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Dolerittneset („Kapp Lee“)

Pomors, trapper hut, science and walrus. 360°-Panorama

Dole­ritt­ne­set is often cal­led Kapp Lee, alt­hough Kapp Lee pro­per is situa­ted a few kilo­me­t­res fur­ther north, on the nor­thwest cor­ner of Edgeøya. Dole­ritt­ne­set give a litt­le bit of shel­ter against sou­t­her­ly wind and sea, but the litt­le bay is still quite expo­sed and very shal­low, so ships have to stay quite far out and landing can be dif­fi­cult depen­ding on the wea­ther and sea sta­te. But this is as much shel­ter as you will find any­whe­re in that area, so the litt­le bay at Dole­ritt­ne­set (the bay is actual­ly cal­led Stre­te­ham­na) is not only popu­lar among­st the wal­rus who are often res­t­ing the­re but it was used both by Pomors (Rus­si­an hun­ters) in ear­ly times and later by Nor­we­gi­an trap­pers. The lat­ter ones built the octa­go­nal hut in 1904. It was repai­red by the Sys­sel­man­nen in 2009. The two smal­ler huts do not have any his­to­ri­cal value, they were built in 1963 by employees of the oil com­pa­ny Cal­tex for use during their free time. Cal­tex did some explo­ra­ti­on at that time on Edgeøya, but tho­se acti­vi­ties came to a final end when the area was declared a Natu­re Reser­ve in 1973.

The last win­tering at Dolerittneset/Kapp Lee was in 1968-69, when a Dutch team of 4 sci­en­tists estab­lished their litt­le base clo­se to the huts. The focus on their work was on bio­lo­gy. One of the team mem­bers was Ko de Kor­te, a zoo­lo­gist who later beca­me a key figu­re for the foun­ding of Ocean­wi­de Expe­di­ti­ons, an expe­di­ti­on crui­se com­pa­ny that most visi­tors to this site will know. Who knows if Ko’s arc­tic enthu­si­asm would have been strong enough to found Ocean­wi­de Expe­di­ti­ons if it had not been fuel­led by his win­tering at Kapp Lee/Dolerittneset? The sta­ti­on from 1968 was, howe­ver, later com­ple­te­ly remo­ved. Dutch sci­en­tists con­tin­ued to visit this area during shorter sum­mer expe­di­ti­ons more or less regu­lar­ly until 1988 and retur­ned once for the so-far last time in 2015 – of cour­se with Ocean­wi­de Expe­di­ti­ons. But simi­lar visits are plan­ned, so the tra­di­ti­on of Dutch sci­ence on Edgeøya may well have a future con­ti­nua­tion.

Gal­lery – Kapp Lee/Dolerittneset

The huts, the wild­life and the land­scape at Kapp Lee.

Click on thumb­nail to open an enlar­ged ver­si­on of the spe­ci­fic pho­to.

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last modification: 2021-01-04 · copyright: Rolf Stange
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