Reindeer hunting...

Friday afternoon after work I went with Hilde, Steinar, their son Frode and their grand-child william (3 yr 4 m) hunting for reindeer in Hollenderdalen. This place is between Longyearbyen and the Russian settlement of Barentsburg. We sailed over there in a 36 feet motor-boat belonging to Hilde and Steinar. During the trip the weather got better and better, so when we fianlly landed on the beach with the small dingy there was no wind and warm sunny weather. We walked around for approximately 4 hours and the little William as well. No wonder he was tired the next day ;0). This first evening we didn´t shoot any animals as we didn´t see many and they were to far away...
The waves had picked up a bit so we decided to cross the Isfjorden and sleep in the bay Trygghamn. It´s a very beautiful place, but the sleep was short lived as we headed back next day for some more hunting. The weather was still warm and sunny and we only walked 500 metres before two reindeer suddenly appeared. Hilde and Steinar shot them and then I waited a bit before I spotted some for me...
I tried to sneak up on some reindeer but they must have been scared so they ran away. During my attempt to cut them off in a river valley i found to other reindeer. They must have been as surprised as I was. I threw myself on the ground and got the rifle ready, fired a shot and the bullet hit where it was supposed to.
The next hours went by by opening the animal and removing the intestants and cutting the meat in appropriate pieces for the walk back to the boat. Luckily Hilde came back to help me carrying some of it :D
We drove the boat to Colesbay, another abandonned Russian mine where we had a great BBQ and then we went ashore and lit a fire and had a beer and some dried fish.
The weather forecast was bad so we decided to drive home and get a good nights sleep instead of a moving bed. We arrived back home at 0130.
 The week-end had been perfect and I can now fill the freezer with some delicious meat :D


The week-end had been perfect and I can now fill the freezer with some delicious meat :D