And a little more more

OK, as it seems that I can´t really stop blogging: here are some photo´s from our hike a couple of weeks back.

William and I brought a camera that failed us immediately, so these are taken by our hiking companions, Rico and Evelyn. Thank you to them!

Day 1

Going down the Caroline-valley...


and along the beach towards Deltaneset.


Where we stayed the night. In this cabin.


Day 2.

Looking for fossils.



There were heaps of lovely fossils in the hillside (Janusfjellet) right next to the cabin, and we had a great time searching for the nicest ones. We couldn´t carry much with us, but we took a few.

This is the area where they found the pliosaurus a few years back. However, as the area was huge and the fog was thick, we didn´t discover the exact spot where they found it.


Lunch-break and then onwards...


...to the next cabin at Diabas, only a couple of hours away.



Day 3

Heading back,


crossing some dramatic ravines made by the melting ice earlier in the summer.


Some of the numerous reindeers we saw along the way.


This reindeer-foal was very curious about us.


And finally, after six hours, we´re walking down the Louise-valley towards Adventfjorden. You can see the airport on the other side of the fjord. Nearly home!


A great trip although not so great weather. We´re already thinking about when to do it next:-)

And then a little more from the arctic

It seems the polarbears love to cuddle too... At least the bears in Manitoba, Canada.


More from the wild and hostile north here.

Some images of June

Saxifraga oppositifolia (Rødsildre/Purple Saxifrage) -


Saxifraga cespitosa (Tuesildre/Tufted Saxifrage) -

Draba oxycarpa (Bleikrublom/Pale Withlowgrass) -


Papaver dahlianum (Svalbardvalmue/Svalbard Poppy), popping through the asphalt -



... and a molting Lagopus muta (Rype/Ptarmigan)


More flowers here.

Nordstjernen: Lilliehöök-glacier and a Golden anniversary

... but first, some wildlife.

Day two, evening: Going out Magdalenefjorden we passed a lot of indolent walruses - what a lovely, lazy life!



The cruise-plan was to head up to Moffen at 80th latitude, but because of sea ice we didn´t get further than just north of Magdalenefjorden. The ship stopped by the iceridge, which looked like this:


The red circle points out this furry creature:


My first polarbear! It was eating a dead seal (I presume) while glancing our way, full of suspicion. We had quite a long look at it, to the enjoyment of all (maybe not the bear).

Further out on the ice we saw two other bears, but they were only visible through the binoculars, so therefore no pictures.



The skies cleared up soon after - here´s a photo of my brothers and my sister and Tor Ove on the deck, at 00.30 in the morning.



Day three: in the morning we approached the Lilliehöök-glacier in Krossfjorden in glorious sunlight and calm sea.


Tenderboats took us nearer the 8 km wide glacier-front.




Going in the smaller boats also brought us nearer all the beautiful, floating ice in the fjord.





And we passed another laidback walrus. Apparently oblivious of the rudely staring humans.


This beautiful day was also my parent´s 50th wedding anniversary - look at the cake the crew surprised us with!


It tasted great too:)

Before we left the Lilliehöök-glacier we managed to collect ourselves for a photo.



In the back, from left: Anders, William, Anne, Erik, Tor Ove, Birgit, Unni, Sidsel, Gunnar, Halvard, Martin, Emma, Peter and Thomas.


Loading all these photos take ages, so the rest will have to wait a little. But next time there´ll be a bar on the beach, and some nudity...

One morning in Longyearbyen ...

as William was heading out for work ....






No, I´m kidding - not William, and not Longyearbyen, but Kaktovik, Alaska, and I´ve no idea who took these, but I hope s/he did more than just photographing!

The eiders next door

Not only gulls and geese, but also lots of Ærfugl (or Common Eider) have returned to Svalbard lately, after having spent the winter on the mainland and Iceland. It´s reckoned that as many as 20000 birds return to Svalbard in April, and leave in October.


Now that there are large patches of land without snow, they´ve started breeding. These pictures are from our neighbourhood, where an eider-colony has settled close to a dogyard. On this patch, they know that they´re safe from foxes and bears, who are their greatest enemies. The foxes and bears keep their distance from the noisy (and smelly) dog enclosure.


A sign next to the colony defines the area.


Somehow the birds know that the dogs can only look wistfully from their cages. Of course, if a dog was turned loose, there would be a massacre.


The white ones are the drakes - a lot more visible than the brown females. How many birds on the the photo underneath?

The geese are back!

Hundreds of them, actually. It´s Hvitkinngås (Barnacle goose), and they seem to be all over the place. They´ve returned from Scotland, where they spent the winter.



Also, the snow is quickly thawing in the sun, so stuff (mostly dirt, rubbish and dog turds, actually) resurfaces. No photos of that, but here´s one of a proper creek. The first one I´ve seen since last summer, come to think about it.


I suppose this is spring on Svalbard - a bit muddy, but welcome indeed.

Two nights in Reindalen

This weekend we went to the Red Cross-cabin in Reindalen, which turned out to be a rather large, and very nice cabin.



Reindalen is the biggest valley (widest/longest) on Spitsbergen, and it is huge.


Naturally, the valley being named "Reindalen", we saw plenty of reindeer.


We did a tiny bit of sunbathing. Here´s our visitor Hanne lounging on top of her snowmobile.

We went skiing,


And we built a snowwoman named Roberta.


Alas, only seconds after the picture above was taken, Thomas (by accident) pushed poor Roberta´s head over - the photo below shows the extreme makeover that followed.


She was better looking before.


This may have been our last snowmobile-trip to a cabin this season, which is a little sad. The weather is getting milder, and soon it´ll become more difficult to drive through the valleys filled with melting snow.

Anyway, on the 17th of May next weekend we won´t be allowed to slip away, as Peter´s class has responsibilites at school during the afternoon. But I´ll definitely get back to you on that!