Longyearbarn, Spitzbergen, Norway.

We arrived last at 1130 pm still light and minus 23! first thing i noticed everyone is so tough and macho up here no one used trolleys in the airport! The last few minutes on the plane were incredible, monachrome white mountains and frozen ocean absoloutly stunning. Longyearbarn is a harbour town with multi c0loured wooden houses weird fact it houses the world seed bank a university and the usual mode of transport is ski doo, there was a huge coal mine here and it was a whaling port many years ago. but it looks very pretty and very cold. there are five of us me lucca who i have trained with, hazel who i also trained a bit with bonita who is the youngest british girl to have summitted everest and rob who is english lives in new york and by weird coincidence used to work with a good friends of mine who i had dinner with night before i left strange but true! our guide is called alan chambers and this will be his 9th north pole trip, he has done a lot of polar stuff both north and south including in 2000 the first uk unsupported trek from canada to the north pole, he certainly inspires confidence!