Things that everyone wonders about but no one talks about

Summer has come! The down jacket is replaced by a tee-shirt, snow is melting and today we even found first tracks of vegetation!
Just now, I was lying in a patch of grass in the sun just next to Austvotnhytta in Wijdefjorden, the first cabin we used on this trip.

And what a nice feeling it is to feel and smell the wind of summer, and even tough to most of you out there it would feel like a day in early spring, to me, it feels like a tropical summer!

Just next to the cabin is a tiny melted water stream, the first liquid water we meet after one and half month.
And also, the part of our life out here which is left less beautiful and also the hardest part of the day becomes much easier: yes, I’m talking about doing the “big business” to put it in nice words.

As unusual and socially unaccepted it is to talk about that in civilisation, as normal it is here.
After all it’s only a natural body function and if you are as close together as we are for 24 hours a day, you start to share the pain and the relief of the daily toilet expedition.
But as long as it’s nicely warm and sunny as now, it is actually almost better than the toilet at home : you just grab your toilet paper bags, with unused and used toilet paper (we collect the used toilet paper and burn it) and search for a quiet spot in a certain distance from the camp : this distance can vary from 50 meters down to 2 meters depending on how much privacy is necessary and on the urgency.

Well, but if the weather is less comfortable, it can be a challenge to try to dig a hole, and build a wind shelter to prevent from being covered by the snow drift, and the toilet paper bags can fly away pretty quick in strong wind.

Talking about the “big business”, I want to give an answer to a question that has been asked to me as only female on this trip already several times: how do you handle your periods ?

Well, I have to say it is not a big deal at all, you just do the same as at home and the woman’s “rubbish” will be burned along with toilet paper.
And as for being in a bad mood I think that it’s only because of the pain you have and no medicine is better against this than movement, like dragging a pulka through deep snow up a steep slope, I can only recommend it!

Oh yes, and while I’m on it, to prevent the second question which was predicted to me which is whether it is smelly with all the boys. Sure, they stink, they wear the same clothes since 47 days, they don’t take showers…just as me and it is a pleasure!

Hella