Trip to Svalbard (30.01. - 03.02.2002)
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Well then, let me explain what happened during these days. First of all Michael
and I had to catch the plane to Longyearbyen (the biggest settlement on Svalbard,
1200 inhabitants). This journey was quite long since we had to travel far north
(the distance from Trondheim (62° north) to Svalbard (78° north) is 2000km).
The distance from Svalbard to the north-pole is 1300km.
The first evening there was a welcome party for us (OK: it was the birthday of Sebastian). In the evening on Thursday we did a trip into the icecave in the glacier right above the city.
On Friday, 14:00, we started our hiking tour to the other side of the fjord where earlier Adventcity was. Now are there only some houseruins. There we startet to pick up a husky (alarm against polar bears). It always happens again, that people were surprised, hurt or even killed by the bears. So we were well protected to be alarmed if a bear would come. In addition to that we had tripwires installed around the tents in the case the dog would not recognize the bear. Finally we were armed to protect us if the dog and/or the tripwires could not scare away the polar bear (note: inhabitants of Svalbard 3700, estimated population of polar bears on Svalbard 3500-5000).
After we had reached our place for the night we set up our tents for the night. To warm up we had some tea and the one or other swollow of Vodka and Rum. Before we went to sleep, we had some fun with stories, riddles and finally Christof scared (or more or less amused) us with the horrorstory of "The little pirate which smelled always fishy".
During the night a horrible wind came up. This wind did not stop until we left Svalbard on Sunday. So we had a very hard time to break down our camp and return to the city. It was not possible to have the hands (or any part of the face) uncoverd for more than 10 seconds until it began to hurt really bad.
| Weatherstation | 11:00 (we got up) | 18:00 (return to Longyearbyen) |
| Temperature | -21°C | -16°C |
| Windchill | -48°C | -38°C |
Well packed in we finally returned to Longyearbyen without any incident with polar bears or frostbites.
On Saturday evening there were a party again in one barack which we declared to be the goodbye party for us. So we had a really great time with all the students of UNIS.
click onto one of the three pictures to open the gallery
