DAY 3 TUESDAY NOVEMBER 10 DOG SLEDDING
We knew that there wouldn't be a lot of activities we would want to do so it’s kind of a slow easy trip but they had activities listed on the front desk and among them was a ½ day of dog sledding with Green Dog. We had wanted to try that but had been told it might not be possible. Usually the dogs run up a valley and back but everything is so icy as it snowed then rained then froze so no snow since the freeze so ice. We sign up for it and go for the morning run at 8:30 because it seems a better time. That means we actually have to set the alarm. So we’re up, eat some breakfast, dress in long johns and double socks and such and then go out to wait in the lobby and put on our boots. They want you to take off your shoes when you enter the building but it takes so long to put on our boots that we have to get a head start if we are going anywhere.
Van to pick us up is a bit after 8:30 and there is one other couple in the van, D&M from Mexico City. It will just be the four of us. So he tells us that we will have three sleds with Ben driving one (staff) and Camile (guy from Poland – staff) driving the other and then D&M can have a sled to themselves with M driving. We get to the bottom of a hill on the other side of the valley and they take us into the dressing room to give us our suits. These go on over everything but mine won’t fasten so in the end, I have to put my coat on the outside. They are somewhat a bit warmer but not totally giving a lot of insulation, mainly just trying to keep us clean if the dogs jump all over us.
We also put on their boots which means now we don’t have on our walking crampons and suddenly it is much more slippery again. We also take their mittens because mittens are better at keeping your hands warm than gloves. We each take a hi vis jacket which really showed up bright in the flash photos and a pair of goggles and a head torch. We’re ready!
We creep outside and over to the van again. We have to go up on the hillside where there is snow rather than going up the valley
. So we will have a bit of an abbreviated run with the dogs but it will be almost as long as if we did the valley. We are going up in the van with Ben and Camile is coming up in a SUV with the dogs.
We get to the top of the hill and climb out and gingerly walk around to the front of the van where there are about 10 sleds sitting there. There is more snow here than ice so it is good that we can walk in these boots again without our crampons. Camile pulls in behind us. Since the sun has not "risen" it is twilight-like in visibility so they leave on the car lights to explain to us what is going to happen.
Ben shows us how to drive the sleds. Basically, the dogs are just going to run and they will run after Ben who will be in the lead sled. If you think you are sliding, you stand on one runner to the opposite side of the slide and the sled will come back around. The runners are covered in rubber so you can’t slip off of them. The brake is in the middle between the sleds and when you want to slow down or stop, you put one foot on the brake and push down. The dogs know the signals and can feel the brake. When you do stop, you take this small pronged anchor off the side of the sled and throw it backwards into the snow and then step on it to ground it into the snow
. He said there is a lot of ice underneath the snow so you will have to step on it hard. Of course you are supposed to be doing this while you are standing on the brake too.
He asks if we all want to drive and we say yes, we all want to take a turn at driving. Then he explains that they will get the dogs out, who have been “dressed” while we were getting on our suits. We realized that means the dogs have had a harness put on them to attach to the lines of the sled. That’s dressing the dogs.
They get three sleds in line and pull out the dog lines so that they are ready for the dogs. We are to stand at the lead line and be ready to hold the dogs as they are attached. The dogs do a lot of fighting and growling at each other plus if there are any females that might be close to going into heat or in heat, the males will struggle to get at them so the lead dogs must be standing and looking forward while the other two sets of dogs are attached.
My hubby gets the first set of dogs. Ben brings them over two at a time and he kind of stands up with them and walks them over, one in each hand. He’s standing upright so the dogs are walking over on their hind legs
. I can see that it would be too hard to bring over a whole lot of dogs if you were letting them walk on all fours and you bending over all the time.
He gets them into their harness and attached to the sled and hubby holds them while he goes back for the next pair. There are six on a sled. Most people use 6 on a sled but you can use up to 16 and some of the locals who have dogs for themselves use 16. One man, they told us, has 16 dogs and he will use the dogs to drag his small car to wherever he wants to go. The dogs are strong enough and happy enough to do it. They just want to run!
