31st of August – Stavanger marathon

The run started at 0830 and with 5 minute walk from the hotel I set the alarm at 0700 to have plenty of time. And good I did: I woke up when the alarm went off and then apparently fell asleep again after turning off the alarm instead of snoozing it. I woke up half an hour later, so due to the good time I have given myself there wasn’t any worry about it, but there was a smidgen of panic there for a moment, realizing how bad it could have gone.

I showed up at the start around 0815 where people were getting ready. With the size of the run it all seemed very informal; a starting portal with a few fences leading into it and then just the open plaza in front of the cathedral where people were hanging out – both runners and onlookers – waiting for the start. A few minutes before the start the pacers (3:30, 3:45, 4:00 and 4:15 positioned themselves and pretty much immediately people gathered around and behind their chosen pacer. It felt surprisingly calm and orderly. I positioned myself with the 3:45 – my goal was the usual sub-4 hours despite the hilly course, but I wanted to stay ahead of the 4:00 pacers as long as possible and my plan was to have the 3:45 pacer to pull me for as long as possible, maybe 10ish km, so I could start the run with a bit of a margin to my goal.

And then – without too much fanfare – we were off on time at 0830.

And we were off!

The past days it had been overcast, chilly, windy and with regular showers and drizzles. Today the sky was clear, cool wind and temps around 13-17 degrees, so almost perfect running weather. Such a relief as I was worried the weather would have stayed lousy making the run a completely different experience.

Being in the center of Stavanger the first part of the run took us zig-zagging through residential areas (and up!) before reaching a forest path which we followed for maybe 15ish km circling the major lakes of the course (Store Stokkavatnet and Hålandsvatnet). There were definitely several ups and downs along the way, and seeing how people just seemed to race downhill was intimidating Despite being forest it was mostly open out towards the lake, resulting in some beautiful views, helped along by the weather.

To my big surprise I managed to keep up with the pacer – even easily so, it felt like. I realized at one point that in the beginning she was setting a relatively aggressive pace that would be more fitting for the 3:30 pacer, and yet I had no problems keeping up. She did though settle at a more appropriate pace at around 10ish km.

Reaching the half-way point we had returned into residential areas and the pacer for the group was replaced by a fresh runner. I was starting to fall a bit behind at this point and could see the group ahead of me, and in the few minutes it took them to swap equipment (flag and small backpack with snacks for desperate runners) the group that had followed the pacer so far seemed to completely fall apart now that they were left on their own. The new pacer caught up with the remainder of the group and things got relatively settled again, but it never got back to its former self again. It was a but funny to see, when you got a glimpse of the other pacers; people stuck to them like glue and especially during the first half there were very few people on their own so it just looked like a couple of groups of runners out and about, and not a full-fledged marathon.

Staring to fall behind of the pacer didn’t bother me too much, as this was something I had been planning on happening for quite a while. The biggest surprise was that it had taken this long before it happening, and in spite of falling behind I was still running faster (20-30sec/km) than I had expected to do at this point. So I kept pushing on and looking ahead I noticed the pace groups slowly getting smaller, slowly falling apart as runners no longer could keep up with their pacers. At least I wasn’t the only one – which shouldn’t have been surprising at all.

The conditions were excellent!

Most of the second half of the course overlapped with the half marathon course, and those runners were started 40-55 minutes after us. This meant that we wouldn’t risk getting passed by fast fresh half marathoners when we were struggling towards the end (like what happened in Tromsø), but on the other hand it was a huge morale boost when I at one point with app. 8km left started catching up with the slowest half marathoners. That felt really good!

Running along the water’s edge, and passing the 3 swords, in what turned out to be in amazing weather, was simply a great experience. Even if I was gradually getting slower it just felt good. It’s rare that I past 30km feel this optimistic despite my legs were getting predictably heavy at this point. Around the same time I realized my projected finish time would be around 3:48 and while I didn’t expect it to hold until the finish line I did let myself be carefully optimistic due to how I was feeling. The prediction actually didn’t change much to my surprise until I passed the 35km mark and even then it didn’t drop more than a few minutes. At this point I realized that unless something unexpected happened I would be finishing in less than 4 hours, and maybe, maybe I would be able to get close to my PR from Loch Ness of 3:52:52.

