Sunday should be a day in and around Longyearbyen. Again I had to get up early. The car rental hade to take me to my rented car at 8 am. Got a KIA SUV – not bad at all. But first I had to get back to the hotel, take a shower, get some breakfeast (this time with electricity^^) and pack my things to drive out to explore.
Mostly I wanted to take my camera to take som pictures. The weather was not perfect, so it was less photographing in the end than I hoped for.
First I tried to drive up the valley – which ended after only a kilometer, so I drove back towards the center with some turns left and right to find good positions to take a picture or two. First stopp was a reindeer which thought it was a good idea to stand in the middle of the road eating – I hope the camera was out fast enough, I havn’t checked yet but I took a photo of it. 🙂
A look at Longyearbyen church (nothing special), the old coal cableway which is very distinctive for the area (they are all over the place) and then down passing the airport along the coast towards Barentsburg (which cannot be reached by car) and I had to turn around when cars were parking on the side an hikers were on the small road. A nice bumpy ride. 🙂
Next tour towards Adventdalen – the opposite direction. A long road (mostly straight on) through some nice landscape. Many dog-“farms” for huskies where you can have sledge tours in the winter and cart tours in summertime. The road endet (more or less) on top of an elevated plain which seemed to be starting point for hiking tours. Some hikers took a taxi up there and started to go into the valley. Nice view over the valley and towards Longyearbyen.
That was all I could drive on Svalbard – there are no more roads. So I took a trip to the hotel to put away my camera, and went down to the center to take a cup of coffee, some cake and wait for the supermarket to open. I wanted to write some postcards – not often that you are that far north.
Evening activity was an hour of laps in the public swimming pool. Nice 25 meter lanes and not many people there. Very close to the hotel (200 meters). 80 kroner is average for Norway.
Dinner at the hotel (again). Not many possibilities if you don’t want to use too much money. Longyearbyen is too small for more. But I wanted to go to bed early anyway… because of my early flight.
In summary I wouldn’t rent a car on Svalbard again. The possibilities are much too limited compared to the price you pay. You can use the same amount of money for some local tours. Svalbard/Spitzbergen is not cheap ( a boat trip costs more), but guided tours will show you more.