Camile is attaching the dogs to D&M’s sled and they are both holding the lead dogs. Ben is done so he starts bringing dogs to my sled. The dogs are all over the place trying to get to each other and sniff and snarl and just so excited and having a wonderful time. They know they are going to run soon. They work the dogs for one week and have one week off for the dogs too. This is the last day for this set of dogs before they go to the upper dog yard and have a week rest. They are still excited and ready to run.
Finally all the dogs are attached
. Also the sleds have been tied to the car so that if we novices holding the lead dogs accidentally let go, the dogs wouldn’t take off and leave us all behind while running off with the sled. Ben is going to lead in his sled with my husband seated in the sled. D&M are next and then Camile with me seated in the sled. There is one spot on the run where we will be climbing a hill and they have said that we will get out and walk up the hill because it’s too hard for the dogs to climb the hill with a full sled. That’s fine. We can walk up holding onto the sled and I imagine that it will be easier doing that than walking without.
Suddenly, Ben and my husband’s sled takes off and it’s not long before they are out of sight. Camile helps D&M take off as well and I’m not even sitting on the sled yet. So I get on the sled and I think he has a problem getting the sled unattached from the car plus he has to turn off the car lights so we are last out of the gate and seemingly a long time before we take off and then we are flying over the snow. The dogs are quite anxious to run. This is what they live for!
One of our dogs has to poop so when that happens, the whole sled slows down. This particular dog wanted to rub his butt on the snow, maybe he has hemorrhoids
. Then we are off at speed again and before too long, we can see the other two sleds as a tiny line on the snow. They are waiting for us to catch up and then they take off again. We are going in a big circle.
It isn’t too long before we get to the base of the hill. Camile holds back and waits for the other teams to get up the hill. I can see that my husband is off of his sled and he is holding onto the sled but the dogs are running and he isn’t keeping up so he is then walking up behind. I am trying to take photos and it needs the flash. The hi vis jackets are like a bright flash in the photos but at least I can tell which one is husband. The next sled goes up without stopping and D never gets off the sled.
We start up the hill and stop every few meters and I ask if I should get off now, every time we stop, and Camile always says , No, it’s ok. The dogs are looking back at me as if to ask, why aren’t you getting off the sled lady??? I end up riding up the hill and hubby was the only one who had to get off. Poor hubby.
Camile has to go and straighten out the dog sled lines a couple of times. Once at the beginning because the dog was running with the lines between her legs. The next time was on the hill and he put out the anchor and also took my photo on the sled and then straightened out the dogs and as he finished fixing their lines, they started running again even with the anchor out. Luckily it was still uphill and he had plenty of time to stop them and pull up the anchor and get ready to run again.
We run across the base of another hill and then get to the road
. The lead dogs on Ben and my husband’s sled want to run down the road and Ben has to yell at them a lot to get them to just cross the road. The road is ice so not good for running. Too fast and too much chance of the passenger being dumped. That puts us right next to the huge satellites that are on the hill. There are two massive ones. We run past them and then we are back at the car.
Hubby and I never got a chance to drive but I think it’s ok because I’m sure the dogs would have recognized a novice behind the sled and who knows what they might have done. I enjoyed riding and I could try and take as many photos as I could that way. It was fun. I could certainly do a much longer trip but oddly, with their boots, my feet were quite chilly by now.
Then D breaks the news that M has proposed to her on the run at one of the stops! How exciting. He even carried the ring in his pocket so he would have it to give to her when he popped the question. I asked if she said yes! She did! She was so excited and they were both so happy. Wowzers. I’ve been lucky to be at too engagement acceptances in weird places. In Turkmenistan, one couple got engaged at the gas crater and now here. He wanted to wait for the Northern Lights but wasn’t sure they’d see any so he did it on the slopes
.