With 4km to go we were back in Stavanger and going along streets, and keeping half an eye on my time things were looking positive. Fighting the last few hills (not nearly as tall as those in the forests but they felt much worse) we soon arrived at the lake at the bottom of the hill where the cathedral was located. Getting to the far end all you had to do was circle the cathedral and cross the finish line on the other side – and ascend the hill at the same time. One last push. The last 300m was a rough ascent (looking back it wasn’t nearly as bad as I make it sound) before taking a sharp right turn and 100m straight across the finish line.

Realizing there was a hill to conquer before getting to the finish line.

The finish line was as informal as the starting line. Someone handed you your medal, a table with drinks, one with bananas and one with chocolate buns. There were barely any people otherwise, due to the limited number of participants there wasn’t really a crowd, and I waddled about, grabbed my stuff, left and carefully got myself back to the hotel which somehow had moved so it now took more than double the time to cover the distance than this morning. Weird.

 

The altitude not being super reliable as the start and finish was the same place.

I ended up crossing the finish line in 3:52:33, a 20 second improvement from Loch Ness – and that PR was from a course where the first half was downhill. This course was 352-375m up and down so far from flat, so while I was hoping for a sub-4 hour result I was not expecting a result like this. This was definitely a very nice surprise! I came in as 141 out of 393 overall (top 35,88%), 124 of 314 men (top 39,49%) and 15 out of 29 among M40-44 (top 51,72%). A much better result than expected and unnecessary to say I am very happy about it all! The first crossing the finish line did so at 2:33:03, the last at 5:59:40. The latter makes me believe they took the 6-hour limit seriously, whereas other runs let you finish but after the time limit they open up the streets again and you’re pretty much on your own until you reach the finish line. 

Full album can be seen here.

Nordic marathons

My runs have brought me to places far away from home, and while it has resulted in amazing trips it sometimes also makes it quite the undertaking outside of the run itself. It would be nice that I at least once in a while managed to plan a bit more convenient trip to find a run instead of having to fly half way around the world.

So a new project has seen the light of day; running marathons in the capitals of the 5 Nordic countries - Copenhagen (Denmark), Stockholm (Sweden), Oslo (Norway), Helsinki (Finland) and Reykjavik (Iceland). I am considering also including the 3 autonomous territories Faroe Islands (Denmark), Greenland (Denmark) and Åland (Finland).

The 3 latter are a bit harder to do; while the Faroe Islands have an annual half and full marathon, Åland sometimes cancel their run due to lack of interest and Greenland, well - there is an annual marathon which I would consider an extreme run which I'm not to keen on, so I may have to try and find a half marathon instead if there is one (which I believe Nuuk has annually).

Some have already been run, some have recently been planned and others are still up in the air. The schedule is currently as follows:

Copenhagen - May 2019
Stockholm - May 2025
Oslo - September 2025
Helsinki - TBA
Reykjavik - TBA

Faroe Islands - June 2019
Greenland - TBA
Åland - TBA

A small project compared to my other runs (past and likely future), but sometimes you just need to scale down and relax. Which I know is a bit of a contradiction when talking about running marathons. Oh, well. 

