Longyearbyen

Luggage finally arrived at 5 p.m. and immediately  we started frantically cutting our bars, cheese, chocolate and putting it into our 75 bags for our lunches on the ice.

What a job, the three of us in a tiny kitchen of Mary-Ann Pollariggen but now it is done and stored in our sleds.

We still have lots to do: putting our skins on and screw them in so they don’t come off, going through our repair kit, and testing and retesting our communication.

I am sure we can use a few more days here just to sort it all out.

That is the problem coming from different countries and checking each other’s kit to make sure it is not redundant or forget any important item, like the cable for the satellite phone.

Tourists are starting to trickle into Longyearbyen for snowmobiling and dogsledding and seal watching.

They are dressed like they go on a polar expedition with their heavy boots and jackets.

At night they wonder off with cameras to photograph the spectacular polar light and twilight darkness we still get here at 78°, ever so hoping to get a glimpse in their lens of the Northern Lights.

I would be out there too if I had the time because on the North Pole we won’t see any darkness for 25 days.

But I am doing admin and emails instead enjoying the warm atmosphere of the living room of our guesthouse .