, but they defend them very aggressively. Click HERE to visit shop. ©Adrian van der Lee.
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Tufted Saxifrage - one of the very few plant species that can survive this close to the North Pole. Click HERE to visit shop. ©Adrian van der Lee.
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A network of aerial bucket lines carried coal from the mines down the valleys to the port. Click HERE to visit shop. ©Adrian van der Lee.
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Longyearbyen - beautiful from a distance, not quite so pretty close up. Click HERE to visit shop. ©Adrian van der Lee.
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The most northerly bust of Vladimir Ilyich Lenin keeps watch over the abandoned Russian mining town of Pyramiden. Click HERE to visit shop. ©Adrian van der Lee.
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Longyearbyen - beautiful from a distance, not quite so pretty close up. Click HERE to visit shop. ©Adrian van der Lee.
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A beautiful sunset from the frozen tundra - the temperature is now below -30°c. Click HERE to visit shop. ©Adrian van der Lee.
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Long, lingering sunset from the top of the glacier plateau, near Pyramiden. Click HERE to visit shop. ©Adrian van der Lee.
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Tarentallen - 'The Tarantula' - extraordinary rock formation in the mountains to the north of Pyramiden. Click HERE to visit shop. ©Adrian van der Lee.