23rd – Tromsø, post-run

I woke up and had another shower before going down to get breakfast before checking out and went on a small – slow – walk around town. I realized there was nothing much to do so I returned to the hotel where the medal and price ceremony would be held from 1300 to 1430. After 20 minutes people had held speeches and the 1., 2. and 3. place winners (both men and women) for the marathon, half marathon and 10km had been given their prices. I was starting to wonder how they could have been so wrong in estimating how long it would take, before they announced they would now give out prices for 1., 2. and 3. place winners for each class for the three runs. With up to 20 classes for each run (18-34, 35-39, 40-44, 45-49, 50-54, 55-59, 60-64, 65-69, 70-74, 75+ for men and women!), with four extra for the 10km (12-14, 15-17) it took some time. I was pretty blasted towards the end, and with the 10km run being the last getting the prices the room was more than half empty when they were done. They did try to be efficient; quickly get the 3 (or however many were present in the room) up onto the podium, give the prices, take a photo, make them leave and call the next 3. No unnecessary talking in between. I’m very happy for that – it could easily have taken most of the day if they hadn’t been so disciplined. The biggest surprise was the M75+ in the 10km group; the three fastest all did it in less than an hour which resulted in quite an applause when they came onto the stage. Or maybe the applause was to show approval of the fact that the price ceremony was finally over. Who knows.

Looking at the results list it seems as if the 10km is much more a local run compared to the marathons. Quickly skimming the results it looks like at least 80% – if not more – were Norwegians, and among the winners they absolutely dominated.

The timing was about right to grab the bus to the airport after the ceremony so I stepped out of the hotel, stepped into the bus, camped in the café lounge at the airport before departing with a layover in Oslo, looking forward to getting this trip behind me.

The view when arriving home in Copenhagen.

Full album can be found here.

22nd – 23rd – Midnight non-Sun Marathon

Being called the Midnight Sun Marathon the marathon wouldn’t be started until 2030, and the half marathon would be started 2 hours later, at 2230. The marathon’s first half would be crossing the bridge towards the Arctic Cathedral and then run south along the water before returning the same way, passing the bridge and circling around before returning across the bridge, circling around the starting area and starting on the second half of the run. The second half would go south along the coast of the island, reaching the south point and continuing north on the opposite side, reaching up along the airport, circling around and returning from where we came and finishing in the starting – now finishing – area. 

The view from the hotel room shortly before the start. Not the most promising.

At the starting line the weather was less than promising. It wasn’t raining, but it was heavily overcast. This resulted in the comment during the welcome speech “We invited you all for the midnight sun marathon, but it seems you’ll be running the midnight cloud marathon instead”. But without much further ado we were off, and we were soon across the bridge and on our way.

At around 10-15km. Still feeling optimistic.

Photo taken by the organizers.

Despite the height of the bridge it wasn’t too bad crossing it – I am assuming that part of that was due to its length making the incline less horrific than it could have been. The weather kept dry in the beginning and with the temperature around 10-12°C it could have been far worse. Returning across the bridge we started the second half of the run, at a time that I was happy with. I wasn’t going to break my PR on the distance but it didn’t look to bad, either. A couple of kilometres after the halfway point we started getting passed by the many – many – half marathon runners who had just been started and now were fresh and energetic, ready for their shorter run. It was tough puffing away and then suddenly being passed by hordes of very non-tired people. It also started raining, so that didn’t help. It wasn’t a very heavy rain, but rather a light rain but it was constant so it didn’t take long before we were soaked. And with 15km to go it got a lot worse; slowing down to get something to drink and a snack at a water station I realized I couldn’t get myself back running again. No matter how much I tried forcing myself, I had to face the realization that I had to walk. And walk I did – with the exception of a couple of km I actually managed to run slowly, I ended up walking the rest of the way. Soaked, getting constantly passed by the faster half marathoners (and marathoners, for that matter), frustrated with not being able to run and towards the end absolutely shivering from the cold I was not in a good place.

Crossing the finishline I was not in a good place.

Photo taken by the organizers.

This meant that I finished in an unimpressive time of 4:48:24, 59/72 in my class (male 35-39 – the slowest Dane in the class by 50 minutes, 13/14 of all Danes), 561/855 of men, 576/1022 in total. Fastest runner did it in 2:20:32, fastest woman did it in 2:50:50. 244 never showed up for the start, 36 didn’t finish and 1 was disqualified. The last finisher was at 7:10:44. 6 runners spent more than 6 hours.

