Svalbard, day 5

170820 This morning I woke up with a tired body, not feeling like doing anything, but it was time for our last booked adventure ”Trekking to Trollsteinen across the Lars glacier 09:30 7h”. It was a nice mix in our group, polish, spanish, british, american, swedish and a danish guide. We started a little bit late. When it was time for the glacier walk we had to put spikes on our shoes, but it was only one part of the glacier that was a little bit dangerous, one guy almost fell into it. Then we had to walk in soft sediment, it was quite exhaustive while going upwards. But we had good luck with the weather, no wind, which is unusual and some sun,it was Svalbard summer as it best. We stopped at the top for our meal of dried food. The descent was easy, almost sliding down on the soft sediment. Finally at home we got some good home cooked food, from our american chef. It was very nice to finally relax from these intense days with a lot of physical acticity and lot of social interaction with new people. I ended the day with a long deserved hot shower.

170821 This was the last chance for a short illegal hiking of mine 2B, but I decided to sleep over and have a calm and relaxing morning, packing and eating a slow breakfast. It was funny in a way it almost felt like home to be here, but now it was time to leave Svalbard.

After thougts: Although summer was nice here (summer in Svalbard lasts for 3 weeks) I think that I would have preferred another time period, maybe with days and nights, to experience the contrast between darkness and light and also to be able to experience the northern lights. It would also be nice to experince a real winter here, with a lot of snow and strong winds, to get a feel of the harshness this place could provide. Another thing that I didnt even think about until I already was on Svalbard was the possibility to see walruses, but then it was to late since I was already fully booked for adventures.
The guides where really wonderful, they felt more like friends than ordinary guides, which made the tours even more enjoyable.

Svalbard, day 4

170819 Todays first adventure ”Fossilhunt 09:00 3h” It was hard to find any nice fossils, I hammered a few stones, but then I found a very heavy ironlike stone that I liked a lot. I believe it was part of a very old UFO that crashed 100.000 years ago and that it probably was from a future timeline, but I cant be sure. Since I didnt find any dinosaur fossils I started to talk to the guide. She told me that she worked for the military and that she was planning to spend one year on Svalbard and then prepare to apply for Siriusexpressen (patrullen) on Greenland, she also told me that she trained with the navy seals, she also had a sweet malamute with her.

After that I met up with the other guys to visit the museum and eat some food at Rabalder. After just a few hours it was time for another adventure ”Seed to summit-Hike to the summit of Mt Blomsterdalshögda and the Global seed vault 19:00 4h”. I didnt look forward to it that much, but it turned out to be a great experience mainly because of the company. It was a norwegian guide that brought her dog with her and a norwegian couple with a man that was very talkative and friendly. The guide told me that she had encountered a polar bear once and that she was about 60 m from the bear, but than succeeded to scare it away with a flare gun (I think). We reached a little peak and sat down for some ”solbær toddy” and cookies before we went down, after that we drove to the global seed vault. Once there the guide told me she wasn't allowed to enter the area with the car, but that I could take a quick walk to the vault. I seized the opportunity and ran away while the others stayed in the car. There are supposedly 7 global seed vaults in the world, this one didnt look impressive at all in the flat light, but I guess it would be totally different in a dark night with the bluish light on.

Svalbard, day 3

170818 Another day full of experiences and adventures, first ”ATV safari to Adventdalen 08:00 3,5 h” and then ”Arctic cycling with electric fatbike 13:00 5h” We drove along past the polar bear warning sign on dusty roads in a neat row, it felt quite ok, but not so adventourus since we had to stay on the roads and not break the line or exceed the speedlimit of the ATV's, they were adjusted to not go faster then 65 km/h although I think that was good concerning the whole group since some people had never driven an ATV before. There was some great scenery to see during the drive, then we went home and made a delicious and healthy meal, before it was time for my other adventure. Sightseeing with a fatbike around Longeyearbyn, was this to much for one day? It was quite easy to adopt to this electric fatbike and it was a wonderful feeling to experience great power even upphill. But it was very cold, I had to put on three jackets to keep warm in this Svalbard summer weather around 4 degrees and some cool wind. How will I stay warm for 5 hours was one of my thoughts. But then, when we stopped, our guide asked us if we wanted to turn home or experience the last part of the road. I was ready to turn home. But I am glad that I didnt, we experienced a more playful road, the sun came through and the company was good. Among them were one Spanish guy who wanted to move to Lofoten and work as a guide and one girl from the Netherlands who was in to kitesurfing, our french guide and a couple from Austria, quite a mix. We had a nice sandwich at the end of the road and we also had the opportunity to see two reindeers. After that it was pure luck to bicycle home in the sunlight, this tour was a total of 40 km and I still felt good, although a little sore in my bum. The rest of the evening I spent with Captain Morgans softdrink and a bag of trailmix.