Monday, 30 April 2012

Sounds of dogyard

I was taking care of my friends polar dogs for a week. My black coated companion was thinking that was just a brilliant thing to do. It's so fun to be running with other dogs on the dogyard!


In winter time Svalbard is just so quiet. There is just sound of wind and otherwise quietness of nature. Now we have got some birds back and even screaming of glaucous gulls is sounding beautiful.


Always safety first


When we are on the trip, safety is always the most important issue. I have to admit that I'm pretty chicken: I'm not too good trying something what I'm thinking is too risky - but that doesn't mean that accident can't happen. Just in case we're having always a proper equipment with us but we're hoping we'll never need to use them.


Here we're looking a hole beside a scooter route. If you fall down on that hole you would end up about 4-5 meters down. In this kind of beautiful day that might sound like an absurd scenario, but on the flat light it might became reality. You never can be too careful!



And then it happened: Our friend fell suddenly down in a crevasse, not in a glacier but on a moraine. Luckily crevasse was that narrow that she got hanging on her armpits - and that was really lucky because otherwise she would have fallen down pretty deep. But luckily, we got off with a fright.

Monday, 23 April 2012

A land of no sunset

We haven't had dark time at nights since 2nd of April and we had our last sunset 19th of April. Next time we can see the sun to set is 23th of August but we need to wait for dark nights almost until middle of September.

I don't mind at all to live some months in darkness when we're having such a long time light day around!

Svea - my other home

Last year, when I got a temporary work in Svea, Svea was a work place for me. Now I'll be spending every other week there, so it's not anymore just a work place, it's my other home. We're working double amount of working hours per week but anyhow life isn't just a work. We're having a small apartment so I can make it feel like our own home with our own personal stuff there. We're having a brilliant gym and sauna so for me there is enough leisure activities. There are also possibilities for other activities, but training is most important for me. Anyhow, I like also knitting and reading so I have enough recreation on my own room also. Only thing which is lacking in Svea is to have my dog there. That would really make Svea for my other home!

Thursday, 19 April 2012

Longyearbyen - a growing town

That was how Longyearbyen was looking like 13.4.2005. Picture is taken from Svea-flight.
This is Longyearbyen seven years later, 18.4.2012, also photographed from Svea flight.

Wednesday, 11 April 2012

Easter under the blue sky

Little bit over five days in a cabin with blue sky, almost windless weather and pleasant temperature. What else you could be asking for an Easter celebration?

Our cabin we got on use was situated really nicely by it's own. 
It was easy to take some short walks around the cabin.
One of the best things on a cabin trip is late mornings with sunbathing - though inside a sleeping bag.
It's not getting anymore dark at night times. We had a perfect view from our cabin over the fjords. 
As you can see we weren't only ones who took a trip to the east coast.
Magnificent Hayesbreen. I think I'll never stop to admire those huge masses of ice.
A huge ice cave in a moraine of Rabotbreen.
Eskerfossen, a frozen water fall.
We had also good access for down hill skiing. From here it's about 7,5 km slope towards to a fjord. Not too bad to be skiing with this kind of view. We were using a snow mobile as a ski lift and because of that our dog needed to learn a new skill: to be sitting on the seat of the scooter. That was working just fine when he found out that actually it's pretty all right to be sitting on a scooter.
Usually we're transporting our dog with longer distances in a transport box on the sledge. I think that's safest for the dog.

Svea calling

I took a calculated risk when I resigned from my permanent job and took a temporary post in Svea last summer. And I took a new risk when I refused to take my old job back as a part time employment after my work in Svea was over. Instead of it I decided to do it as a kind of freelancer. But all of that seems to be worth of it. Now I'm commuting between Svea and Longyearbyen again.