If I hadn’t been freezing as much as I was when crossing the finish line, I would have been seething from the disappointment from my performance, but I got some hot to drink (the woman passing me the cup took a step back with an “oh my GOD!” when she saw how I lost half of the contents of the cup from shaking), grabbed my stuff from the bag storage and returned to my hotel, which fortunately was close by. I got rid of my clothes and took a much needed very hot shower which made me feel almost warm again, sat down on the bed and took a few seconds trying to get at least some of all my frustration, anger, disappointment and f#%)&(“ out of the system. Feeling slightly better – but not too much – I went to sleep, relieved that breakfast would be served until 1100 on the Sunday.

20th – 22nd of June – Tromsø, pre-run

Going to Tromsø from Copenhagen you have to have a layover in Oslo. Oslo not being the world’s largest airport it’s fairly easy finding your way around. And it does get easier when your departure gate is just across from the lounge. The food on the flight was a bit disappointing on both legs, but they had some absolutely amazing caramel & sea salt muffins. I might have had one on each leg of the flight.

The view when flying into Tromsø.

On the entire flight going north it was heavily overcast so there was nothing really to see. Nearing Tromsø the clouds started loosening up and arriving in Tromsø half an hour to midnight with the (almost) midnight sun gave some beautiful views of the landscape. Tromsø’s airport is a small one so within 10 minutes after leaving the plane I was sitting in the bus waiting for it to depart to downtown Tromsø and my hotel. The bus stopped right outside my hotel, so with no problems I checked in, got to my room, leaned back relaxing and enjoyed the view.

The view from the hotel room.

On the Friday (the 21^st) I went down to the town hall (after enjoying an excellent breakfast at the hotel and its extensive breakfast buffet) to pick up my race number. After hanging out for 10-ish minutes I re-checked the schedule and realized that they didn’t open until 1400 despite remembering it at 1200. So instead I went for a walk taking me to the south point of Tromsøya (the small island where most of Tromsø is located; Tromsø + øya – øya being the Norwegian word for island. The imagination went wild on the day they named the island). Here I found myself in front of the Tromsø Museum where there also was a map with tracks and paths on the island, perfect for walking. So I ended up walking the length of the island. App 12km, with an unintentional detour around the lake Prestvannet and a quick walk up onto Varden, the tallest point on Tromsøya of 158m. From here you could get a view of Tromsø and the opposite side of Tromsøya, and also see the connecting east and west bridges, and the Arctic Cathedral on the mainland opposite Tromsø center.

Looking over Prestvannet with mountains in the background.

The view of Tromsø from the summit of Varden.

Coming back to Tromsø I picked up my race number before returning to my hotel room. An hour relaxation later I descended to the hotel’s restaurant where the race’s pasta party was held. And the hotel definitely knew how to make pasta dishes, so that was a great success.

Friday’s weather had been ok; clouds and an occasional drizzle, but reaching Saturday it had turned overcast and it was pouring down. I did spend a few hours walking around, mainly crossing the bridge to see the Arctic Cathedral which turned out to be closed due to a wedding, but other than that I ended up just hanging out in my room waiting for the race to start. The weather was not promising, though towards the afternoon it actually managed to stop raining, though the clouds were ever-present.

The view from the cathedral.

Northern Norway

So, since having completed the Copenhagen and Tórshavn marathons, with only two weeks in between and being my first marathons, I have two more planned, the one in Berlin and New York later this year. I have been looking for another marathon some time around July so keep me going, but it seems as if there isn't much to chose among (and even if you are willing to fly and travel far there aren't many choices, and my finances are not up for that right now). August they start popping up again, but it seemed like I would have to wait until then. The only relatively easily accessible run in July is in Zermatt, Switzerland, and while that would be a nice run, it starts at 1100m and ends in 2500m. So just a bit too much for me.

And of course as an alternative I could do one in the end of June, but that would be crazy this soon after two other marathons, right?

Right??!

20th - 23rd of June

After work I'll leave for the airport and fly north into Norway to Tromsø (which is at around 69th degree). I found out that they have a marathon this weekend with a special twist: it doesn't start until 20:30, giving it the name Midnight Sun Marathon. Yup - as it's bright all 24 hours of the day they have put a marathon over midnight between Saturday and Sunday just because they can. So another of these runs (people apparently do this voluntarily?) and after a morning on Sunday I grab a flight back home. 

