9172 Isfjord on Svalbard
The first time Isfjord Radio put its postmark on a letter was in 1968. In 2002, postcode 9172 was discontinued. For the past 20 years, mail from the radio station has been sent to Longyearbyen or the mainland for stamping, but now station manager Maaike Groeneveld can once again mark Isfjord Radio’s mail on Cape Linné.
Zip code 9172 is back! Now guests and staff at Isfjord Radio Adventure Hotel can send a heartfelt greeting far and near with the characteristic stamp motif from the radio station on Cape Linnaeus.
– It is the details that count. Course we will put our own stamp on cards and letters at this fantastic outpost in the Arctic, laughs Maaike Groeneveld, station manager at Isfjord Radio Adventure Hotel.
Maaike worked with us for many years in Basecamp Explorer Spitsbergen when we had the Basecamp boat in the ice. An attractive accommodation destination, guests came here by snowmobile or dog sled. The basecamp boat was a post office under the post office in Longyearbyen, and all mail was transported to Longyearbyen by dog sled. Of course, Maaike got her own dog sled stamp for all outgoing mail.
When the sea became warmer, and it was no longer possible to freeze the Basecamp boat during the winter season, both the boat and Maaike traveled south. Now Maaike is again operational on Svalbard with us, and so is the postcode at Isfjord Radio.
The first letter with the old, venerable postmark went this week to Jonas Åkerman, the professor who has been researching nature on Cape Linnaeus for a number of years, and who has donated all his Arctic research material to Isfjord Radio. Available to our guests in Prof. Åkerman’s academic library at the wilderness hotel in the west.
– First and foremost, I am very happy to be back at work in the Arctic with Basecamp Explorer as host, but it is also great for me that we can put the venerable stamp on greetings that will go out into the big world. We think there are many who are happy with a handwritten card in the mailbox, with the King of the Arctic in the stamp, smiles postmaster Maaike, who has also used the station’s original mail hat (Post Norway’s winter hat).
