July 7th
Liss: After having a panic in the morning about over-sleeping and packing before going on the boat, we finally dropped our bags by the boat and went off to the Svalbard Museum which was really cool. They had real stuffed polar bears, seals, arctic foxes and the like (walruses aswell, even though they were stuffed i wasnt all too keen on them!!!!).
Jade feeding Marvin to the Polar Bear
After going to the Museum we had a lecture on insects in Svalbard in the Lecture Room with the incredibly comfy chairs!!!! Luckily, we had a lie in that morning and didnt fall asleep! A short while later we boarded the Polaris and set sail to Barranstburg, a pretty much deserted Russian mining village! There were only 4 children that lived there and everything was a bit run down!
July 8th
Lucy: In the morning, we sailed to Ny-London and used the Zodiacs to go to the beach there. It was a deserted piece of land, rich with wildlife and plants. We saw an Arctic fox, reindeer and birds! There were sevral old huts, which hasd been abandoned and were considered cultural artefacts.
The view of Ny-London from the mountain
Afterwards, we sailed to Ny-Alesund- the scientific base, home to 90 scientists from 10 different countries. We met with several guides, who told us about the history of Svalbard, about several famous expeditions and about the animals there. There was alos an Arctic artist there! We bought a postcard fromt he most Northerly shop on Earth (and asked Mark Kelly, the NASA astronaut on the trip, for his autograph)and sent it to our geography teacher, Mr Minchin from the most Northerly post office on Earth!
Then once again, back to the Polaris and it was all aboard again!
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