Rune of the Day: Sowelu, the Sun

 

I’m travelling north, almost as far north as it is possible to go. My destination is

Longyearbyen in the Svalbard archipelago, at 78˚ 12’ it’s the world’s most northern

permanent settlement. I go by train to Paris, then a plane to Oslo, another to Tromso

and yet another until finally I land in Longyearbyen. I’ve come to interview Dr. Malcolm Wilson, one of the world’s leading experts on the technology known as Carbon Capture and Storage. The car I’ve hired turns out to be a beaten up Ford Transit, the only vehicle available. It wouldn’t attract a second glance in a breaker’s yard. “It was the winter”, the hire company rep. tells me, shrugging. Fortunately, the winter is a memory, now it’s the time of the midnight sun. First impressions are of hundreds of snowmobiles, parked up awaiting the first snowfall and houses scattered along the shore of the fjord, as if a giant hand had playfully strewn wooden blocks . Because of the permafrost, all of the houses are made of wood and stand on stilts, none more than 2 storeys tall. But, hallelujah, there is a Radisson hotel. Who’d have thought? My shoes off – everyone pads around indoors in stockinged feet – I’m in the bar where at 1 am the barman is pouring shots of aquavit with one sweeping movement that fills ten glasses at a time. There’s a party atmosphere and everyone is very friendly. All of them are either scientists or researchers. The few tourists are tucked up in bed.  I was told that the week before they’d had a heat wave, a high of 10 degrees C, but now it’s 4 degrees. Amazingly, it still feels warm in the sun which shines perpetually for four months in the summer. At 3 am I go to bed, the sun blazing through my bedroom window. The camera crew arrives the following night and I drive out to pick them up in my hired wreck. We have an amazing view of the almost-sunset from the airport car park, the sun grazing the horizon before skipping into the sky again. It gives me an idea for the start of the programme. Shorn of its winter overcoat the town is sketched in shades of black and brown. Mountains, also black, loom on the horizon, but far in the distance across the fjord there are glaciers glinting. The sense of isolation is overwhelming. It’s a frontier town and

there are dangers out there. We are advised to carry a rifle if we venture beyond the town limits because of polar bears. But during our 2-day stay we do not see one, only polar bear

silhouettes on the roadside signs. You get to travel to exotic places when you work in television, and Longyearbyen is, for me, the strangest. After two days filming we catch the daily plane to Oslo. As the plane gains height it circles over the interior wilderness that

we didn’t visit. If I come again, I may go there.