My friend Jorunn and I have
been dreaming of going to Svalbard for many years. We´ve been discussing,
talking, talking and talking about it, and then… like a gift from heaven, I got
a Companion ticket from SAS. This meant I could take one person with me on a
bonus point trip, free of charge! We quickly decided the trip just had to go to
Svalbard, and started planning. One thing we really wanted to do was to hunt
for polar bears… not hunt, hunt, but hunt for them to see them. We knew the chance
was minimal, but still, we searched the net to find the best possible
snowmobile tour. In addition we planned for a hike up a small mountain and a
dog sledge trip. Finally, we were going to Svalbard!
For you who do not know
anything about Svalbard, have a look here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Svalbard
Thursday 3rd April
I flew to Oslo, Gardermoen
and met Jorunn at the gate for the next flight. We were very excited, how would
it look up there? How cold will it be? Would the people be nice? What about polar bears??
As Svalbard is not a part of
Schengen, we needed one more stopover to do a passport control in Tromsø.
Quickly off, through the control and quickly on the plane again, now the
adventure really begun!
When approaching Svalbard
after a long flight over the arctic sea, we were stunned – it was so beautiful!
It was like white icing tops on a lovely cake, absolutely breathtaking. I knew from
that moment this was a place for me and I fell in love than instant.
We got installed in our
guesthouse; Spitsbergen Guesthouse in Longyearbyen, and quickly put on warm
clothes and wandered off. We had to feel this atmosphere on our body at once.
Longyearbyen has only a few streets, and almost no cars at all; we walked in
the middle of the road, surrounded by strange mountains, snowmobiles and
magical light. It´s hard to describe, and definitely hard to capture on photos,
this light, it´s like the sun is setting any moment, only it stays there for
hours and hours. The days grown longer by almost 30 minutes every day, and on
the 18th April there is midnight sun! We had “only” 16hours of
daylight, and it felt it never got dark at all. Again stunning. |
| © Jorunn Østbø |
After a walk around the small
cozy town, we went back and got picket up for our first trip on the adventure;
Artic Tapas. It was a huge bus, changed to be a restaurant and bar. We got
wine, loads of history and a fantastic trip around all drivable roads in
Longyearbyen. In addition we got some interesting food from the artic, like
reindeer heart, both dried and raw… mmm, yes…, very interesting and strange. The trip was amazing;
we learnt a lot and even got to see the famous polar bear sign – woohooo!
Friday 4th April
Woke early and utterly
excited, today was the snowmobile day, and the one day we might, if extremely
lucky, see polar bears. We packed our cameras, warm clothes and set off. Svein,
our headmaster guide picked us up, and shared some stories on the drive down to
the snowmobile stall. He assured us the dark times of year on Svalbard only
lasts a few weeks, and that it never really gets dark… due to the snowy hills
on all sides. We both agreed we needed to come back during winter J
We drove for a few hours with
stops now and then, up and down, onto glaciers, through small pass and then,
finally we reached the east cost. Here we had a longer break and got to stretch
our legs a few minutes. We decided to drive a little further before eating
lunch, and gosh I am glad for that. After just a few minutes I saw Jorunn (in
front of me) pointing at something, first I couldn’t see what it was, but when
we stopped…. It was polar bears!! My heart beat like crazy and I didn´t want
to
shut down the snowmobile, I felt they were too close. Despite their beauty and
cozy outer, they are very dangerous, and we had all heard tales of people being
ripped apart… But the two if them were wandering slowly and didn´t mind us at
all, so we went of our snowmobiles and started taking photos and watch them.
What two majestic creatures they were one large male, and one smaller female.
They were beautiful… we felt so lucky to see them in the wild, their own
habitat.
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| © Jorunn Østbø |
We teamed up with Gunilla and
Kristian for dinner this evening, a lovely Swedish couple.
What an amazing day! J
Saturday 6th April
Today our adventure took us
to Trollsteinen; a HUGE rock sitting on top of a mountain. We got to wear
snowshoes for the first time ever, and started ascending. The first part was up
a glacier front, quite steep and hard. I must admit, I found it very strange to
climb this mountain. It was like my body turned on 5000m+ mode, and gave me
remarkable strength. The landscape, the weather, the dry air, it´s the same on
high mountains, only here the altitude was missing. It was like my body thought
it should be extremely hard, only it wasn´t and it made me walk like I was on a
Sunday trip in on the countryside – very very strange. 
Our guide today was Emilie a
lovely girl from Canada. She had fled her country to work in the Arctic’s. Super nice with a fantastic view on life, and
a genuine love to nature. Thank you for sharing this wonderful day with us J
After lunch we descended and
agreed it had been yet another rewarding day J
Sunday 7th April
I woke up excited today –
wohoo, it was dog sledge day! Both Jorunn and myself are fond of animals, we´ve
been around animals all our lives and Jorunn now works on the Vet nary
university in Oslo. We couldn´t wait to meet our new barky friends J
After a brief introduction by
Gregor and Jesper, we got to make our own sledge ready. We took the dogs,
harness them and hooked them to the right place on the sledge. We had 6 dogs on
each sledge. I started driving the eager gang, while Jorunn was the passenger. First
a bit nervous, then after figuring out how they responded it was so cool. Now
we were really in the nature!
We shifted on driving, and
poor Jorunn needed to run up a long long hill to help the dogs. She did great!
And we even needed to break sometimes uphill, super-strong dogs with apparently
super-light load J
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| © Jorunn Østbø |
After an hour or so we came
to a beautiful place just beneath a pyramid like mountain, here were an ice
cave we should visit. We “parked” the dogs, gave them loads of cuddle and then
got ready for the cave. Through a narrow entrance, down 10 meters and POWWW –
ice all around us. Magnificent! I´ve never ever seen anything like it; pitch
black and shiny. It´s a pity you cannot see the sparkles on the photos, but I´m
sure you´ll get an idea. It was a bit scary with all the icicles hanging
around, but we loved it!
After sometime in the cave we
ate lunch and started on the way back. Now the dogs were even more eager. I´m
sure they knew they were going home, so they ran like mad dogs. Sooooo funny,
and soooo tricky to stay put on the sledge.
When the dogs were parked,
and we´d thanked all of them personally for the ride, we got to see some
extremely eager puppies! Oh, and oh… they were the cutest things ever. Not baby
puppies, but playful, biting, funny curious puppies. I ended up with two holes
in my pant and loads of bite marks all over. They were just amazingly cute J
Again a supernice day! Oh…
yes, I really want a few of those dogs J
Monday 8th April
Last day of wonderful
Svalbard… we had no plans today other than walk around and take the last breath
of this fresh untouched world. It has been some fantastic days, I´ve discovered
a new part of Norway, and really fell in love. One day I would like to come
back… to ski over Spitsbergen, sleep in a tent and really experience the wilderness
up here. 2-3 weeks in the wild… sight… I just need some shooting practice and I
guess also a gun license first J
So Svalbard, thank you for a
rewarding eye opening adventure. Thanks to Svalbard Wildlife, Green Dog
Svalbard, Spitsbergen Guesthouse, Arctic Tapas and to the nice waiter at
Svalbar bar, who never stopped answer all our, what to say; “interesting?!” questions
J Also, many thanks to Kristian and Gunilla for
lovely company. And last, THANK you Jorunn for sharing this adventure with me J
We will definitely come back!
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| © Jorunn Østbø |
