Semester 1: Croozin'!

Greetings from the Arctic! Sorry it has taken us so long to post something but it’s been a bit of a whirlwind couple of months going on field trips/cruises etc.

The cold weather and darkness is really starting to set in now and we arrived back from our cruise to find snow on the mountains. It snows most days now but doesn’t lie on the ground as yet.... and there’s even a bit of a snow storm going on now as I’m (Christine) typing (unlucky for Rosie though who’s at the gym and has to walk home in it!)

We arrived back from our Arctic Marine Geology cruise on Friday and had an awesome but tiring week, so when we got back we decided to take advantage of the homemade hot tub outside our barrack.

Students will be students etc

There’s more to come at a later date from myself and the others about the Arctic Marine Geology cruise.

However, this blog is mainly about another expedition (tough life I know).

Sarah and I are both studying on the Quaternary History of Svalbard course, and started it off with a 4 day tent/cabin camp and 3 day cruise around the north west of Spitsbergen.

Map of excursion sites

On the first day we arrived at Nordenskioldbreen glacier via Polarcirkel powerboats and got the choice to either stay in a tent or in the luxury of a cabin (I got the short straw on the first night!). As soon as we arrived we had to chop up icebergs with an axe which had washed up on the beach and carry them inland for our fresh water supply (great fun).

During the next 4 days we got the chance to go study the stratigraphy of coastal cliff sections at Kapp Ekholm, went climbing on a glacier and visit the deserted Russian coal mining settlement of Pyramiden. To get to all of these sites involved wearing very glamorous, bright orange survival suits and travelling by zodiac. I think it’s safe to say Sarah and I never want to step foot in another zodiac again, the waves were huge and each time we hit one we got flung up in the air and landed with a huge thud on top of various things such as spades/rifles (just to name a couple) and the bruises received then are only just going away! Each night also involved getting up at daft o’clock for two hours to do polar bear watch for those sleeping in the tents, - we weren’t a pretty sight the next day at breakfast. Overall though we had an amazing time…….honest!!

Here’s a few of pictures from our time camping to give you a taste of what it was like.

A lovely example of those attractive survival suits we wore & me carrying ice up the beach for fresh water.

Polar bear watch – probably about 3am!! (Looking like a marshmallow!!)

Trying to look cool in our shades….didn’t really work!!

Climbing about on the glacier. Good fun apart from the big crevasses you have to get over!!

Sarah getting ready for a big jump!!

Comrade Spaggy Lockwood in Pyramiden

We held a mini Olympic ceremony of our own at Pyramiden. Someone said it was just like the one in London.

But……it wasn’t hard work all the time, we still found some time to just sit back and relax… on an iceberg!!

(Funny lookin' seal?! -ed)

On the 5^th day at 2am we got picked up by a ship, the Stalbas. But before we left I pulled the short straw again and had to go out on one last trip in the zodiac…… to empty the toilet waste out in the fjord. Wouldn’t have been so bad if the bags (biodegradable btw) hadn’t started leaking all over the boat, not my finest moment in Svalbard I must say!

We sailed out of Isfjorden and up the west coast of Spitsbergen, and over the next 3 days we did a lot more geology ‘work’, but I'm sad to say we still had to use the zodiacs to get to the land from the Stalbas. The most exciting place we went to was Ny Alesund which is the most northern settlement in the world; we stayed there for two nights and it is a really beautiful place.

Here’s a couple of pictures from our cruise.