Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Prins Karls Forlandet
On the west coast of Spitsbergen, the oddly shaped 86km-long island of Prins Karls For-
landet is a national park set aside to protect breeding walruses, seals and sea lions. The
alpine northern reaches, which rise to Grampianfjellet (1084m), are connected to Saltfjellet
(430m), at the southern end, by a long flat plain called Forlandsletta.
Krossfjorden
Thanks to Lillehöökbreen (its grand tidewater glacier) and several cultural relics, Krossf-
jorden attracts quite a few cruise ships. At Ebeltoftbukta, near the mouth of the fjord, you
can see several whalers' graves, as well as a heap of leftover junk from a 1912 German
telegraph office that was shifted wholesale to Ny Ålesund after only two years of opera-
tion. Opposite the entrance rise some crowded bird cliffs overlooking one of Svalbard's
most verdant spots, with flowers, moss and even grasses.
Danskøya
One of the most intriguing sites in northwest Spitsbergen is Virgohamna, on the bleak,
gravely island of Danskøya, where the remains of several broken dreams now lie scattered
across the lonely beach. Among them are the ruins of three blubber stoves from a 17th-
century whaling station, as well as eight stone-covered graves from the same era. You'll
also find the remains of a cottage built by English adventurer Arnold Pike, who sailed
north in his yacht
Siggen
and spent a winter subsisting on polar bears and reindeer.
The next adventurer at Virgohamna was Swedish engineer Salomon August Andrée,
who set off from Virgohamna in an airship in the summer of 1897, hoping to reach the
North Pole. The fate of his expedition was not known until 1930, when sailors from a seal-
hunting ship put ashore and stumbled across their last site on Kvitøya.
Then, in 1906, journalist Walter Wellman, who was sponsored by a US newspaper, at-
tempted to reach the North Pole in an airship, but failed. The next year, when he returned
to try again, his ship was badly damaged in a storm. On his third attempt, in 1909, he
floated to within 60km of the pole, met with technical problems and gave up for good,
