It's an eerie feeling approaching what's meant to be the safest place on the planet.
High on a wind-blasted Arctic mountain, a stark concrete doorway leads to the Svalbard Global Seed Vault, a store to ensure the survival of the world's most precious plants.
Designed to cope with the most pessimistic nightmare of an apocalypse, a day spent here is not destined to be uplifting.
The very first barrier to entry is the sheer remoteness of the location - the Svalbard islands sit just 800 miles or 1,300 km from the North Pole.
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