yann in the arctic

The season of adventures has arrived, and I really do not want to miss any of it! Apparently the sun now officially comes over the theoretical horizon (not that I have seen it yet) and so we are now getting a few hours a daylight every day (and increasing!).

After Bjørndalen, I still had another day or so off and decided to go to the other student cabin found in Svea, a coal mining settlement found 50km south of Longyearbyen. I actually went there with my class back in September. The only realistic way of getting there is by snow scooter or plane, and the students here at UNIS have an agreement with Store Norsk (the coal mining company) that if there are spare seats on the plane, then we can go for free. And that is exactly what we did.

The plane was tiny, but there were very few people in it. As we took off, we got to see the most incredible views under the most incredible light. I swear our trip was made worthwhile simply by taking this flight.






We departed on Friday and landed back this morning (Monday) and so spent three nights in the cabin. When we got there the cabin was of course freezing, but because of the nearby mine, coal in available (for free) in a plentiful quantity. We got the fire started and soon the cabin was too warm - so warm we were almost suffocating.



So over the weekend we went skiied close to the shore of the fjord and then closer to the mountains the next day. Nothing crazy, but it was just nice to be outside and away from Longyearbyen. We saw lots of reindeer and even some polar bear footprints - but no polar bear :( 




At first Friday to Monday sounded like a long time, but it really went by fast. I've come back energised. The only drawback was that the cabin was found not too far from a mine, and so there was actually quite a lot of soot on the snow (not so nice when having to melt it to drink - but we just used juice concentrate to get rid of the foul taste). So next time it would be nice to find a more isolated cabin.

Last time I came to Svalbard, I was camping all the time. As much as I would love to have that experience again, it was also nice to sit down and relax at the end of the day, around a roaring fire. It also meant we could dry our clothes and have a more comfortable experience.

We missed the first hour of lectures, but at least we managed to get a warm shower! I dunno but this short trip was just so perfect :). We even got to see the Northern Lights on Friday and Saturday night :)