Neighbour Nature - Tundra Plants on Campsite

Arctic Summer is short and intensive: tundra plants have just a few months for growth and flowering.

The terrain of the campingsite is a strandflat, which rose from under sea level a few thousand years ago, nowadays covered mostly by tundra vegetation and in addition structured by some former low beach walls, some parts are more wind exposed than others and some are covered longer and by more snow in winter, than the rest. All this leads to differentiated plant societies from boggy to dry tundra, plus some minor stony areas with again a different, sparse pioneer plant society.

Botanists and other persons with interest in arctic flora among our guests can study and photograph a major number of the terrestrial plant species of Spitsbergen at ease right on and around the campsite - with the impressive Isfjord panorama as a scenic background.

As a first impression, you find a choice of pictures of flowering plants typical for the tundra on and around the campingsite further down on this page.

Protection of vegetation:
While gaining pleasure from arctic nature, it is also our objective to preserve it in its abundance even on the campingsite, inspite of its utilisation. Therefore, please observe the following guidelines for treatment of the vulnerable arctic plantlife:
• Avoid damages (no digging of holes or trenches, no picking/excavation of flowers and plants, no fire places on the tundra, no spilling of fuels).
• Avoid longer lasting coverage, as the plants are highly dependent of using the light of the short arctic summer maximally. therefore, tents are to be moved on after maximally 7 days on one spot. Stones, which you may have used, should be placed afterwards on spots free of vegetation, so that they do not cover longer any plantlife, either.
• Do not leave behind any garbage, also not hidden under stones. Even organic wastes may need several decades for rotting under arctic conditions (cigarett stumps, etc.).
• No driving/riding on snowfree, melted tundra, especially not with motorized vehicles, but preferrably also not with bikes or horses. This applies also for the whole tundra land of the campsite.