I wondered how they had gotten the dogs up there as I was pretty sure they wouldn’t all fit into the back of the SUV plus I hadn’t seen them jumping about in there. So once my dogs were all off the line and put away, I walked behind the cars and there was a low long trailer there that held the dogs. Two in a cage so they can cuddle and keep warm. This is how they move the dogs at the end of their week too. When they are going the short distance between bottom of the hill to top, they might put 3 or 4 dogs in a cage since it is so short.
Questions I asked on the run: The dogs eat about 2 kg of food a day, mostly dry, but when the season is in full swing in the winter, they also add whale meat to the mix to give them the fat that they need since they are burning through calories quite fast. They go down to the harbor to pick up the whale meat and it comes in frozen 40kg blocks.
The dogs learn by being in the traces with a seasoned dog and also are slowly brought to the front to be lead dog and see if they are good enough to further the training as lead dog. They are as young as 1 ½ years old and Camile said he has seen dogs as old as 14 run in the sled lines. They are mostly Alaskan Huskies but they try and mix them with Greenland dogs. The Greenland dogs have a thicker fur and also thicker pads on their feet so they never need socks. The Alaskan Huskies just want to run.
Green Dog has about 170 dogs and they switch them so they run a week and are off a week. They are actually never quite sure how many they have as people give them dogs because the island’s wolves are rabies vectors meaning they can carry the disease but not show it. So if someone has a dog here and wants to go back to the mainland, it is quite expensive to board it over there for the required 3 months to make sure it is rabies free so people give up their dogs when they move to the mainland.
There are about 3 main companies that do the dog sledding. One wasn’t doing anything right now because they didn’t think it was worth it to park their sleds at the top of the hill and hope they get people. And the rest of the dogs around were private dogs like the man who had 16 and pulled his car. Seems like most of the dogs live out of town.
At the “edge” of what is considered the safe area, is a polar bear sign. You are not supposed to go past this sign without a guard or a gun. When polar bears wander into town, they are tranquilized and flown in a net by helicopter way far north where there aren’t any settlements. All the bears are tagged. If the same bear comes back, a notice is sent out that it is ok to hunt this bear and all the hunters go out and find it and kill it which is then worth about $25K to the hunter for the meat and the skin and such. If you get the wrong bear or hunt out of season then it costs the hunter about $25K. There are 3000 bears here. They tried to do a survey of all the polar bears in the Arctic circle but Russia wouldn’t count and said nobody can go to their islands to count. The 3000 bears include all the islands up north of which there are more than 30 or 40, not all big enough for much other than bears and seals and walruses.
Back into the vans and we drive up to the top dog runs so they can change out dogs and have a hot beverage. Ben called ahead and got a bottle of champagne for D&M to celebrate their engagement. It was quite slippery and we are still in the boots without crampons. We meet Dakota who has a litter and climb into her pen and grab a puppy each. Dakota gets tired and jumps out of the pen but they put all the puppies out of the pen too and they go have some breakfast. Dakota looks disgusted and tired.
We go down to see more puppies and there is one puppy that is two weeks old and a single. He is fat and happy. His mom had more puppies and something was wrong with them so they were all destroyed. He was a late birth from the litter and he was OK and they didn’t want to put him down so he gets the milk from the whole litter so he’s a fat boy.
We go into a trapper’s cabin that has some skins including a musk ox horn and some other bones and a trumpet (the owner bid for it on eBay or something just because he wanted a trumpet and hopes that some guest will eventually come and play it). We all get some champagne and a biscuit and wait for Camile who is doing his laundry. They work for 7 or 8 days then get 3 days off and don’t want to spend their off time doing laundry.
Ben is from Reading, England and has been here just a few months. He tells us that once you have been here 7 years, you can apply to be a citizen and then you get a share of the oil profits that come into the country from the north sea and such. Camile, from Poland, has been here 6 years. That is one reason it is so expensive here that the citizens all get money from the oil plus when Europe was putting the minimum wage down to about $5 an hour, Norway raised it to $19 an hour so everyone gets pretty good wages.
