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CRUISE PLUS: NORTHWEST PASSAGE CRUISE PLUS: NORTHWEST PASSAGE Expedition to the KINGDOM OF ICE The Northwest Passage has intrigued and fascinated Arctic explorers for centuries. Now this challenging route across the top of the world is entering a new era of exploration, discovers Nick Walton. ith a plodding movement in a tentative new era for the passage, that’s lumbering and elegant its dangers remain poignant. W all at once, a polar bear traces I’m attempting the journey with its way down a finger of partially Canadian polar junky One Ocean submerged land, nose in the air, the Expeditions, which offers a pair of late afternoon light shimmering off Northwest Passage sailings annually wet stones beneath its massive paws. on its stout Russian research vessel Save for the lapping of water Akademik Ioffe. It’s a route that against the Zodiac’s hull and the draws travellers for many reasons. symphony of camera shutters, there There are avid birders hoping to spy is silence as we soak in this blissfully red-throated loons, cackling geese close encounter. The adolescent and gyrfalcons. There are expedition male has done the opposite of what cruisers, ticking the emerging route polar bears usually do when they off their own lists. And there are encounter camera-toting history fans inspired by travellers in Canada’s high recent discoveries Arctic and has stuck that have brought around, giving our the passage’s rich group, just feet away, history to life again. the odd curious glace Explorers began between nibbling the searching for the beluga whale skeletons Northwest Passage that litter beautiful in 1497 when Cunningham Inlet. Italian navigator John The Northwest Passage, a Cabot first attempted the 1,500-kilometer shortcut between journey, with Norwegian polar Europe and Asia across the roof pioneer Roald Amundsen finally of North America has fascinated succeeding four centuries later. explorers for centuries, with many Since that first successful passage Passengers make losing their lives in its pursuit. Only in 1906, there have been less than the most of calm in the past decade has melting ice 250 transits (only 50 by cruise conditions as opened a seasonal window during vessels), with the majority taking Akademik Ioffe which ships might pass through. place in the nine years since an “ice- navigates the Despite an increasing number of free” summer window was created by Northwest Passage cruise ships bound for the high Arctic global warming. 70 cruisepassenger.com.au cruisepassenger.com.au 71 CRUISE PLUS: NORTHWEST PASSAGE CRUISE PLUS: NORTHWEST PASSAGE Clockwise from far left: a Zodiac carries FACT FILE passengers close to a glacier; on-deck Jacuzzi; hiking at CRUISE LINE: One Ocean Expeditions Low Point; getting to VESSEL: Akademik Ioffe grips with the ice PASSENGER CAPACITY: 96 TOTAL CREW: 65 PASSENGER DECKS: 4 ENTERED SERVICE: 1989 TONNAGE: 6,230 FACILITIES: Dining room, lounge and bar, library, presentation room, gift shop, fitness room, massage room, hot water spa, sauna, plunge pool, mud room, 10 Zodiacs, use of wet-weather gear. BOOKINGS: One Ocean Expeditions’ Classic Northwest itinerary on Akademik Ioffe, departing August 24, 2017, is priced from US$9,195 per person, triple share. The voyage starts from Edmonton on a charter flight and ends with a charter flight to Ottawa. Charter flights cost an additional US$1,995. Air Canada flies from Sydney to Edmonton via Vancouver. See oneoceanexpeditions.com Despite the reduction of sea ice, the iron remains of The Maud, Amundsen’s environmental inspector from Rankin, David passengers brave wicked winds on the and we toast the explorers who sought to Emerging from Pond Inlet, our transit passage remains a treacherous undertaking. ship from his second Arctic expedition, Begg, a New Zealand mountain guide, and bridge wings in search of musk oxen, tame this lonely land so far from home. of the Northwest Passage is at an end and In 2010, it took 40 hours to evacuate 120 have been returned to the surface in a Katie Murray, a Scottish historian with a ivory and herring gulls, and arctic foxes. We encounter our first real ice in Croker we sail south down the east coast of Baffin passengers from the grounded Clipper multi-million dollar salvage effort. Her serious crush on Sir John Franklin. Akademik Ioffe has an open-bridge policy, Bay as we follow the southern coast of Island. We spot rare bowhead whales Adventurer and passengers on the luxurious blackened hull is a stark contrast to the Franklin’s ill-fated 1845 expedition, allowing guests the chance to watch the Devon Island, a scene so devoid of life it’s as we as we cross Isabella Bay, a whale Crystal Serenity, which transited the passage low-slung buildings of the state-of-the-art in which his two ships and 129 crew Russian crew in action as we