War Photographer's Notebook

Chapter 284 Landing on Bear Island
After waiting in the hotel room for less than four hours, the bedside phone rang again. Eric, who had been waiting impatiently for a long time, grabbed the receiver and communicated briefly with the person on the other end of the phone in Norwegian. Then put down the phone.

"My cousin's car is already downstairs," Eric said while grabbing the backpack with his name on it. "We're going downstairs now, and he's taking us to dinner. Bear Island"

Wei Ran and Professor Jonas glanced at each other, quickly picked up his own mountaineering bag and carried it on his shoulders, and then he and Eric carried the heavy and huge wooden box and left the room.

The three of them walked out of the hotel with a lot of luggage, and at a glance, they saw a very old-fashioned van parked at the door, and in the cab of the van, a man who looked like he was in his early 30s was yelling at them enthusiastically. Say hello.

"That's my cousin Leo, let's get in the car!" Eric warmly greeted Professor Jonas to get in the car, and then he and Wei Ran carried the wooden box into the car.

When the three of them were ready to close the compartment doors one by one, Leo, who was in charge of driving, immediately stepped on the accelerator and led them towards the pier. At the same time, under Eric's translation and introduction, he briefly talked with Wei Ran and Professor Jonas. I got to know each other.

Led by Leo, they went to a seafood shop at the pier and ate two king crabs with big faces and a delicious mutton soup.

After filling their stomachs with a sumptuous seafood meal, Leo led them to the edge of the pier, pointed to a fishing boat more than 20 meters long, and said something.

"My cousin said that this is the only boat that can take us to Bear Island at present." Eric helped translate after listening, "There are not many boats that dare to go to Bear Island during the polar night. The captain is Leo's friend who is willing to send us there."

"Then use this boat." Professor Jonas, who didn't seem to like talking very much, didn't pick anything, and happily followed Leo, who was leading the way, to the deck of the fishing boat.

On the deck of this boat, apart from some frozen crates, on a deck covered with pine needles in the middle, there are four healthy reindeer lying side by side, and beside them, There were two sledges tied to the deck with ropes.

Each of these two sledges was the size of a deck chair, one of them was filled with various supplies, and the other empty sleigh was not only covered with thick reindeer hides, but there was actually a snow-white sheet hidden under the reindeer hides. bearskin.

Leo touched the bear skin, then quickly covered it with the reindeer skin, and said something proudly.

Seeing Jonas and Wei Ran looking at him, Eric shook his head helplessly and translated, "Leo said that the bear skin came from an adult male polar bear he caught this year, and if any of you like it, he can sell it. But I advise you not to have such a plan, unless you want to be sent to prison by the customs.”

"Forget about the bear skin, when are we going to leave?" Professor Jonas asked rather urgently.

Eric turned his head and asked Leo who was standing on the side and was lighting a cigarette. The latter immediately untied the cable and waved towards the cab.

With the roar of the engine, this small fishing boat sailed away from the pier lightly, turned around, and drove alone to the depths of the sea with some floating ice floes.Under the leadership of Leo, Wei Ran and others carried their luggage on their shoulders and got into the dark cabin.

The captain of this fishing boat is a fat man with a height of 1.9 meters. His full beard makes him look very much in line with the image of the legendary Vikings.

It's just that unlike Leo, this tall and fat captain didn't seem to like to talk, he just nodded his head, and then pointed to the cabin that was just separated from the cockpit by a corridor.

The size of this cabin is also small, with four bunk beds arranged end to end in a circle, and some pornographic magazines and a candy box full of bullets are scattered on the table in the middle.On the wall on the side of the entrance, there are two civilian shotguns with scopes.

Leo signaled everyone to find a place to sit with his familiarity, but he turned around and left, and brought a pot of hot coffee to everyone in a short while.

Although the language barrier requires Eric to help translate, both Wei Ran and Professor Jonas can tell that this Leo likes to chat very much, or in other words, he likes to show off his hunting and what he has discovered over the years High-grade gold ore.

As for how much water is in these words, Wei Ran has already guessed seven or eight points just by looking at the helpless and embarrassed expression on his cousin Eric's face.

"Eric, ask Leo, has he prepared a weapon for us?" Jonas asked while Leo was picking up his coffee cup.

Hearing this, Leo quickly put down the cup, bent down and dragged out a wooden box from under a bed, opened it and put it on the table, while he was also speaking very fast.

Eric on the side rolled his eyes and translated helplessly, "Leo said that there are no bears at all on Bear Island, and the only animals are arctic foxes and arctic lemmings. Only when you are lucky, you can meet one." Two walruses, so they just prepared some pistols for us."

"Something is better than nothing, at least it's a psychological comfort."

Although Professor Jonas didn't talk much, he had a good temper. He took out a Norwegian-made 1911 pistol from the box, grabbed a few magazines by the way, and stuffed them into his pocket without even looking at them. inside.

Seeing this, Wei Ran casually took a pistol and two loaded magazines from the box, but Eric didn't raise his hand at all, obviously trusting his cousin's words very much.

"Eric, how long will it take us to get to Bear Island?" Wei Ran casually checked the pistol and magazine he just got, and asked in the same casual manner.

Eric asked Leo a few words after hearing the words, and then replied, "It will take about 20 hours. If there is no accident, we should be able to land on Bear Island by this time tomorrow."

Unceremoniously glanced at Professor Jonas who was fiddling with the radio, Wei Ran wisely did not speak again, casually picked up a new-looking pornographic magazine from the table, half lying on a bed covered with furry reindeer On the bed of leather, with a critical eye, I appraised the clothes of the girls in the magazines that were not made of more materials than masks.

Seeing that the two people who needed a translator to communicate had something to do, Eric was also relieved. The job of translation is not easy to do, especially when there is a chatterbox by his side.

However, his cousin Leo did not intend to shut up. He reached out and took out a bottle of wine from the box under the bed and unscrewed it. Talk about something in Norwegian that people can understand.

I waited patiently for a whole day on the floating fishing boat. Except for the short day of less than four hours, the rest of the time was covered by the dark night, the occasional aurora and the snow that fell from time to time. Fill it to the brim.

Of course, in addition to this, there are the louder and louder snoring mixed with the roar of the engine, the more pungent smell of stinky feet and body odor, and the long-lasting disgusting smell of the vomit that Eric spit out after seasickness.

After much suffering, a short stretch of dark coastline appeared right in front of the searchlights of the fishing boats, and everyone cheered up, even Eric, who was about to vomit his gall, struggled to get up, watching the more and more excited The closer to Bear Island.

More than half an hour later, seeing that the fishing boat had docked near a simple artificial pier, Leo immediately put the shotgun hanging on the wall on his shoulder, and offered to help carry the huge wooden box out of the cabin .

In the busyness of the crowd, the three people's luggage, two sleigh carts and the four extremely honest reindeer were all safely transferred to the pier illuminated by searchlights.

Before setting off, Leo distributed a compass and two signal flares from unknown sources to everyone, and then hung a lighted kerosene lamp on the backrests of the two sleigh cars. Then he sat in the vacant sleigh car without hesitation, and after Eric and Professor Jonas wrapped themselves tightly in polar bear skin blankets, they skillfully yelled at the reindeer and ran away.

Behind him, Wei Ran waited for a while, and also yelled at the two reindeer, pulling him and the sleigh cart full of various supplies under his buttocks to follow.With the ringing of bells, two sleigh cars with two clusters of bright lights drove fast to the depths of the desolate Bear Island.

And behind them, the tall and strong captain Martin, after watching them with a telescope for a long time, had a greedy smile full of expectation on his fat face.

(End of this chapter)