Day 7 – Dog sledging with dogs that went to the North Pole

18.03.2015
I believe everyone of us has seen those advertisements of an ideal holiday and vacation places with sea, palms and sandy beaches, hot weather and lazy mornings. Well, you may not believe me, but those ads are lying. The ideal place to spend your vacations is covered with snow and ice, it has no trees (definitely – no palms) and no sandy seaside for getting suntan, but don’t worry, you can get some frostbite instead… You cannot go easily where you want, as the polar bears, the kings of Arctic, may become interested in you, which may result in rising up your adrenaline levels…
Let’s call this place Svalbard!

I am one of those lucky people, who are there in Svalbard for the sixth day already, engaging in many types of activities this wonderful place has to offer. Today we will experience dog sledging, visit an ice cave and have a special dinner in a local restaurant. I am really looking forward for it all!

Morning

Morning

But let’s follow the natural order of things and start the day with a daily running!
So, we woke up at about 7 o’clock and went out running our daily 5K. The weather was nice, about -13C degrees, almost no wind, no snowing. (Would you believe anyone in Latvia, who’d told you, that it is -13C and nice weather? I wouldn’t!)

After the run we got breakfast. I overate as usually. We had some chat with some “guesthouse friends” which we’ve already made there, and we were ready to go for our today’s adventures!

Our today’s guides Tommy and Laura picked us up nearby the guesthouse and took us to the Tommy’s house, where we got on some warmer clothes, snow costumes and mittens with ropes (for not losing one), like in my childhood! I have to admit that Tommy’s house looked kind of wonderful (and I am not telling this just because there is “huskies’ farm” right nearby). The house is some kilometers away from the city, it is located in beautiful place with nice view around. It has many cosy wooden furniture items, which looked really nice. The bookshelves were pretty eye-catchy for me, as they were full with adventure literature about Arctic, North, huskies, expeditions etc. The house is like North version of eco-house. But it is a different story already.

Let me say at least few more words about Tommy himself, as it turned out that we were lucky to go dog sledging with a legendary person and his very special dogs. Tommy has not only ridden through Alaska with huskies, but also has reached the North Pole. His kids continue his hobby as well and have already great success in junior competitions.

The dogs are preparing for a trip

The dogs are preparing for a trip

Well, back to our story. So, after getting on some warm clothes, we met the wonderful dogs, which would take us to an inspiring journey through the white Arctic scenery. We helped Tommy and his assistant Laura to attach the dogs to the sledges. The dogs were really friendly, but each with a different character.

We made four teams and started to ride. Shortly after the start our (my and Edgar’s) team decided that we have to keep the tradition of falling over, so it is better to do it in the very beginning to take pressure off of our further journey. The plan went out well, so the remaining 99% of our trip we were going just fine.

The white wonderland

The white wonderland

We sledged through the white, beautiful hilly valleys, observing the greatness of Arctic nature and appreciating the stamina and strength of the dogs. Sledging with dogs were completely different of snowmobiles and hiking, as it has such a peace and strength of nature in it, making it kind of meditative process. Of course, it didn’t keep my fingers from freezing and my mind from thinking of falling out of the sledge. Still, I really enjoyed the ride.

What’s interesting, you can see the dogs’ characters even when riding. One of our team’s dogs was a bit like a bully, trying to bite leash or a back of the other dog running next to him. The other one was so strong that it looked like he could pull our sledge just by himself.

Riding further the teams switched, so me and Edgars got together on team with Tommy. I got to stand behind and push on uphills. That is the part, where you get your fingers really warm again. While riding, Tommy told me about the dogs, their characters and strength.

We made a pause nearby the ice cave, which is formed in frozen river. It was such a calm, quiet and peaceful place down there, with sparkling icicles and ice layers, which reveal some mysteries of the past years.
After crawling out of this sparkling adventure we had lunch sitting all together in a plateau, watching dogs and hills all around us and listening to Tommy’s stories.

On the way back I and Edgars were on a team with Laura. There were many descents, so Edgars and Laura got to operate the break, while I was sitting in the sledge and calculating possibilities of falling over. It was such luck we’ve ready completed this task earlier today. So the way back was just great.