I think it's going to be a very nice run, it's quite beautiful there, and while it isn't quite as flat as in Copenhagen it's still a far cry from what I experienced on the Faroe Islands. We'll be crossing the main bridge in Tromsø twice which is around 50m tall, but otherwise we'll be staying between 2 and 20 meters with little variation along the way. 

6th – 7th – Crossing to Greenland

We spent two days crossing from Svalbard to Greenland, heading out the night of the 5^th and arriving at our anchoring point around 1630 the 7^th, several hours before the planned arrival. This was possible due to near excellent conditions during the crossing – despite being exposed the seas were calm and we encountered only little swell. The 7^th started with clouds/haze in the distance obscuring the sunrise and it stayed like that most of the morning when we spotted Greenland in the distance. At that point we caught up with the mist and visibility dropped to almost nothing until during lunch when we came out of it and we got our first clear view of Greenland’s east coast. We entered Copeland Fjord and anchored for the day.

Kittiwake. 

Just chugging along.

During the crossing there wasn’t much to do: standing outside hoping for any sightings (we didn’t even have birds following the ship), listening to some of the lectures held by the guides, eating, and waiting. So all in all the crossing turned out to be fairly uneventful though the lectures were quite interesting (Aurora Borealis, Greenland’s history & culture, Arctic wildlife/nature etc.).

First view of Greenland.

Arriving in Greenland we were surprised by how barren it all looked at first; it looks like a mountainous moon landscape, but also animals are low in supply around here – no whales, dolphins or seals, barely any birds and no bears (though the latter wasn’t too much of a surprise). We did get to see a few musk oxen, though they were very far away and barely much more than specs in the distance.

Musk oxen.

From now on, between 2300 and 0500, there will be a staff member on watch for northern lights and of they appear a call will be made over the PA. A short one, and only one. If there goes a call out for a sighting, and it disappears there will be no more calls if a new one appears in the sky later on.

Sunset colours.

5th – Cuddly bears

Just because you are on vacation the weather doesn’t need to be good. We have been experiencing all day with a slight mist and low-hanging clouds, but fortunately only the occasional drizzle.

I got up early in the morning (at 0300!!) to try and see if I could get anything constructive out of the sunrise. The colours were nice but there wasn’t as much as I had hoped, but despite that it did make a nice background for the birds flying around.

Sunrise.

Blue whale.

Back to bed an hour later and up with the rest of the ship at 0700 for the usual morning schedule before finding us in Hamiltonbukta where we took the zodiacs out in two groups: one landed and had a walk near an old whaling hut while the others zoomed about among the ice. After an hour or so we switched and coming out we got to see a young walrus up close resting on a small piece of ice, not doing much else other than keeping a careful eye on us. The group that started in the zodiacs had seen it circling the boats and climbing up onto the ice, showing that seeing wildlife is all about being at the right place at the right time.

Territorial fights and fighting over food was not uncommon to see among the birds.

Young walrus.

Back on the ship for lunch we relocated and in the process we spotted two more polar bears – a mother and her fairly large cub. They were quite far away and they were clearly just lying down resting and cuddling up to each other. That combined with poor visibility and the “must see a polar bear”-stress being over it seemed only a few people came out to look.

So far away.

Having relocated we landed at around 1600 for a walk; there were short, medium and long walks available and the latter would bring you up onto a summit of a nearby mountain/tall hill. It was according to our guide 300 meters and a bit and had the weather actually been nice with good visibility the view would have been spectacular.

 

We were back on the ship at 1845 just making it for dinner and skipping briefing. Dinner was followed by a trip to the bar, and at several occasions we rushed out trying to photograph the dolphins and whales that were in the water around us, all with varying success – mostly very little.

Just a hint of sun came out towards the end of the day.