Time to go. Camile takes us back down the hill to change out of our suits and put our own boots back on so we can walk again on the ice. D and I try to exchange Facebook but it won’t find her or M so he gives me his business card so I can try to send him photos. Maybe he’ll be able to find me then.
Back to the base camp and we ate French fries and pizza for lunch and a burger. At Kroa restaurant attached to the hotel. We had a piece of pizza and fries left and we took them back to our room and ate the fries later but never really had dinner.
Sat upstairs in the room with the glass ceiling for the afternoon but couldn’t really tell if anything was happening outside and it wasn’t that comfortable sitting and trying to label photos. So finally back to our room and asked if there was any way to tell if there would be Northern lights. She said let’s look and went outside and there they are!
I ran and got my husband and the tripod and camera and we stood outside the front door and tried to take photos. We had a lot of trouble with the tripod collapsing and such and never did get any good photos but we’ll keep them for ourselves. I could see a bit of pink in a few of the lights and some of them had green and white so it was a good show and lasted a good long time and still no good shots. Crap. Hopefully we will get to try again.
We did walk down to the mall and walk around there. They have a few places to eat there that would be much cheaper than the restaurants so we’ll try that next. Didn’t buy anything but hopefully will find some nice souvenirs later.
I’m sleeping in the top bunk again tonight. It’s not as hot tonight as we turned down the heat. We both slept ok.
Showing posts with label Basecamp Explorer. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Basecamp Explorer. Show all posts
Tuesday, November 10, 2015
Sunday, November 8, 2015
NORTH past the Arctic Circle
LONGYEARBYEN, SPITSBERGEN, SVALBARD
SUNDAY NOV 8 – MONDAY NOV 16, 2015
TRAVEL DAY SUNDAY NOV 8 - LONDON TO OSLO
First day and we have managed to get up to three suitcases because we just aren't sure how cold it is going to be and I don’t want to have to buy more stuff there since Norway is rather expensive so Svalbard is bound to be even more expensive. Problem is, then we layer up everything we need to layer, we can hardly move. Hmmm. Maybe should have gotten much larger sizes for the final outer layer. At least we both have some good snow boots to wear!
Norwegian air now uses an automated check in that not only prints your boarding passes but also prints your luggage tags and you must put them on your luggage and then take it to a conveyer and scan it and put it on the belt yourself. There were people there to help but not too many. Was a bit odd at Gatwick but we were old hands doing it in Oslo.
Today we are just going to Oslo and spending the night in the airport hotel. There wasn’t a way to make the connection in time unless we wanted to fly very early in the morning to Oslo and didn’t feel like that. So when we land in Norway, we get our bags and head for the hotel. It’s across the street from the terminal and looks vaguely like there isn’t a way to get there. We were standing and wondering about it when two couples came striding by us and walked around a corner and towards the hotel so we decided to follow and the route opened up clearly. Just wandering through the construction to get there.
Asked if we wanted a high room or low room. Asked for a quiet room. That gave us a room on the 6th floor facing the airport. Luckily, they don’t seem to fly at night so it was quiet but it was also rather warm under the duvet covers with no sheet so we had to leave the window open all night.
Decided that we could probably eat cheaper at the airport so we walked back over there to get a pizza for dinner. Somehow we ended up paying almost $30 anyway for two slices of pizza and two drinks. Geez. Not a cheap place anywhere.
DAY 2 – TO THE NORTHWEST! Monday Nov 9 OSLO TO LONGYEARBYEN.
Went over to the airport around 8. I had gotten us a fast pass so it didn’t take too long to go through the security except when my husband forgot to take out his tablet so his bag had to be redone. We looked at the domestic departures and saw that a flight to Longyearbyen was leaving at 9:55 a.m. hmm. We thought our flight was 9:50 but hey, not so bad that it’s 5 minutes late. So we strolled down to the gate and it was full of people waiting to go to Stavanger so we sat at the next gate.
