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Peregrine Travel Centre

Arctic Discovery: Svalbard, Franz Josef Land and Novaya Zemlya

Arctic Discovery: Svalbard, Franz Josef Land and Novaya Zemlya

From AUD $30,163

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Description

Only the most intrepid explorers have been on a voyage like this. Your life-changing 19-day Arctic Discovery expedition cruise aboard our boutique ship takes you via remote Russian and Norwegian archipelago at the top of the world before ending on Siberia’s mighty Yenisei river. We cruise past majestic fjords and through ice-choked waters which reveal rarely seen arctic wildlife – belugas, bowheads, narwhals, polar bears and walruses – and millions of seabirds. Your unforgettable journey takes in some of the least-visited spots on the planet, from the relatively unexplored islands in the Russian High Arctic, which were closed to visitors until recently, before arriving on the Yenisei river to learn about history and tradition from the Nenets indigenous people.

Trip Name
Arctic Discovery: Svalbard, Franz Josef Land and Novaya Zemlya
Days
19
Overview
Vessel Type: Luxury Expedition / Cruise Ship Length: 115 metres Passenger Capacity: 152 Built: 2020-2021-2022 Our brand new ship has been designed to journey to off the beaten path destinations and remote polar regions in style and comfort. The ship incorporates a PC5 ice-strengthened hull combined with extra-large stabilisers to make your journey as smooth as possible. Sophisticated Elegance. We know how important outdoor space is, so our spacious, relaxing public spaces provide wide open, unobstructed views throughout the ship. The destination will always be in view. Your Wellbeing. The safety & happiness of our guests is paramount to our 120-strong crew on board as well as our passionate expedition team who'll be serving up thrilling shore excursions and lasting memories. Cabin Types. Our 76 cabins including 6 suites have all the amenities you will need to feel comfortable including dressing gowns, hairdryers, personal safes and minibars. Our stylish cabins all have desks, a dressing area and comfy seating. En suite bathrooms all feature glass-enclosed rain showers.

