Expectations are naturally high when you spend 18 days travelling Spitsbergen, but what these 18 days altogether had to offer exceeded most, if not all, expectations. Regardless if you think of the big animals, the polar bears, walrusses and whales, all the other wildlife, birdcliffs, reindeer and polar fox, geese, ducks and other tundra dwellers, the scenery with all its different facets. The experience of travelling this amazing landscape, on Antigua, under sail, on shore during shorter excursions and longer hikes.
Neither the weather, which was partly pretty foggy, nor the fact that a circumnavigation was never an option considering the ice conditions of that time could turn anything to the worse. Quite the opposite, all this was part of the trip and who would wanted to have anything any different?
The triplog is Triplog (German only, pdf, 14 MB). Soon, a slideshow will appear here (all participants will get the long version on DVD).
Impressions from various parts of the journey on the following pages (see album).
Huts are places of longing, dreams and adventure in Spitsbergen’s beautiful landscape. Even if the modern visitor’s eye may mostly be directed towards nature, most will have an open ear every now and then for exciting survival stories about explorers and expeditions, adventurers and trappers.
These huts are silent witnesses and and every one of them tells a little part of the whole story. The little book “Svalbardhytter” and the poster that is part of the same project make these fascinating places accessible for everyone.
From remote ruins, just traces in a few cases, to “famous” trapper huts such as Fredheim in Tempelfjord and Bjørneborg on Halvmåneøya, the war weather station Haudegen, the former scientific base Würzburger Hütte on Barentsøya and Hammerfesthuset, Svalbard’s oldest building.