Barentsburg and stats week
01:01:00
On Friday after a pretty tough week, the Friday gathering
changed from its usual get-together in UNIS to a trip to Barentsburg, a Russian
settlement a few hours by boat further down the fjord. Barentsburg looked very
different to Longyearbyen although it is still a coal mining town. It had a
definite Russian feel. I saw the moon
for the first time since I arrived and we are now getting an hour or so of
darkness each night.
Moving around outside Longyearbyen is getting increasingly
difficult because of polar bear activity. Over the last week we have had a
mother and two cubs and an adult male close by. This meant that UNIS was
disrupted with no fieldwork allowed in the area where the polar bears were
located. The town authorities track the polar bears and will warn if they are getting
close to the town.
-Alistair
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