The Stavanger flight finally left and so after a few minutes, we walked back to the gate and it was a different flight. Said ours was now leaving at gate 14 which of course was much further down the concourse. Also noticed that it said SAS, NOT Norwegian, so we stopped and asked the information lady who informed us that our flight was considered an International flight because it was out of the Schengen area so we had to go through passport control and our gate was really gate 51 – at the other end of the airport.
It’s 9:15 and our flight is due to leave at 9:50 so we hot foot it through the concourse and to the other side, the international side until we get to the last few gates where you have to go through passport control. The immigration officer commented that we had only spent one night in Norway. But then he saw that we’ve been here before so he wasn’t too miffed that we were leaving so soon.
On the other side, the gates were in our favor, meaning the higher numbers were closer to the main part of the terminal but on the international side, the higher numbered gates were further away – of course – so through passport control and we still have a number of gates to trot pass before we reach ours at the very end. Even though we had been huffing and puffing to get there, we still made it with time to spare as no one was at the desk. That lasted about long enough for me to catch my breath and then the gate was opened and we all entered.
The flight from Gatwick to Oslo was totally full. This flight wasn’t. Apparently most of the tourists come in summer or in mid-winter so once again, we are out of season. We were in the exit row but before we left, people moved around so we all had an open seat next to us.
It is a 2 hour and 45 minutes flight from Oslo to Longyearbyen. It’s way the heck out there in the ocean. So by the time we were getting ready to land, the sun had already been up and was gone again. Very eerie coming into land and all we could see were huge hills out the windows and then some lights on the ground that coalesced into small homes.
The airport does not have gates so you walk down the stairs and across the tarmac and into the terminal and it was slippery. It had snowed week before and then had rained and gotten cold again so it is slippery everywhere as there is a covering of ice over all the driveways and sidewalks. We didn’t go through passport control here though but just got our bags and then went out and got onto the shuttle bus that will drop us at our hotel.
The bus stopped a couple of times before getting to Basecamp hotel. Getting our bags out from underneath the bus and walking into the hotel was tricky because it was so slippery. There were several almost fall downs but we made it. Our room wasn’t quite ready so we were offered a hot drink and to sit and relax. They had a print out of activities that were available, not just through them but with every other company that does things. That makes it easy to choose. There are several things on there that look good.
Unfortunately, my husband is weirded out for some reason. Maybe he’s tired, but the dark at 1 p.m. is bugging him so he’s not sure what he wants to do or if he wants to do. Not sure what I can do to help. We didn’t sleep good last night because of being too hot then cold then hot so maybe he’s just tired.
We get our room finally and it’s the one right off the lobby so that’s handy. She had showed us around while we were waiting. They have a lot of items for sale, many of Masai origin because of their basecamp hotel in Kenya. There is a room at the top of the stairs with a glass ceiling but so far it’s been tough to see anything out the windows. There is also a restaurant attached to the hotel but not a part of the hotel. We are welcome to eat there.
We decide to unpack and then go to the grocery or out to lunch and see what we can find. As we walk out, we decide the first thing we need are the crampons that fit on your shoes. It is so slippery that we are not going to be able to walk around without them.
The first store is just clothing and gifts and two huge bear rugs and a musk ox rug and a buffalo head. The next store has outdoor clothing and such and she shows us a rubber thing to put over our shoes and puts them on my shoes for me. Not cheap but immediately the effect is so much more secure.
We walk to the grocery, better on our footing, and get a few things to go back and have a snack at the hotel. We get Thai spring rolls which, in the end, I didn’t like. But we had buns and cheese too – always a winner.
We decide to do dog sledding tomorrow and sign up for that then sit and read for a while until it is time for dinner and we go to the restaurant attached to the Basecamp Hotel for dinner. It is doing a pretty good dinner trade of mostly locals I think. We get a seat and while they have smoked Minke Whale on the menu, I am not near adventurous enough. What we did get had fairly large portions so I couldn’t eat all of it.