Itinerary



Day 1 - DAY 1, LONGYEARBYEN
Longyearbyen is the world’s most northerly town and with it comes the world’s most northerly high street and pub. On Spitsbergen, Svalbard’s largest island, Longyearbyen is home to The North Pole Expeditions Museum which chronicles early efforts to reach the pole by air. The nearby Svalbard Global Seed Vault preserves duplicates of seeds held in gene banks worldwide. The surrounding Arctic waters are populated by whales including bowheads and narwhals, while walruses are regularly seen hauling.
Day 2 - DAY 2, BELL SUND
Surrounded by snow-capped mountains, glaciers and tundra, Bellsund is a 20 km long sound - wider than a fjord - on the west coast of Spitsbergen. Brünnich’s guillemots, black-legged kittiwakes, little auks and northern fulmars make their breeding homes on the cliffs while pink-footed, barnacle and brent geese nest below. Reindeer roam the lush tundra flats strewn with whalebones. Bellsund attracts thousands of moulting ringed seals inviting unwarranted attention from prowling polar bears.
Day 3 - DAY 3, HORNSUND
Considered by some as the most beautiful fjord in Spitsbergen, Hornsund is surrounded by spectacular landscape, mountains, glaciers and drift ice (bergs and growlers) due to a unique polar current that also attracts migrating polar bears. The climate creates a high-polar ecosystem drawing scientists to study the concentrated mix of subarctic and high arctic fauna in one small space. Part of the South Spitsbergen National Park, most of Svalbard’s little auks breed here and you can often see Svalbard reindeer.
Day 4 - DAY 4, EDGE ISLAND
Huge herds of walrus haul out at Kapp Lee near 18th-century ruins of a Pomor whaling station on the northwest coast of Edgeøya, or Edge Island, the third-largest island of Svalbard. Part of the Søraust-Svalbard Nature Reserve, the rich tundra here at Tryghammna supports a high arctic vegetation including mosses and cotton grass where the once-near-extinct Svalbard reindeer graze and arctic fox hunt. Large numbers of polar bears follow the sea ice and spend summer here.
Day 5 - DAY 5, BARENTS ISLAND
Uninhabited Barentsøya, or Barents Island, lies between Spitsbergen and Edge Island to the south. Part of the Søraust-Svalbard Nature Reserve, barren glacial areas dominate the eastern side of the island, while the west has large flats covered in tundra vegetation where arctic fox skulk around and the once-declining Svalbard reindeer are thriving. Polar bears congregate at denning areas to the south at Freemansundet sound near Kapp Waldburg where a kittiwake colony nests on steep cliffs.
Day 6 - DAY 6, ALKEFJELLET
The towering cliffs of Alkefjellet - meaning guillemot mountain - on the northeast coast of Spitsbergen overlooking the icy Hinlopen Strait, teem with 60,000 breeding pairs of Brünnich’s guillemots. Our Zodiacs will get up close to this incredible sight where arctic foxes and glaucous gulls hunt for chicks as they hatch. The rocks are an excellent example of doleritic intrusion dating back to the Jurassic or lower cretaceous age, made more spectacular by cascading meltwater waterfalls.
Day 7 - DAY 7, NORDAUSTLANDET
One of the three largest islands in Svalbard, separated from Spitsbergen by the icy Hinlopen Strait, Nordaustlandet is mostly covered in ice caps including Austfonna. Part of the Nordaust- Svalbard Nature Reserve, the coasts are made up of rocky beaches and cliffs filled with seabirds. In the north, you may spot polar bears in their denning area and snorting Atlantic walruses hauling out, while Svalbard reindeer roam the cushiony tundra of this polar desert.
Day 8 - DAY 8, KVITOYA
Almost completely covered by the Kvitøyjøkulen ice cap, Kvitøya (White Island) is the easternmost island in Svalbard. Part of the Nordaust-Svalbard Nature Reserve, the ice-free land is barren and rocky. Huge numbers of female Svalbard walrus calve at Kraemerpynten in the east, one of the archipelago’s greatest haul-out sites. It was also here in 1897 that a balloon expedition to the North Pole, led by Salomon August Andree, ended and all three passengers perished at Andréeneset.
Day 9 - DAY 9, ALEXANDRA LAND, FRANZ JOSEF LAND
The Franz Josef Land archipelago is one of the planet’s last great nature reserves where polar bears, whiskered walrus and bowhead whales can be seen. Only accessible by icebreaker, 1,000 km from the North Pole, Alexandra Land is the gateway to the Russian High Arctic. The remote airstrip at Nagurskoye airbase recently gained notoriety when Russian scientists discovered a secret Nazi military base and weather station said to have stored some of Hitler’s looted gold.
Day 10 - DAY 10 - DAY 11, ZEMLYA GEORGA, FRANZ JOSEF LAND
Prince George Island is the largest island in Franz-Josef-Land. Much of the island is under an ice cap with tabular mountains and some ice-free lowlands where only mosses and lichens live on the sparse tundra. Cliff-dwelling birds include little auks, Brünnich's and black guillemots, northern fulmars, black-legged kittiwakes and glaucous gulls. Much of the area was mapped on the Jackson-Harmsworth Expedition (1894-97) in the mistaken belief that Franz Josef Land extended to the North Pole.
