Tuesday 17th July: Ny Alesund
Awelina of Sweden
James Collier
Tue 17 Jul 2012 12:56
Waking in Ny London and peering across at Ny Alesund we noticed a medium cruise sized ship pulled up to the quay but we decided to chance it anyway and go and find out about the place. The swell coming in from the North West was noticeable as we crept across a stretch of water littered with little growlers and blue bergy bits, all blown down from the glacier at the head of the Fjord. We snuck past the ship and found a yacht pontoon just inside the shelter of the harbour.
Just after we had tied up we were welcomed by a familiar voice. Nick Cox of the British Antarctic Survey / NERC station here had come down to speak to the "British boat" and found that we knew each other from Cambridge. He very kindly invited us to visit his research station and facilities, which are very organised with labs and boats and a centrally heated lounge with internet connection. He couldn't have been more welcoming and made us totally at home here in the base complex for which we're extremely grateful (Ny Alesund is now higher in Fiona's estimation than Longyearbyen). Almost like being at home except that outside the window the glaciers surround the place and where it's not snow covered the landscape is an eerie rocky moon-like mass of stones and soaring sharp peaks.
There is no need here to carry a rifle but they did have a polar bear outside the camp last week, and there are apparently two more lurking up at the head of the fjord - we hope we may be lucky and view one - from a safe distance.
Out plan this afternoon is to move back to London and go ashore there before heading up the coast of seven glaciers to Magdalenefjord and then further north still. We're less than 5 miles from 79 degrees N, and the walruses are waiting!