Then back to the room to read and just as we go to bed, a dog starts howling outside our window. At first it sounded far away and like a wolf but then hubby looked out the window and saw that it was a dog. He finally went to the desk and she knew immediately why he had come out of the room and said it would probably stop as they go into the pub and leave the dog outside. She was right, shortly after, the dog stopped and we were able to sleep but we were also too hot and too cold alternately. Need to find a way to keep the window open because they have floor heating so everything is too hot inside.
We were told on the map there is a pink area. And that area is safe to walk. At the edge of the pink area are signs that say polar bears with some Norwegian written underneath. Probably saying don’t go beyond this because of the risk of polar bears. If you are going outside this area, you must take a gun or a guide and also tell someone. If a bear comes within the pink area, they are hauled away by a net under a helicopter. If they come back they are shot. All good to know. Really want to see a polar bear in the wild but in the circumstances so neither of us are in danger.
SUNDAY NOV 8 – MONDAY NOV 16, 2015
TRAVEL DAY SUNDAY NOV 8 - LONDON TO OSLO
First day and we have managed to get up to three suitcases because we just aren't sure how cold it is going to be and I don’t want to have to buy more stuff there since Norway is rather expensive so Svalbard is bound to be even more expensive. Problem is, then we layer up everything we need to layer, we can hardly move. Hmmm. Maybe should have gotten much larger sizes for the final outer layer. At least we both have some good snow boots to wear!
Norwegian air now uses an automated check in that not only prints your boarding passes but also prints your luggage tags and you must put them on your luggage and then take it to a conveyer and scan it and put it on the belt yourself. There were people there to help but not too many. Was a bit odd at Gatwick but we were old hands doing it in Oslo.
Today we are just going to Oslo and spending the night in the airport hotel. There wasn’t a way to make the connection in time unless we wanted to fly very early in the morning to Oslo and didn’t feel like that. So when we land in Norway, we get our bags and head for the hotel. It’s across the street from the terminal and looks vaguely like there isn’t a way to get there. We were standing and wondering about it when two couples came striding by us and walked around a corner and towards the hotel so we decided to follow and the route opened up clearly. Just wandering through the construction to get there.
Asked if we wanted a high room or low room. Asked for a quiet room. That gave us a room on the 6th floor facing the airport. Luckily, they don’t seem to fly at night so it was quiet but it was also rather warm under the duvet covers with no sheet so we had to leave the window open all night.
Decided that we could probably eat cheaper at the airport so we walked back over there to get a pizza for dinner. Somehow we ended up paying almost $30 anyway for two slices of pizza and two drinks. Geez. Not a cheap place anywhere.
DAY 2 – TO THE NORTHWEST! Monday Nov 9 OSLO TO LONGYEARBYEN.
Went over to the airport around 8. I had gotten us a fast pass so it didn’t take too long to go through the security except when my husband forgot to take out his tablet so his bag had to be redone. We looked at the domestic departures and saw that a flight to Longyearbyen was leaving at 9:55 a.m. hmm. We thought our flight was 9:50 but hey, not so bad that it’s 5 minutes late. So we strolled down to the gate and it was full of people waiting to go to Stavanger so we sat at the next gate.
The Stavanger flight finally left and so after a few minutes, we walked back to the gate and it was a different flight. Said ours was now leaving at gate 14 which of course was much further down the concourse. Also noticed that it said SAS, NOT Norwegian, so we stopped and asked the information lady who informed us that our flight was considered an International flight because it was out of the Schengen area so we had to go through passport control and our gate was really gate 51 – at the other end of the airport.
It’s 9:15 and our flight is due to leave at 9:50 so we hot foot it through the concourse and to the other side, the international side until we get to the last few gates where you have to go through passport control. The immigration officer commented that we had only spent one night in Norway. But then he saw that we’ve been here before so he wasn’t too miffed that we were leaving so soon.
On the other side, the gates were in our favor, meaning the higher numbers were closer to the main part of the terminal but on the international side, the higher numbered gates were further away – of course – so through passport control and we still have a number of gates to trot pass before we reach ours at the very end. Even though we had been huffing and puffing to get there, we still made it with time to spare as no one was at the desk. That lasted about long enough for me to catch my breath and then the gate was opened and we all entered.