navigate used as a simulation of Mars by NASA. sanctuary, arriving in the calm waters of in August, were reportedly required to Canadian High Arctic Research Station, disappeared, inadvertently opened this 25-kilometre, wafer-thin waterway The northernmost point of our cruise, Cumberland Sound, where a whaling station take out US$50,000 evacuation insurance which is set to open at year’s end. the Canadian Arctic Archipelago to between Somerset Island and the Boothia Croker Bay is home to two towering has blossomed into the Inuit settlement policies. Less a defined route than a myriad After a welcome from village elders we set exploration, with more than 50 unsuccessful Peninsula, passing Zenith Point, the glaciers, their jagged faces pockmarked of Pangnirtung. It’s a fitting finish to our of possible waterways, of which less than sail southeast into Queen Maud Sound. rescue expeditions helping to define this northern tip of mainland North America. with caves that reveal a shimmering aqua expedition as we share tea smoked with arctic 10 per cent are charted, a cruise Akademik Ioffe may not have a vast and hostile territory. The expedition’s After cruising Prince Regent Inlet we cross blue interior. We give way to a massive heather with guides from the hamlet. through the Northwest Passage spa or room service, but she is demise has remained one of the most Parry Sound and reach Beechey Island, a herd of harp seals before cruising the is an adventure. perfectly suited for the high fascinating Arctic mysteries, baffling tiny islet at the southern tip of Devon Island, Zodiacs close enough to the glaciers to However, there’s a big Arctic. Leased by One Ocean researchers until September 2014, when the the world’s largest uninhabited island. First hear the ice creak and groan. difference between watching from Russian’s Shirshov Victoria Strait Expedition, which included visited by European explorers in 1819, The Arctic weather starts to flex its the desolately beautiful Institute of Oceanology, Akademik Ioffe, discovered Franklin’s HMS Beechey is where Franklin and his crew muscles that afternoon and we’re forced landscapes of Nunavut, the Ioffe has an ice-rated hull, Erebus submerged west of O’Reilly Island wintered in 1845-46 before disappearing. to view the abandoned Royal Canadian newest, largest, northernmost comfortable ensuite cabins, in Queen Maud Gulf. This major historic Remnants of his camp, discovered in 1851, Mounted Police barracks at Dundas and least populous territory of a dining room, bar, sauna, discovery was bolstered this September by still remain, including the three grave stones Harbour from afar. As ocean swells heave THE VERDICT Canada, drift by while you wait for presentation theatre and a rooftop the discovery of Erebus’ sister ship, HMS of crew who didn’t survive the winter. the ship, a pair of arctic wolves watch your sommelier to decide on a chardonnay, Jacuzzi. My cabin has plenty of storage, a Terror. Now all eyes are on the Northwest Researchers believe many of Franklin’s men us from shore, white dots on a coffee- Highs: Our close encounter with polar bears and tackling the destination like so many comfortable single cot and a cabin attendant Passage and the secrets the ships may reveal. died from lead poisoning, either from the coloured landscape of rocky peaks. in Cunningham Inlet was unforgettable. explorers past. who giggles shyly at my stumbling Russian. After our close encounter with the lead-soldered tins of provisions or from the The captain sails us into Navy Board Inlet, Lows: Internet access is still a tricky business I had joined the 98-passenger Akademik The ship is run by a Russian crew, but a polar bears of Cunningham Bay, we trail ship’s water distillation system, although protected by the towering peaks of Baffin and the ship runs a very dated service that Ioffe in Cambridge Bay, a tiny hamlet on full complement of guides and naturalists shy beluga whale pods back to the ship there are more macabre tails of cannibalism. Island to the west and Bylot Island to the was a little frustrating. Victoria Island that’s a common departure bring the destination to life with lectures, as the low-slung sun casts the clouds in As the wind whips across a natural east. On the cusp of Eclipse Sound, we land Best suited to: Those adventurous souls who point for Arctic Ocean research vessels. daily excursions, Zodiac cruises and kayaking a warm amber hue, rays of golden light breakwater between Lancaster Sound and at Low Point, hiking to the top of a lichen- have already cruised the Antarctic and want Cambridge Bay spans eras of Arctic itineraries. Our guides include the ever- occasionally penetrating the canopy. Wellington Channel, expedition leader encrusted hill that offers views down to a the ultimate Arctic encounter.

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