November 29th, 2006
Sometimes it gets quite stuffy in college, in mind and atmosphere. Moving between one lesson and the next, I usually take the outside route as the winter’s air is so refreshing.
A couple of weeks ago I remember being particularly predisposed to the recollection of a passage from Pole to Pole: Michael Palin’s book about his journey—funnily enough–from the North to South pole:
Day 6: Kap Wik to Longyearbyen
It’s 2.45 in the morning when we arrive at Harald Solheim’s hut. A tall wooden frame hung with seal carcasses stands on a slight rise, more prominent than the cabin itself, which is set lower down, out of the wind. The first surprise is Harald himself. Instead of some grizzly bearded old-timer, a tall, pale, studious figure comes out to welcome us…
…His wood supply, neatly stacked in a workshop, is driftwood, probably from the Russian coast. His electricity supply is wind-generated…
…This autumn, he tells me, he will be celebrating fifteen years at Kap Wik. He has family in Norway, but they don’t visit much. His closest neighbours are the Russians at the mining town of Pyramiden, eighteen miles away. He reads a lot, ‘almost everything except religious literature’, and hunts seal, reindeer, Arctic fox (a pelt will fetch around £80) and snowgeese…
I can’t say this is how I want to live my life, but I can empathise to a certain degree. On a ridiculously microcosmic level it is similar to my pleasure in breathing in some sharp cool air to offer a brief respite.
Harald, smiling, waves us away. I don’t really understand why a man of such curiosity, fluency and culture should want to chase animals round Spitsbergen, but I feel he rather enjoys being an enigma, and though he is no hermit he is one of a rare breed of truly independent men.
December 1st, 2006 at 1:07 pm
Those people who travel those extremes are crazy, awesome, interesting, and mentally messed up. I wanna be one of ‘em… but I’ll stay in warmer climates ^_~