4th – Going far east

Wakeup call this morning was at 0700 and the first half of the morning was spent on ship cruising along the ice shelf we had reached during the night. We had been sailing all night bringing us all the way down to the south-east coast of Austlandet, the eastern large island of the Svalbard archipelago.

 

After a while the zodiacs were lowered and we went out to see the ice a bit closer from a different – lower – angle, and hoping to see some wildlife in the process. While we did see a few birds and seals rearing their heads ice was clearly the main event.

Seal.

When returning from the 1½ hour quite cold ride we soon after had lunch while relocating a bit back westwards where the plan was to land, do a walk and see some walruses. The plan fell to pieces when a polar bear was spotted close to where it had been planned we were to go in land so instead we enjoyed the view from the ship for a bit before entering the zodiacs and just cruised along the beach where we both got to see the bear a bit closer (though still at a fair distance and falling asleep behind some rocks) and a few groups of walruses that didn’t just lie still but actually were moving around while we were looking. It was theorized that their activity was due to nervousness as the bear might have been closer earlier during the day.

Polar bear.

Arctic terns resting on a piece of ice.

Walruses.

Returning to the ship we had our usual briefing at 1815 but it was cut short by another polar bear sighting: this was more active and actually came down to the beach and walk around so you got to see it from all angles, even if this one also was a fair bit away. The rest of the night was uneventful: spending some time in the bar, having a few drinks and seeing the sunset before going to bed.

Having a walk.

3rd – And so it begins

I woke up at 0330 realising we were rolling quite a bit and that some sliding noise in the cabin had woken me up. A bit of more sliding was followed by a loud bump. I noticed it was my cabin mate’s stuff that had slid off the bed table and fallen onto the floor until I realised that I could still hear my water bottle continue shifting back and forth on our table. After securing it I also noticed that my bottle of “welcome back”-wine had slid from one end to the other on the table, so that got secured too before I returned to bed.

Wake-up call at 0730 and the morning was spent on breakfast and going through the mandatory safety-, security- and behaviour briefings, relaxation, looking for stuff outside and having lunch. Shortly after lunch our photographer held a short lecture on basic principles and techniques of photography, promising a more advanced one later on.

At this point we had arrived at Magdelenefjorden where we in the afternoon went out in the zodiacs and went onto land where we had a walk around. At one point an arctic fox walked up completely ignoring people only a few meters away. They are obviously used to these large numbers of people arriving not being a threat, and soon after it trotted away again. An hour later and change we got back into the zodiacs and went for a small cruise bringing us past a glacier and 3 large walruses relaxing on the beach.

Three walruses.

Returning to the ship we got refreshments while the ship lifted anchor, left the location and continued north, later rounding the northern point and down through Hinlopenstretet (Hinlopen strait) to Bråsvellbreen (Bråsvell glacier) which we will reach for tomorrow morning. The debriefing before dinner was a bit of talk about today, current plans for tomorrow and the captain introducing himself and the other officers. This was followed by dinner, relaxation and live music in the bar.

All morning the weather was grey and overcast not being very promising, but arriving at Magdelenefjorden everything loosened up and the weather improved greatly. The timing could not have been better. When starting our route north the clouds and drizzles returned and the crew is expecting wind and swell being much calmer here and at the destination than it was last night. Last night’s conditions hadn’t been forecast or expected at all, so let’s see how safe tonight’s prediction is.

31st of August – 2nd of September – Being foxy

As my office is closer to the airport than home is and I was leaving on a Friday early evening I decided to grab all my stuff and take it with me to work. After work I jumped onto a train, went to the airport, checked in my bags, went through security, spent time in the crowded lounge (though free food and wine makes everything better) and departed 30-45 minutes delayed.

Having originally a 1½ hours layover in Oslo the delay wasn’t that big an issue, but arriving I realized that my next flight was delayed half an hour, turning it into a complete non-issue. A short visit to the lounge (amazing brownies!) I went to the gate where I met 3 from my previous Antarctica trip, a girlfriend and this tour’s official photographer who I knew from my first Arctic tour.

