Near Neighbour, Belsund 1996

Things that happen on expeditions remain clear in our memories, some are glamourous and others much less so. Still, they are each treasured and help to make us who we are. Ian Frearson, Founder of the ARG, recalls one such memory of a close call by his tent.

"We had struggled with edge ice to get ashore at our preferred location so had to make do with being a kilometre away from it.  Base Camp was set up and accommodation tents soon sprang up to form a small village.  We tried our best to avoid sighting tents on the most vegetated patches due to the fragile nature of the land, so paid particular attention to avoid as much damage as possible. 

It was only during the third week of the expedition that I did a quick walk round my tent just to check guy lines and discovered a stunningly beautiful bird nest sited less than a metre away from one of the pegs.  As if this was not enough, a Purple Sandpiper was sitting on her nest of four eggs and never moved a muscle all the time I was there.

Photo by Franziska Leimkühler: https://www.pexels.com/photo/purple-sandpiper-drinking-water-21620584/

To reduce additional stress we just left her to her task but did wonder if we had just not seen her when erecting the ten or if she had perhaps arrived more recently and had chosen this location for some additional protection against predation from Arctic Fox or aggressive birds such as Skua".

Ian Frearson FRGS

Founder of the Arctic Research Group