Going down through the valleys, watching rhythmical dog movement in front of us and snowy peaks all around the trail, the time flew by, and soon we already approached the Tommy’s home again.
We helped getting the dogs in their places. It looked like they were in a great mood after the ride. After we got out of our snow costumes, we hurried back to the town, as we still had great plans for this evening.

The majority of our team had to quickly change the place they were staying at (as the eclipse time is very busy for the Longyearbyen’s hotels and guest houses). I was lucky enough to stay all my days there in one guest house, which felt like home already.
Still, I had to hurry to get to the fancy restaurant in the city centre in time. I put on my best (and only) big white handmade woolen jumper (thanks, Mom!) and my prettiest (and only) snow pants, and matching earrings (of course!), and I was ready for the beautiful evening.

Dinner in a posh place

Dinner in a posh place


The restaurant were located some kilometers from our guest house, which could take us about half an hour, but it took us much more, as we met all together on our way there and decided to get lost a bit. Who could imagine that right after those industrial hangars there is a romantic block with a beautiful restaurant and guest house? We were happy to finally get in a warm place, furthermore, it looked really cosy and fancy at the same time. Unfortunately we discovered that the eclipse time has brought different prices to this place, not the ones we were expecting, but I believe it happened to many places there. As some of us were already starving (and as we all know, we can’t be choosy and picky in a survival situations), we decided to stay. And it was worth it, as from my side I can assure you that the vegetarian dish was really delicious. The non-vegetarians decided to have seal and whale stakes, whose taste will remain a mystery to me. We had some nice chat, and Juris gave us a wonderful speech. We concluded the evening with Anders’s story about adventures of the previous day, which were our tradition before I broke it a day later.

On a way back some of us enjoyed winter fun by sledging up and down the hilly road home. Nice surrounding, good company, physical activities and a touch of wine works really well for having great time! :)

I fell asleep immediately after getting under the blanket and dreamt about our next day in a white wonderland.

Longyearbyen – my travels’ fantasy

Contemplation before…

It could be, that the archipelago of Svalbard (also called Spitsbergen) is not the most recognisable geographic name. Perhaps for most people these islands of Arctic seem like a real end of the world or maybe even name that doesn’t mean anything, one of the many names in the extensive atlas of world… however, aren’t exactly such places tempting the adventure-hungry spirit which dwells in each of us? Maybe this is the reason why the name – Svabard – and especially its capital Longyearbyen lives in my heart and mind for many years.

Several years ago when exploring the website of an airport I stumbled upon a flight map where my eye was caught by the most northern destination reachable by plane. It was Longyearbyen. As it turned out later, this fact and the interesting name was completely enough to promote this place to an honorable place in my travels’ fantasy list. Perhaps it was a very reckless attraction or temperamental youth love, but could you resist? Imagine bright white end of the world with real snowy and white winter, arctic foxes and seals, even polar bears and reindeer, the bright glaciers, husky sledding and the ascetic but enticing beauty of the northern nature.

Longyearbyen

Longyearbyen

Regarding the end of the world, that is actually not far from the truth – the archipelago lies only 15° degrees from the North pole (maybe we will be able to bring greetings to Santa Claus?), as well as it is the most northern populated place in the world. People started to live here only in the late 19th century, but in the first half of 20th century coal mining business was developed in Svalbard. Nowadays most of the archipelago is a nature reserve, tourism has been developed, as well as scientific research.

But that’s not all! On the 20th of March a total Solar eclipse will be visible here and this year it will have the totality observable only here and in the Faroe islands!

We have been preparing for a long time for this surreal expedition to my mind, but I think that in the head of every participant of the expedition is swarming with uncountable questions… Will we see the aurora? How cold it really is there, north of the Arctic circle? Will the weather be favourable to us? will we be dressed warm enough? Will we make friends with the huskies? Will we meet reindeer? I hope this expedition will inspire each of its participant for new ideas and objectives and maybe even will bring some interesting insights. For them not to fade as the shimmering aurora or melt as the ice glimmering in the sunlight, we will try to perpetuate them in this blog. Every day – a bit of our impressions. That is, if everything goes according to the plan. However, as it is well known, plans tend to have their own plans :) therefore wish us luck, follow our activities and wait for us to come back to already vernal homes!