Through the Dark North

The bus thunders past snowy landscape: low birches, candle like spruces, endless marches, small wooden huts and occasional fields. We have left gray town of Muonio behind some time ago. Soon the houses will disappear. There is very little human housing in “The Arm” which makes North Western end of Finland. It's hardly past two o'clock, but I can already feel the night that is falling. The light sneaks away slowly. Almost too slowly to notice. The bus stops at a post box. The driver throws a newspaper into the big mouthed post box. I feel the urge to yawn. Normally so inviting wild-mark feels depressing. Cold and lonely. I am sitting alone in the Kilpisjärvi post bus heading towards Tromsø and my new job – alone in the whole big modern bus apart from the bus driver. This state has continued over 200 kilometers for now. At the best there were two other people in the bus. Why on the Earth they are operating this route with a full-sized bus every day?

Autumn drifted past like a mist. I just couldn't grab it. Harder I tried, more I failed. Everything felt unreal – like a dream. Things didn't go as I planned. I had thought to go for a trip somewhere south, but I got stuck. It's a story it's own. My life has been so organized before. I have always had a plan for next few months. There has always been a goal to pursue. This time there were none. It drained my motivation and ate my dedication. I had little time to write. Even less motivation.

Haven't written here since October, I see. Haven't taken a single photo since I left Svalbard. What can I say? Sometimes one needs to stop running and look at the world around, I guess. But I am not sure, if I would like to do it again. I didn't see much and learned even less. Or maybe I just didn't like what I saw. I was made for running.

Now times have changed. Now I have a goal, again. I have got a job. A project, I shouldn't fail. It's a time to wake up the dedication. It's a time to continue writing. More about the project and future plans later on.

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Photo of the Day - Crystal Clear Autumn

Early September on Svalbard. There was still autumn in the valleys, but mountain tops were filled with a fresh snow and crystal-like ice.

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Svalbard landscapes

Before forgetting Svalbard for this season, it's good to go back for a short while and look at some landscape shots around the archipelago. Svalbard - views and atmosphere:

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Zooplankton

Decapod zoea (larvae) from a little auk diet sample

Everything ends - also field seasons. Autumns are for plankton in Tromsø. Hundreds of samples wait for people, who have the knowledge and nerves to look at them. Since I happen to be one of the few, getting a job for autumn seems to be an easy task. The lab at NPI is as labbish as ever before. White walls, stereoscope, formalin smell, zooplankton, zooplankton and zooplankton...However, they'll pay for it. I won't complain this time...Photo above represents one of the funkiest. A decapod, probably Pagurus pubescens (i.e. hermit grab), larvae.

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About Paid Holidays

M/S Expedition in Colesdalen

SVALEX (SVALbard EXpedition) is a Statoil funded course aimed for university students that want to work in oil industry. It consists of a theoretical part and a week-long cruise to places on Spitsbergen, which have similar geology than the reservoirs in the Barents and North Sea. A welcome break for modelling structures one cannot see. Finally they see what they’re modelling, they say.

The cruise is an expedition in oil people way. 120 people from cities around the world, with various - generally very low - amount of outdoor experience, are stuffed in a cruise ship with four star uphold. Landings and the safety during the few hours spent on the land are strictly controlled by the UNIS Logistics Personel. Rest of the time is spent in the warm safety of the ship studying papers in order to find the best way to stick a drill into a correct place to make lots of money.

Sunset in Colesdalen

The cruise is kind of a legend among UNIS students. This is not, because UNIS students would join for the course, but because of something more intresting. Safety during SVALEX is normally handled by the leader of the Logistics Department at UNIS. Rest of the safety staff, called ”Polar Bear Guards”, are hired amongst the most experinced UNIS students. This year I got the honor and was chosen as one of the Polar Bear Guards for the SVALEX Safety Team.

A waterfall close to Kapp Schulz

Walking short distances over the most trivial terrains on Svalbard and looking after a flock of people, who are typically behaving like a herd of sheep, can be suprising. But sleeping under white every day changed linens, eating two to three meals in a restaurant daily and being out less than eight hours a day cannot really be seen as a work. It must be holiday.

M/S Expedition in Tempelfjorden

This year SVALEX was done with Spitsbergen Travel’s biggest cruiser M/S Expedition. Philippino crew made sure that the conditions on board met the oil people standards. We had an amazing weather for three first days. Places such as Van Keulenfjorden, Axeløya and Festningen are always impressive, but in a perfect weather they look like an Arctic paradise. Particularly the sunsets were magnificent. Weather was so warm, that a jacket was not needed most of the time, although most of the students did not agree. Many thought that it was very cold and did want to stay on board whenever possible. Major safety hazards were experienced when rubber boats came to pick up students back to the ship. Everyone wanted to be the first one on board. People were pushing each other and fighting for a place in the boat in such a way that some of the students were almost pushed into the water. The biggest drill took place when they found a stone, which was smelling like hydrocarbons...A connection to making money, I assume. We are different.

Sunset in Isfjorden

However, the trip was a funny experience. I learned something about Svalbard geology, which apparently is quite interesting, when correct people are telling about it, There were cool people amongst the 120. Most of the teachers, other polar bear guards and some geologists became friends. Phillipino band was rocking the last night on board. Walks were very trivial, except for one walk over a mountain in Billefjorden, but bullshitting over the VHF radios, in the field and on board made the trip. Thanks for the nice time, guys!

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Holiday Assistant

Photo: Peter Leopold

UNIS (University Centre on Svalbard) is, of course like almost everything up here, one of the worlds northernmost places to get university level education. It’s not just an university. It is an institution, which tends to change lives. It gives people everything they need: cool (also literally) things to do, good friends, home and an understanding of the beauty which lies under the barren landscape of Arctic. The institution and the people there has given me so much, that I have already forgotten more than a lot they have given to me. However, I am grateful.

Photo: Peter Leopold

Good thing about UNIS is that it doesn’t stop. People tend to come back. After you have got your education, they need you to do jobs, which are not exactly tricky, but need some knowledge about the area and about the rules when working in the Arctic. One this kind of jobs is the holiday assistant job at UNIS Logistics Department. Days are mostly spent on the field driving with a PolarCirkel (the manufacturer, photo above) speedboat people and equipment to various destinations around Isfjorden. If there is the job that is supposed to be the funniest in the world, it must be this one. Sun-glasses, motorboat with a big engine, rough seas and pretty girls looking like seals in their orange survival suits. Just like the scientists in the Hollywood movies. Bitty that it lasts only few weeks a year.

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Let ’em fly

Young Arctic tern trying its wings on Axeløya, Bellsund

The Arctic summer is a short event. From a bird-point-of-view this means that eggs are laid early June and chicks hatch in the both sides of the beginning of July. In the beginning of August most chicks have already fledged. New life develops from an egg into a self-sustaining creature during the three months of the summer on Svalbard. Those who did not manage to keep in the pace, died or will die as the autumn turns to winter. The speed the life takes, makes the summer to feel even shorter. Soon the sun goes down again and the summer is gone.

When chicks are ready to take off, adults will follow. In alcids juveniles tend to follow their fathers off to the sea to learn important hunting skills, while kittiwake chicks find themselves alone to form groups with other youngsters. Together they have to learn the rules needed to survive in the world, which gets tougher day by day as the autumn develops.

After the seabirds have left their colonies, seabird researchers have very few reasons to stay. Field season with birds has came to the end. For those in the high buildings of the city of Tromsø this means a work load with data in order to produce publications. For me it means a new kind of field work. Driving around to study chicks becomes to drive around chicks that are studying.

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