Day 11 - DAY 12, HOOKER ISLAND, FRANZ JOSEF LAND
Rubini Rock is the largest seabird rookery in Franz Josef Land where flocks of screeching seabirds - Brünnich’s guillemots, kittiwakes, black guillemots, little auks and glaucous gulls - create their nests. Formed from towering cliffs of volcanic columnar basalt, the rock sits in Tikhaya Bay, or Tikhaya Bukhta, where visiting ships weigh anchor. On shore lie the ruins of a Soviet-era research and polar expedition base. Polar bears roam free and the island’s cushiony tundra supports lush vegetation and lichens.
Day 12 - DAY 13, MACKLINTOK ISLAND, FRANZ JOSEF LAND
Dominated by sea ice and almost completely glaciated, the sprawling land is very much the domain of some of the world’s most stunning wildlife. They share the real estate with colonies of ivory gulls, Brünnich’s guillemots and little auks. Although one of earth’s least trodden chunks of rock, Cape DIllon, to the west, reveals traces of the pioneering age from the Fiala Ziegler (1903–05) and the 1874 Tegetthoff expeditions who climbed Cape Brünn to map the island.
Day 13 - DAY 14, AT SEA
As you cruise to your next port of call, spend the day at sea savouring the ship’s facilities and learning about your destination’s many facets from the knowledgeable onboard experts. Listen to an enriching talk, indulge in a relaxing treatment at the spa, work out in the well-equipped gym, enjoy some down- time in your cabin, share travel reminiscences with newly found friends: the options are numerous.
Day 14 - DAY 15, SEVERNY ISLAND
Until recently, Novaya Zemlya was closed, strictly controlled by Russian Armed Forces. The archipelago marks the boundary between an arctic desert landscape and low-lying tundra with lichens, wildflowers and the polar willow. Brünnich’s guillemots and glaucous gulls nest on the ice cliffs of Severny Island where icebergs calve from the glacier’s tongue, and seals and walrus haul out. A former nuclear weapons testing base remains at Cape Zhelaniya, the northeastern most point of Europe.
Day 15 - DAY 16, AT SEA
As you cruise to your next port of call, spend the day at sea savouring the ship’s facilities and learning about your destination’s many facets from the knowledgeable onboard experts. Listen to an enriching talk, indulge in a relaxing treatment at the spa, work out in the well-equipped gym, enjoy some down- time in your cabin, share travel reminiscences with newly found friends: the options are numerous.
Day 16 - DAY 17, DIKSON
Russia's Arctic capital at 73° North, Dikson is the world’s northernmost mainland town at the entrance to the Yenisei River. With 82 polar nights from December to February, the river ice breaks up from mid-June until October. Separated by a 1.5km strait where walrus and beluga are spotted, the mostly abandoned Dikson island is home to a few polar bears, where lichens, mosses, saxifrages and arctic poppies make up the lush tundra.
Day 17 - DAY 18, YENISEI RIVER
One of the world’s largest river systems, the mighty Yenisei river is more than 3,400 miles long from Dikson on the Arctic Sea to Mongolia. As we pass through the Taymyr Peninsula, we get to meet Nenets, an indigenous people from northern arctic Russia. Mostly reindeer herders, they move gigantic herds more than 1,000 km from winter pastures south of the Arctic Circle to summer pastures in the north, crossing the Yenisei river as it freezes.
Day 18 - DAY 19, DUDINKA
Siberia’s largest port, Dudinka is the northernmost stop on Yenisei river cruises. The open-air complex, Taimyr-Mou, promotes indigenous peoples’ culture and includes a ‘chum’ living space made of reindeer skins. A 45,000-year-old woolly Sopkarga mammoth found frozen on the banks of the Yenisei in 2012 is on display in the museum of local history. Tours to the nearby scenic Putorana plateau, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, include towering waterfalls, fjord lakes, flat-top mountains and deep canyons.
Day 19 - Please Note:
Itineraries are subject to change.

Trip Dates

StartEndPrice FromRoom Type
09-07-202227-07-2022AUD $30,163Oceanview
09-07-202227-07-2022AUD $33,554Balcony. From
09-07-202227-07-2022AUD $44,685Suite
09-07-202227-07-2022AUD $51,657Premium Suite

Inclusions

    • Learn more about Russian history from our on-board team of experts
    • Step on shore in Siberia and find out more about the indigenous Nenets people and their culture
    • Keep an eye out for polar bears and walruses hauling out on Barents Island and Edge Island
    • Explore rarely visited islands in the Russian High Arctic aboard one of our Zodiac excursions
    • Admire the landscape under the midnight sun as we push through pack ice

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