As the flights was originally supposed to arrive in Longyearbyen at 0040 the delay meant that I didn’t get to the hotel until around 0230. On the Saturday I had a tour with focus on photography starting at 1000 so I went straight to bed. After 5 hours of sleep I crawled out of bed, sorted by stuff and repacked a bit before having breakfast, checking out and getting picked up for the day’s tour.

The weather was grey and dull with the occasional drizzle to light rain (which was better than the 80% that had been forecast). We got to see some viewpoints in and around town, and a few places where there were good chances of bird sightings. We also went past the see vault (which is being restored due to melting permafrost preventing us getting close) and the fire department’s plane training location. Having it close to the airport means that the first sight of some arriving tourists would be what looks like a plane in flames, and adding to that a nearby shooting range first impression would be very interesting). We ended up in Bjørndalen where we had great view of the valley before returning to town, seeing an arctic fox on the way and ending at the hotel at 1600 sharp.

Purple sandpipers.

Arctic tern.

Bjørndalen.

Arctic fox.

I grabbed my stuff, checked into my next hotel and went for a walk where I bumped into the photographer (who, after 30 hours of travelling from San Francisco passed out for 12+ hours when reaching the hotel) and we quickly decided to go and grab some dinner together. I had a short walk afterwards, passed by the shit that at that point had arrived at port, realised that there was no chance of any good sunset tonight and retired to the hotel. An hour later around 2330 I passed out for the day.

The alarm went off at 0900, I grabbed a quick breakfast before checking out and handing my luggage over to the ship’s crew. I went for a short walk, tried to shoot some birds but despite the weather being better than yesterday there wasn’t much going on. I ended up in the North Pole Expedition Museum which turned out to be quite interesting but with a lot of dry text, before finding a place for lunch. I found a café where I had their chili con carne which was closer to “carne con slightly undercooked beans, no chili but otherwise not bad”, washed down with a delicious semi-large soft vanilla bun.

Wandered about a bit after that, found to my disappointment that the photo gallery was closed, and finally got onto the bus, drove to the ship, checked in and found my cabin (back in 327!).

During the guides’ presentation one asked for any repeat customers to raise their hands. Normally they have 10-20 on a tour doing so but this time at least ¾ of the passengers who put them up. The usual safety briefings and welcomes were performed and dinner was served – reminding me why I was so fond of the food here. It was delicious. During dinner the Expedition Leader came over to say hi to us (we who met at Oslo airport) – apparently she remembered us from the Antarctic trip.

The rest of the evening was calm. We were anchored just outside the harbour due to inspections but at midnight on the spot the engines picked up and we left to go north for tomorrow’s program, effectively starting the tour.

One would think I missed being in the cold

When returning home from Svalbard I agreed with myself that I wouldn't return; not because it hadn't been a great experience but due to it being fairly pricey.

Despite the trip to Svalbard was cheaper than going to Antarctica I decided to see the latter less than half a year later. And when returning home from Antarctica I agreed with myself that I wouldn't return; not because it hadn't been a great experience but due to it being fairly pricey.

Some time after coming back home from Antarctica someone from the trip created a group on Facebook to arrange a reunion in 2018 - and having said reunion on a trip to Svalbard. There were quite a few people backing up around this idea, and so was I, but I pointed out that as I had already been there, and recently, I wasn't totally convinced. 

Having an excuse to go travelling I looked at the options and said that if I was to return to Svalbard I'd take the long option where you'd also pass by Greenland and Iceland.

So....

Yeah.

1st of September

Arrival in Longyearbyen where I'll spend a night before leaving.

2nd -  6th of September

We'll board the ship in the afternoon and spend the first couple of days sailing around Svalbard before starting the crossing of the Greenland Sea heading west.

7th - 8th of September

Crossing through Northeast Greenland National Park towards Greenland. Not much land to be spotted so I'm crossing my fingers for whales, orcas and the like.

9th - 13th of September

Reaching the coast of East Greenland and the Northeast Greenland National Park we'll be getting a close up of the Eastern fjords. We'll be visiting the village Ittoqqortoormiit and a look into Scoresby Sund.

