Voyage on this unforgettable 16-night Canadian Arctic Discovery cruise departing from Greenland on our boutique expedition ship and circle around Baffin Bay in the Canadian Arctic before navigating part of the Northwest Passage among mountainous icebergs, charming fjords and some of the most active glaciers in the world in an area that is ice-bound for some of the year. Witness polar bears and be enchanted by a blessing of narwhal dive around you, then glimpse long white tusks break the icy arctic waters, and discover landscapes covered in arctic willow and purple saxifrage. Your voyage will take you to a region that has been visited by some of history’s greatest explorers such as John Franklin, James Ross and Norwegian Roald Amundsen. Visiting Inuit communities with their colourful harbour homes makes your cruise a history lesson like no other.
At the head of one of the longest fjords in western Greenland, Kangerlussuaq has a history as a World War II airbase. Visit the 60-metre tall face of the Russell Glacier on the edge of the Greenland ice cap to hear and see it crack and break off into the meltwater. Other popular activities include kayaking on the fjords and wildlife tours of the glacial areas that attract muskoxen, reindeer, arctic foxes and gyrfalcons.
Just north of the Arctic Circle and the northernmost city in Greenland, Sisimiut remains ice free in winter and is known as an adventure sports hub. Inhabited for more than 4,500 years by the Inuit, Dorset and then Thule people, dog sled remains a common form of transport and we have a chance to see abandoned settlements but it also has a cool, modern side. Watch out for humpback whales and walrus between Sisimiut and the Thule district in the north.
Sailing through the iceberg capital of the world to Disko Bay, the Ilulissat Icefjord is one of the cruise highlights. Given UNESCO World Heritage Site status, the Ilulissat Icefjord is a popular tourist destination, and thanks to the productive Sermeq Kujalleq glacier, thousands of gargantuan icebergs calve from the Greenland ice cap into the sea. The city of Ilulissat, formerly Jakobshavn or Jacobshaven, is home to as many sled-dogs as people.
Qeqertarsuaq is the largest town on Disko Island, the largest island in Greenland, on the west coast and part of Disko Bay, a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The Lyngmark Glacier rises above the town and the area’s lush hills, basalt columns and black sand beaches reflect its volcanic origin. The area is very fertile and home to diverse species not found elsewhere in Greenland. Keep an eye out for its hot springs as we move through floating icebergs and whales.
Sea days are rarely dull. Take the time to sit back and let the world go by. The ship’s observation decks provide stunning views of the passing ocean. A day at sea gives you the opportunity to mingle with other passengers and share your experiences of this incredible trip or head to our library which is stocked full of reference books. Get an expert’s view in one of our on-board lectures or perhaps perfect your photography skills with invaluable advice from our onboard professional photographers.
The scenic views of snow-capped mountains and picturesque fjords have given Pond Inlet – or Mittimatalik – in northern Baffin Island the name of Canada’s ‘jewel of the north.’ The area is a prime breeding ground for narwhals, and bowhead whales, ringed and harp seals, and walrus also warrant a vigilant eye. Stop by the Nattinnak Centre to discover more about the region and its wildlife. The Inuit community here are renowned for their craft skills from printmaking and stone carving. Nearby, Qulalukat’s thousand-year-old Inuit sod houses merit a visit.
Dundas Harbour on Lancaster Sound is the eastern entrance of the Northwest Passage on the southeast coast of the world’s largest uninhabited island, Devon Island. Despite the harsh terrain, signs of life remain with the relics of a 1000 A.D. Thule settlement and a 1920s outpost from where Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) controlled illegal whaling. Nearby, Croker Bay is one of the deeper inlets into Devon Island, on the northern shores of iceberg-laden Lancaster Sound. The Devon ice cap feeds the monumental South Croker Bay Glacier that calves into the bay. Zodiac excursions take us past floating bergs dotted with seals and birds to get up close to stunning glacial waterfalls, and if safe to do so, you can step onto the glacier.
Sea days are rarely dull. Take the time to sit back and let the world go by. The ship’s observation decks provide stunning views of the passing ocean. A day at sea gives you the opportunity to mingle with other passengers and share your experiences of this incredible trip or head to our library which is stocked full of reference books. Get an expert’s view in one of our on-board lectures or perhaps perfect your photography skills with invaluable advice from our onboard professional photographers.
This area is most closely associated with the exploration of Canada’s High Arctic and the Northwest Passage. Much of the Canadian Arctic Archipelago was mapped while searching for the missing crew of British explorer Sir John Franklin’s fateful 1845-46 Northwest Passage Expedition. Radstock Bay sits below the mighty Caswall Tower mountain and hides many secrets, such as evidence of sledge tracks, camps and food tins that may help to reveal what happened.
