Sun
7 Jul
2024

The head­line might just as well be: Kreuz­rit­ter and Rit­ter­hüt­te, which trans­la­tes to “cru­sader” and “Ritter’s hut”.

Sørd­als­flya is part of Reins­dyr­flya, a lar­ge area of most­ly flat tun­dra land north of Lief­defjord. This is whe­re the Ger­man wea­ther sta­ti­on “Kreuz­rit­ter” was loca­ted during the second world war, from 1943-44.

Sin­ce then, Reins­dyr­flya has again been a peaceful place whe­re natu­re rules.

This is also the case at Gråhu­ken, in nor­t­hern­most Wood­fjord. Nobo­dy is win­tering the­re any­mo­re, let alo­ne hun­ting polar bears, but the hut the­re has seen many well-known win­te­rers from Hil­mar Nøis who built the hut to Chris­tia­ne Rit­ter, who win­tered the­re tog­e­ther with her hus­band Her­mann Rit­ter and the Nor­we­gi­an hun­ter Karl Niko­lai­sen in 1934-35. The win­tering resul­ted in the famous book “A woman in the polar night”. See­ing the hut was high on the wish­list for many on board – gre­at that it work­ed out!

The­re is, by the way, a page within this web­site (click here) dedi­ca­ted to the the “Rit­ter hut”, inclu­ding a vir­tu­al tour.

Pho­to gal­lery – Sørd­als­flya & Gråhu­ken – 06th July 2024

Click on thumb­nail to open an enlar­ged ver­si­on of the spe­ci­fic pho­to.