Country Images Magazine North Edition December 2016 | Página 20

Above:
The cabin where Auslrian
Hurler spent several winters.
Far left:
Beware of the Polar Bear sign.
Left:
The world’s most northerly
post office - Ny Ålesund.

the tameness of wildlife on Svalbard that one
just looked towards us and then promptly fell
asleep in the warming sun. It stayed liked that
for an hour, never stirring despite the presence of
human beings a mere hundred meters away. A
small kit came out of the den, looked around and
darted back again, repeating this teasing activity
several times.

thriving on the sparse alkaline tundra soil: Boreal
Jacob’s Ladder the dwarf arctic version of the
rarity that blooms in the upper reaches of our
Lathkill Dale and Dwarf Scurvy Grass, once a
rich source of Vitamin C in the early days of sail.
Tiny ground hugging trees like Dwarf Birch and
Net-leaved Willow seem to thrive in the short
growing season.

During lunch, the ship repositioned itself deep
into Isfjorden and dropped anchor for the final
time of the trip in the small bay of Skansbukta.
This is a special area, both geologically and
botanically, based on Carboniferous Limestone
and Permian rocks, the main strata of central
Svalbard. Here we found tiny arctic plants

A hut, storm damaged railway lines and a mine
entrance at the foot of the towering cliffs are
all that remains of yet another failed mining
operation, this time for gypsum in 1918. A short
Zodiac cruise carried us beneath those towering
cliffs to the east of the fjord helped us watch the
brazen antics of Atlantic Puffins and a whole

20 | CountryImagesMagazine.co.uk

aviary of different sea birds nesting and resting on
tier upon tier of cliff ledges – a perfect end to a
magical trip that had taken us close to the North
Pole.
With Longyearbyen having little to attract us, we
opted for the first of two daily flights from the
high arctic back to Oslo. Unfortunately the flight
was at 07:30 and it meant an early start, but with
1271 miles over the cold waters of the Barents
Sea and narrow mountainous length of Norway
slipping away quickly below us, we managed to
arrive back in Oslo in time for a late lunch at an
outside café on the sunny Jernbanetorget Square
in front of Oslo’s Central Station.