Beechey Island Sites are five locations across desolate Beechey Island, now designated as important historic sites. These include the sites where Sir John Franklin and his crew wintered.
Crossing the Lancaster Sound to Somerset Island, you pass the most important bird sanctuary in the Canadian Arctic, the steep cliffs around flat-topped Prince Leopold Island are home to more than 500,000 nesting pairs of thick-billed murres, black guillemots, northern fulmars and black-legged kittiwakes. Beluga whales come to moult in the shallow gravel beds. Sailing south to Elwin Bay, a breathtaking fjord in Prince Regent Inlet, keep an eye out for polar bears hunting for ringed seals that haul out onto the sea ice. Nearby at Port Leopold on Somerset Island, English explorer James Clark Ross wintered while searching for the missing Franklin expedition in 1848.
Fort Ross on Somerset Island is the abandoned last trading post of the Hudson’s Bay Company. The timber building that remains, built in 1937, formed part of the most northerly established fur trading post covering the Bellot Strait, before being abandoned due to severe ice-choked conditions at sea. One of the straits along the Northwest passage, the narrow 16-mile long Bellot Strait with steep cliffs, is windy with strong tidal currents. Connecting Brentford Bay to icy Peel Sound, the strait separates Somerset Island in the north from the Murchison Promontory on Boothia Peninsula to the south, where Point Zenith, the northernmost continental point of the Americas is positioned. It was also here on the 1829 Second Arctic expedition of Sir John Ross, that his nephew Sir James Clark Ross located the Magnetic North Pole.
Choked up by ice in winter, Peel Sound is a 125-mile long channel separating Prince of Wales Island to the west and Somerset Island to the east. The icebound arctic waters prevented several 19th-century explorers from achieving their goals – Sir John Franklin in 1846, Francis Leopold McClintock in 1858 and Allen Young in 1875. Take time to learn more about these early adventurers as you relax and spot polar bears on the pack ice.
An important high arctic wildlife area and part of Sirmilik National Park, today you cruise the 70-mile long Navy Board Inlet between Bylot Island to the east and the Borden Peninsula south of Lancaster Sound. This was a traditional hunting area for Inuit – watch out for narwhals, bowhead whales, beluga, orca, harp and ringed seals. As you sail through these narrow, iceberg-filled waters, spot caribou and polar bears who roam the shores and on tiny islands, such as Wollaston Islands at the entrance to Lancaster Sound.
Sea days are rarely dull. Take the time to sit back and let the world go by. The ship’s observation decks provide stunning views of the passing ocean. A day at sea gives you the opportunity to mingle with other passengers and share your experiences of this incredible trip or head to our library which is stocked full of reference books. Get an expert’s view in one of our on-board lectures or perhaps perfect your photography skills with invaluable advice from our onboard professional photographers.
At the head of one of the longest fjords in western Greenland, Kangerlussuaq has a history as a World War II airbase. Visit the 60-metre tall face of the Russell Glacier on the edge of the Greenland ice cap to hear and see it crack and break off into the meltwater. Other popular activities include kayaking on the fjords and wildlife tours of the glacial areas that attract muskoxen, reindeer, arctic foxes and gyrfalcons.
My voyage was great. All of the logistics worked out perfectly, right down to the correct size of allocated wellington boots!
I enjoyed Spitsbergen. The wildlife was like nothing I have ever seen before (polar bear, puffins, reindeer, birdlife). I still get a thrill every time we cruise around in Zodiacs and the glaciers were quite spectacular. Looking back at my photo’s reminds me of how astonishing the scenery is in Spitsbergen. The crew were great, and it was nice to meet up again with some familiar faces on board.
June 23, 2018
My trip in June to Svalbard was one of the high spots of my life. I am a wildlife devotee and green supporter so for years I have had a huge conflict about pursuing the former without transgressing the latter too much. Somehow, this cruise felt right – Ice Tracks and the entire ship’s crew are really conscientious about their environmental impact and told us about it – very reassuring. I loved the zodiac trips out right up to huge glaciers – one of which we saw calving – and onto the land where we trekked and got a real sense of the presence of polar bears – their tracks and where they’s scrambled out of the water onto the snow. We saw all 3 land mammals of the Arctic – wonderful birds including King Eiders – a bird high up on all birders’ ‘must see’ list, and whales including a Beluga with two calves, swimming so close to us!
I was travelling on my own – but everyone was very sociable and I was never on my own for long. The on board staff were always kind, helpful and hugely knowledgeable. A brilliant trip.
June 20, 2018
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