The Arctic is home to a wide variety of animals - from polar bears to Arctic foxes, muskoxen, walruses, whales, reindeer, and many other species. Our expedition leader Christian Bruttel will unveil the world of Arctic wildlife, including common myths and the real stories behind them.
The dramatic events surrounding the Austro-Hungarian North Pole Expedition
There is probably no other novel that is as suitable for getting in the mood for an expedition to the remote Russian archipelago of Franz Josef Land than The Terrors of Ice and Darkness, the debut work of the Austrian author Christoph Ransmayr, first published in 1984. Thirty-six years later, Ransmayr, who was recently awarded the Ludwig Börne Prize, one of the most important literary awards in German-speaking countries, is now one of the major contemporary German-language authors.
Walter Wellman (center), in Tromsø on board the Frithjof during his 1898-1899 expedition to Franz Josef Land.
Try, Try and Try Again: American Expeditions to the North Pole, 1898 to 1905
By Steve Wellmeier, Sales Director of Poseidon’s US office
For me, as an American who’s been involved in polar travel for more than 20 years, some of the most fascinating episodes about Franz Josef Land are the multiple times American adventurers in the late 19th- and early 20th-centuries selected it as a base station to reach the North Pole.
I’ll let some science nerd give you all the geological facts and figures about Svalbard’s glaciers in another blog post. But, since I’m writing this one, and because I come from an entirely different side of Poseidon’s polar expedition cruise business – marketing and sales – I’d like to write about this subject from a different perspective…
… the perspective of being on the water in St. Jonsfjord in a sea kayak with my older and wiser brother Tom, surrounded by brash ice, with a massive glacier face looming in front of me.
Knud Rasmussen, 1879-1933, was a Greenlandic–Danish polar explorer and anthropologist. He was the first European to cross the Northwest Passage via dog sled and is largely considered the ‘Father of Eskimology’. According to our expedition leader and director of expedition operations Anja Erdmann-Rutten, Knud Rasmussen should be considered a key figure in polar exploration, similar to Nansen, Amundsen, or Peary.
The same trip to the Arctic today and a hundred years ago are two drastically different things. For one, the time to get there – a few days on a modern expedition ship versus several years with dog sleds, skis, vessels getting stuck in the pack ice, and even on foot. Then there are everyday activities of the voyage – today, you may go on a Zodiac cruise and chill in the Jacuzzi among icebergs, when early explorers had their hands full with chipping ice off the decks, melting snow for freshwater or hunting for food. This makes us appreciate the early Arctic explorers even more – driven by sheer will and passion, they faced challenges and braved seas, making their way into history books and our memories.
Those of us in the sales & marketing departments at Poseidon Expeditions sometimes take for granted that our prospective travelers know what to expect on an expedition cruise. Yup, we assume too much. Our brochures and website feature great photos and itineraries, focus on our talented team of expedition staff – marine biologists, ornithologists, polar historians and geologists – our comfortable 114-passenger Sea Spirit, and the wildlife that you can expect to see.
Sure, we can take ourselves to great places around the world through books, movies and even YouTube, and we’ve all been doing a lot of that at home the past month.
But there’s nothing like the real deal – taking an international flight to an exciting new destination, boarding a small-capacity expedition ship and heading off into the remote polar wilderness of…[here, Dear Reader, insert your bucket-list spot: Antarctica, East Greenland, Svalbard, Franz Josef Land, North Pole, etc.].
The concepts of sustainable travel and lifestyle are becoming more and more relevant to our everyday choices. What small things can we change to help worldwide conservation? Which operator do we travel with to not harm the destination?
Exploring the polar regions aboard small ships provides societally conscious travelers the opportunity to experience first-hand the issues facing wildlife conservation, environmental and sea ice degradation, etc., and to go home and share this with friends and family.
Seeing the Northern Lights, also known as Aurora Borealis, is a bucket-list item for many travelers. And no wonder: this natural phenomenon is one of the most beautiful light shows one can ever experience. Fantastic shades of green and blue, and sometimes even yellow, pink, and red, create giant, illuminated ribbons that dance across the dark Arctic sky.