14th - 15th of September

Crossing the Denmark Strait to Reykjavik.

16th - ? September

I haven't bought my flight tickets yet so I haven't quite made a final discision on how to end the trip. I might just go home after leaving the ship but there's a chance that I might spend a couple of days in town before leaving.

This trip is with the same company I traveled with last time I was on Svalbard and to Antarctica so I am very much looking forward to it, especially because I know the conditions we will be staying in for the two weeks and the crew and staff are absolutely amazing and worthy of any praise they can get. Too bad it's 10 months until departure. I'll have to find something before that to distract me.

20th - Home

Wakeup call at 0630 which not only was earlier than usual, it felt very early after only 4 hours of sleep (I blame it on good company in the bar). At 0645 bags were to be placed outside the cabins to be brought to shore. I put mine out, returned to the cabin to get something and came back out – less than a minute later and the bag was already gone. Service was swift (or they were looking forward to getting rid of us). Breakfast was at 0700 and at 0745 we started disembarkment for the last time.

There isn’t much to see and do in Longyearbyen, fortunately we were holed up at the hotel where there was free wifi. I visited the Svalbard museum which showed a bit of history, wildlife etc., to pass the time and an hour or so later I exited again. A quick lunch was had before the bus came to pick us up and bring us to the airport.

The flight had a few surprises; I had tickets for SAS Plus which meant that despite the short distances flown I was served food (well, snack at best) and drinks that the plebs (those in the cheap seats) would have to pay for. We had a layover in Tromsø and despite all of us were going to Oslo we all had to exit the plane. We were also told by the purser that if we were continuing to Oslo we would have to retrieve our bags and check it in again. Weirdos. So we all grabbed our stuff and exited and went to the baggage claim. A lot of bags arrived, but not ours. After waiting 10-ish minutes (with app. 40 minutes between arrival and departure) someone found out that what we had been told was not entirely correct; if you were going to Oslo but not further you would have to grab your bags, but if Oslo only was a layover you didn’t need to do anything. So with time getting critical we rushed through customs and went back through security (which suddenly got clogged by all the passengers that arrived at once) and returned to the plane.

On the flight towards Oslo we were told that an error had been made and no fresh water had been loaded onto the plane so coffee and tea could not be served (in SAS Plus we still had access to bottled water). Also, the toilets would only work for a limited time. Half way to Oslo they locked off the toilets as they had run out of water. Luckily it was a one our flight and not a long intercontinental one…

Arriving in Oslo and continuing on the last stretch to Copenhagen went without a hitch. My bag even made it all the way!

Big thanks to the staff members Sarah Auffret (Expedition Leader), Dr. Julia Lindow (Ass. Expedition Leader), Thomas G. Smith (Firearms Master), Guy Esparon (Naturalist), John Kernan (Biologist), Diego Punta Fernandez (Staff Assistant/Naturalist), Jacqueline Deely (Photographer), Kevin Closs (Musician), Terence "Scobie" Pye (Zodiac Technician), Jonathan R. Green (Geologist), Truls Kuhle (Staff Assistant/Naturalist), Wayne Brown (Staff Assistant/Naturalist), Carol Francis (Historian), Phil Hunter (Staff Assistant/Naturalist) and Dr. Susie Newton (Ship's Doctor) for being such great guides. Big thanks to the crew members Andriy Domanin (Captain), Josi Silva (Hotel Manager), Margaret Krzyzelewski (Deck Cadet) and the remaining 48 crew members I don’t know/remember the name of (bartenders, waiters, housekeeping etc.). Big thanks to Danni, Alison, Trevor, Nicolle, Jana, Carina, Christel and everybody else I don’t (but probably should) remember the name of. Thanks for the company, thanks for a great tour, and hope I’ll get to see you again some time.

And for some that will happen; being the same ship I’m joining in Antarctica some of the crew and staff will be the same. And after this tour, now knowing what I can expect, I am even more excited about Antarctica than before.

We even received a diploma for going that far north!

A map of the route.