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Overnight, we had sailed about 50 miles north of Longyearbyen, along the west coast of Spitsbergen and had anchored in Kongsfjorden.听 The sun was shining, there was a fresh breeze and the temperature was still 8 degrees Celsius.

For the first time since our trip to the Antarctic, it was time to get back into the routine of getting rugged-up and into the Zodiac inflatable to make our first landing, at Blomstrandhalvoya (or New London).听

On the Aleksey Maryshev all passengers are allocated a number that corresponds to one of the numbered discs hooked on a board. Every time you leave the ship to board the Zodiac, you have to turn your numbered disc so that it reads "OFF", signifying that you are no longer on board the ship.

Reindeer at Longyearbyen

So, having turned our discs, it was down the gangway and onto the Zodiac for the short trip to the beach, where, after a wet landing (i.e. wellies required), we left our life jackets in a pile before venturing up the hill towards the abandoned settlement of "New London".

The ever-present possibility of encountering a polar bear means that whenever we made shore landings we had to remain in groups and be accompanied by one of the three Expedition staff, each of whom was armed with a flare gun to frighten off any bear that might come too close and, should that not be enough, a rifle.听

To a polar bear a human being is just an upright seal, so this is not a place where you can just wander off on your own.

Losing your marble

All that is left of the marble quarrying settlement established by Ernest Mansfield in the early 20th century are a couple of wooden huts and the foundations of a couple of others, one of which still has the original cast iron kitchen range on it, evidently too heavy to move when the hut was transported across the fjord to Ny-Alesund.

In what would become a familiar theme, the more energetic passengers were able to take a more strenuous hike - in this case up to the site of the abandoned marble quarry.

Meanwhile, those who wanted something a little more sedate were able to explore the abandoned settlement and the surrounding tundra and pools, plants, birds and, on this first landing, close views of a female reindeer and her calf.

The birding highlights here were two long-tailed skuas, long-tailed ducks with young and nesting red-throated divers.听 All of these birds had made the long journey to Svalbard to breed and all would winter well to the south.听 Whilst red-throated divers spend the winter in some numbers in the southern North Sea, including off the Suffolk coast, long-tailed skuas winter far out at sea as far south as South Africa, occasionally being seen off Suffolk on migration.

Ny-Alesund

After lunch back on board ship it was back into the Zodiacs to visit Ny-Alesund, the northernmost permanent settlement in the world, just 660 miles from the North Pole.

Like Longyearbyen, Ny-Alesund had been a coal mine until 1962 but is now home to an international Polar Research Institute where, amongst many other things, the British Antarctic Survey is studying the effects of climate change on Arctic food chains.听

Ny-alesund

This year, although the retreat of the Arctic ice is approaching the extent of last year's record, much of that appears to be happening in the western hemisphere, whilst the extent of the sea ice around Svalbard is greater than it has been for the last three years.听 This puzzle is one of the things the scientists are working on.

Having made our way up from the quay (the only dry landing of the trip), we watched purple sandpipers (another winter visitor to Suffolk) with their young. They gathered around a large pool between the quay and the houses. Our viewing point was near a short section of railway line which was presumably used to transport coal from the mine to waiting ships, complete with steam engine and wagons.

Cockney foxes

A little further along, we came to the "London Houses", relocated from "New London", where we had been earlier on.听Underneath the buildings a female Arctic fox had made her den and we were able to watch her and four well-grown cubs foraging on the edge of the settlement.听

The foxes were in their summer coats, which are a darker brown than our familiar red fox, with yellowish-buff underparts and rather blunter features.听 In the winter, of course, their coats turn white.

Arctic fox, Svalbard

Nearby, around the sled-dog pen, we watched our first ivory gull of the trip. It was attempting to feed on strips of seal meat that were drying on the fence - ready for听 feeding to the dogs.

We also saw ringed plovers, which were of the tundra race, some of which I had seen on the Suffolk coast just two months before as they stopped off to feed on their way to the Arctic.

Exploring an explorer's history

Having conquered the South Pole in 1912, Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen left Ny-Alesund in 1926 for the first successful flight over the North Pole, by airship, landing in Alaska four days later.听 To commemorate this achievement, there is a large statue of Amundsen not far from the University building.

Amundsen Memorial, Ny-alesund

Our visit was rounded off with a fascinating talk by Maarten Loonen, a Dutch ornithologist, who has been studying the barnacle geese that have bred around Ny-Alesund for the last 20 years.

Back on board the Aleksey Maryshev after a packed day, we cruised the beautiful Kongsfjorden in the sunshine, adding Arctic and great skuas to our bird tally.