Day 5 -13th August 2023

 Day 5 Sunday.

A little later start around 7.00. I got up around 6.45, meeting Alan in the corridor, but decided to take another five minutes so missed an Ivory Gull that Alan saw, he did come down and shout but it was well gone by the time we got upstairs. After breakfast we sailed to Ny-London for the first landing of the day. This was an A to B walk and it was decided that I probably wouldn’t make it so I went back down to the shore. On the way I found a large patch of netted willow but no luck with the oyster plant. Boreal Jacob’s Ladder is only found around Islfjord, so no point in looking for that and no luck with the Oyster plant. 

After all the others had left we got in the boats and sailed round to the next bay where there was a lot of old engineering works. This was Ny-London, built by Mansford to use the marble mining business here. Unfortunately, the marble they quarried turned out to crumble as soon as they tried working with it. The house that was left has been kept and preserved and is used by the government for 8 weeks of the year. On the tour leaders first visit this spring it had been attacked by a polar bear who could smell the basic food left in the cabin. It ripped off bits of wood and doors, smashed the windows, chucked toilet rolls around but left the apples sitting on the table. The business eventually went bust so they couldn’t afford to retrieve much of the machinery so it was left to rot where it is. The engine was originally housed in a garage but that is long gone. Some of the houses were relocated to ny-Alesund and can be seen today.

Along the path there was quite a lot of bell Heather, unfortunately with the flowers over, but recognisable. As we were walking up the path I glanced round and running along the opposite bank was an Arctic Fox trotting along an obvious pathway. It walked up the slope, stopped and appeared to be eating something which Jonos suggested might be reindeer meat. He called the fox out and the first group over the ridge saw it but also spooked it and it trotted up the cliff and over the top. The last group also saw it as they were still on top as it came over the hill.

I returned to the boat and waited for the others, who missed the Fox before sailing across the fjord to our next landing on Ny-Alesund where we had a short walk and then time to our selves. This was the only landing with a proper dock so we just walked off. Our group moved off but we didn’t keep up so we diverted into the shop before spending a bit of time finding one of the most northerly Geocaches in the world. We pottered about looking at the plants and then diverted along a path but nothing much. We then followed a pipe line structure with Snow Buntings before making it to a gravel road with a pool, with views across the reserve to the sea. David noticed some birds on the pool, which turned out to be Juv Grey Phalaropes giving amazing views. 

There were Arctic Terns flying over, more Barnacle Geese, most with colour rings, and a group of seals on the beach. We saw Alan and Brenda and beckoned them over, dodging the wrath of Jonas. Brenda and I walked back to the road to find a loo and see if we could see Sean. The shop directed us to a white box back towards the ship, which we found quite easily. We started to walk back towards the shop as David, Jake and Alan were coming along. 

We met up and started walking back towards the ship when an Arctic fox was spotted in the distance. Shortly after the tern colony flew up and started alarming. A fox crossed the road in front of us and trotted down towards the old train. It found something to gnaw on and gave really good views before trotting onwards and disappearing under the derelict train. It did appear further away around the pool but then disappeared.

Sean was coming back from the boat as he thought he had lost his backpack. Alan took him quickly round to the phalarope pool as Sean remembered he had probably left his bag back by the table. We walked back to the boat, got on board before we set sail back towards Longyearbyen. Along the way we had minke whales and white-beaked dolphins. A cup of tea to toast the midnight sun. I went down to pack before turning in.