Overview
Flight Paris/Kangerlussuaq + transfers + Flight Nome/Seattle
With featured guest Nick Rains, Australian photo ambassador.
PONANT takes you to the boundaries of the Far North during an exceptional trip in the wake of the legendary explorer Roald Amundsen. Sail the mythical Northwest Passage, a historic and famous shipping route, which winds its way among the labyrinthine channels of the northernmost world. Spend 23 days marvelling at the beauty of these remote regions where Inuit villages appear amidst the landscapes of the Arctic.
Greenland, and its traditional colourful houses, is the first port of call on your long adventure . You will sail along the west coast of this immense island with its hypnotic panoramas, between mineral landscapes and immaculate expanses, where the interplay between the contrasts seems endless. Monumental icebergs criss-cross the Labrador Sea with you, to travel towards Baffin Bay.
Set sail to Northern Canada and the entrance of the Northwest Passage. Amundsen was the first to pave the way on this northern route between the Atlantic and the Pacific Oceans, which long remained just a theory for navigators and scientists. In Gjoa Haven, discover the wintering site of the expedition he undertook between 1903 and 1906. Like him, get to know the Inuit people who perpetuate their ancestral traditions in the heart of grandiose nature. On Beechey Island, retrace the steps of the Franklin expedition, before marvelling at the sublime canyon at Fury Beach.
Throughout your trip, you will enter majestic fjords and sail at the edge of the ice floes, in the hope of glimpsing the polar bear, the lord of the Far North. After Bellot Strait, the narrow passage of Coningham Bay will provide the perfect spot for an encounter with remarkable beluga whales. Try to spot bowhead whales in the Beaufort Sea; as for grey whales, these occupy the waters of the Bering Strait before they migrate towards the south of the continent. An exceptional journey taking in the emblematic fauna of the Far North, dreamlike landscapes and unforgettable encounters with the people of the North.
Trip Highlights
- With featured guest Nick Rains, Australian photo ambassador.
- The crossing of the Northwest Passage, a labyrinthine shipping route at the boundaries of the Far North, in the wake of the legendary explorer Roald Amundsen.
- Outings and shore visits in zodiac inflatables with a team of experienced naturalist guides.
- The possibility of meeting the Greenlandic and Canadian Inuit people to share a unique moment in Holman and Gjoa Haven.
- In the footsteps of the great polar explorers, the discovery of Amundsen’s wintering site in Gjoa Haven, right near the mythical shipwrecks of John Franklin’s HMS Erebus and HMS Terror.
- In Fort Ross, discovering the remains of a former whaling- and fur-trading post.
- The discovery of the western coast of Greenland, bathed by Baffin Bay, and its traditional villages surrounded by icebergs, glaciers, tundra and sumptuous mountains.
- Disko Bay, listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site, to see the Northern Hemisphere’s largest icebergs.
- Landscapes: ice pack, myriads of jagged islands, fjords, glaciers, mountain chains, monumental icebergs as you travel towards Greenland.
- Wildlife: Arctic foxes, sea birds, belugas, narwhals, bowhead whales, humpback whales, muskox, walruses and the possibility of seeing polar bears.