The flight from Gatwick to Oslo was totally full. This flight wasn’t. Apparently most of the tourists come in summer or in mid-winter so once again, we are out of season. We were in the exit row but before we left, people moved around so we all had an open seat next to us.
It is a 2 hour and 45 minutes flight from Oslo to Longyearbyen. It’s way the heck out there in the ocean. So by the time we were getting ready to land, the sun had already been up and was gone again. Very eerie coming into land and all we could see were huge hills out the windows and then some lights on the ground that coalesced into small homes.
The airport does not have gates so you walk down the stairs and across the tarmac and into the terminal and it was slippery. It had snowed week before and then had rained and gotten cold again so it is slippery everywhere as there is a covering of ice over all the driveways and sidewalks. We didn’t go through passport control here though but just got our bags and then went out and got onto the shuttle bus that will drop us at our hotel.
The bus stopped a couple of times before getting to Basecamp hotel. Getting our bags out from underneath the bus and walking into the hotel was tricky because it was so slippery. There were several almost fall downs but we made it. Our room wasn’t quite ready so we were offered a hot drink and to sit and relax. They had a print out of activities that were available, not just through them but with every other company that does things. That makes it easy to choose. There are several things on there that look good.
Unfortunately, my husband is weirded out for some reason. Maybe he’s tired, but the dark at 1 p.m. is bugging him so he’s not sure what he wants to do or if he wants to do. Not sure what I can do to help. We didn’t sleep good last night because of being too hot then cold then hot so maybe he’s just tired.
We get our room finally and it’s the one right off the lobby so that’s handy. She had showed us around while we were waiting. They have a lot of items for sale, many of Masai origin because of their basecamp hotel in Kenya. There is a room at the top of the stairs with a glass ceiling but so far it’s been tough to see anything out the windows. There is also a restaurant attached to the hotel but not a part of the hotel. We are welcome to eat there.
We decide to unpack and then go to the grocery or out to lunch and see what we can find. As we walk out, we decide the first thing we need are the crampons that fit on your shoes. It is so slippery that we are not going to be able to walk around without them.
The first store is just clothing and gifts and two huge bear rugs and a musk ox rug and a buffalo head. The next store has outdoor clothing and such and she shows us a rubber thing to put over our shoes and puts them on my shoes for me. Not cheap but immediately the effect is so much more secure.
We walk to the grocery, better on our footing, and get a few things to go back and have a snack at the hotel. We get Thai spring rolls which, in the end, I didn’t like. But we had buns and cheese too – always a winner.
We decide to do dog sledding tomorrow and sign up for that then sit and read for a while until it is time for dinner and we go to the restaurant attached to the Basecamp Hotel for dinner. It is doing a pretty good dinner trade of mostly locals I think. We get a seat and while they have smoked Minke Whale on the menu, I am not near adventurous enough. What we did get had fairly large portions so I couldn’t eat all of it.
Then back to the room to read and just as we go to bed, a dog starts howling outside our window. At first it sounded far away and like a wolf but then hubby looked out the window and saw that it was a dog. He finally went to the desk and she knew immediately why he had come out of the room and said it would probably stop as they go into the pub and leave the dog outside. She was right, shortly after, the dog stopped and we were able to sleep but we were also too hot and too cold alternately. Need to find a way to keep the window open because they have floor heating so everything is too hot inside.
We were told on the map there is a pink area. And that area is safe to walk. At the edge of the pink area are signs that say polar bears with some Norwegian written underneath. Probably saying don’t go beyond this because of the risk of polar bears. If you are going outside this area, you must take a gun or a guide and also tell someone. If a bear comes within the pink area, they are hauled away by a net under a helicopter. If they come back they are shot. All good to know. Really want to see a polar bear in the wild but in the circumstances so neither of us are in danger.
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