Tomorrow we will fly out to Rijpfjorden- if the weather allows (doesn’t look too promising right now, but you never know).
The last two days we have been busy with the last preparations: buying food for 6 people for 14 days (keeping in mind the weight and space limitations of the helicopter), fixing equipment and going through safety routines.
Since we will be out there in polar bear land we have to be prepared for eventual encounters. First rule is of course: try to avoid any encounters! However, in order to be prepared for all possible scenarios we also took a training round on the rifle range yesterday and practice shooting with rifles and flare guns, which we usually bring out in the field on Svalbard. In addition we tried out the shot gun loaded with rubber ball ammunition, which may come in handy to scare bears away that decide to pay our camp a visit.
On the rifle range
Daniel and Janne in deep discussion on their aiming accuracies
The flare gun gives a loud “bang”
Learning how to load the shot gun
All in all we are prepared, everything’s packed up and we’re ready to go. Let’s hope for good flying weather tomorrow 🙂
MD