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.