GATEWAY TO THE NORTHWEST PASSAGE 

SHIP OFFERING THIS ITINERARY

National Geographic Endurance

Launched in 2020, the National Geographic Endurance is a next-generation expedition ship, purpose built for polar navigation. The Category A vessel is a fully stabilized, highly strengthened ship designed to navigate polar-passages and uncharted waters all year round. Designed to provide an extremely smooth ride in even the most adverse of conditions, reduced spray on deck and wave-splicing action making for superior observation.

Day 1 Reykjavik, Iceland

Day 2 Fly from Reykjavik to Kangerlussuaq, Greenland

The morning is at leisure followed by lunch and a tour of the city ending at either the National Museum or the Whale Museum. Transfer to the airport for a chartered flight to Greenland and embark our ship at the head of Kangerlussuaq fjord, a 120-mile-long waterway whose name means “large fjord” in Greenlandic.

Day 3 Sisimuit, Greenland

Dozens of deep fjords carve into Greenland’s west coast, many with glaciers fed by the ice sheet that covers about 80 percent of the country. Discover this beautiful and rugged coastline in Zodiacs, keeping an eye out for humpback and minke whales. At Sisimiut, a former whaling port, visit the museum and stroll around a picturesque jumble of historic and modern wooden buildings.

Day 4  Illulissat, Greenland

Sail into Qeqertarsuup Tunua, also known as Disko Bay, to explore the World Heritage site of Ilulissat Icefjord, a tongue of the Greenland ice cap that extends to the sea. Take an extraordinary cruise among towering icebergs at the mouth of the fjord. Visit the town of Ilulissat and walk to the archaeological site in Sermermiut, an abandoned valley previously inhabited by several distinct Inuit cultures.

Days 5- 7 Baffin Island, Canada

We continue our exploration of the Canadian High Arctic with a visit to the small Inuit community of Pond Inlet, Nunavut. Explore some of the beautiful bays and inlets along Baffin Island’s Lancaster Sound, a favourite Inuit hunting and fishing location for hundreds of years. Carved by Ice Age glaciers, Lancaster Sound is also the eastern gateway to the Arctic Archipelago, where European explorers like William Baffin first ventured in the 17th century to search for the Northwest Passage. Our days here will be spent searching for ringed seals, arctic foxes, walruses, and polar bears, as well as beluga and bowhead whales. Visit Devon Island and take a walk with our ship’s archaeologist to learn about the Thule people—ancestors of the modern Inuit—that once inhabited this region.

Days 8-11 Queen Elizabeth Islands, Canada

We explore the ice-choked channels and glacier carved islands that stretch for hundreds of miles— a stunning display of raw geology. We’ll explore the rocky, “Mars-like” terrain of uninhabited Devon Island. We take our cues from nature: following wildlife, stopping for hikes on the tundra, dropping anchor in a beautiful fjord or an iceberg-strewn bay to explore and kayak beneath massive ice sculptures and soaring cliffs. Sail past the northernmost part of mainland North America in the Bellot Strait, one of the narrowest and most infamous of the passage. We’ll learn about the Inuit peoples who have hunted and fished here for thousands of years, as well as be on the lookout for the animals that call this region home such as ringed seals, arctic foxes, musk oxen, walruses, and polar bears, as well as beluga and bowhead whales.

The expedition team will attempt a landing at Beechey Island, a Canadian National Historic Site. Named after explorer Frederick William Beechey, the island is the final resting place of members of Sir John Franklin’s 1845–46 expedition to find the Northwest Passage. The graves, on a desolate rocky beach, were discovered in 1850 by a team searching for signs of the ill fated expedition. Predominantly covered in glaciers and ice fields, Coburg Island and its surrounding waters comprise the Nirjutiqavvik National Wildlife Area. The island’s steep coastal cliffs are an ideal habitat for hundreds of thousands of nesting seabirds like Brünnich’s guillemots (thick-billed murres), blacklegged kittiwakes, northern fulmars and black guillemots.

Days 12-16 Ellesmere Island, Canada

Heading ever northward, we make our way up the beautiful and remote east coast of Ellesmere Island. Cruise along scenic Smith Bay (a.k.a. Skog Inlet) bordered by a steep wall of mountains, with a glacial ice tongue which pours down the mountains on either side. Be up on the bridge as we search for a patch of “polar bear ice,” the mixture of first-year and multi-year sea ice that is the preferred habitat of the ice bears. Our binoculars seek out any small ivory-coloured dot on an otherwise white ice surface. We strain to see the dot move. Yes, it is a bear, spotted at a considerable distance. We approach, ever so slowly, stalking the polar bear much as the bear stalks seals on the ice. At the end of the bay, we go ashore to hike or kayak in picturesque surroundings. Ice is always present here. On our next day, we enter Buchanan Bay, and turn into Alexandra Fjord to reach the area of Skraeling Island. (“Skraeling” is the word that the Norse settlers of Greenland used for the Inuit.) This is the site of an important archaeological find. Norse artifacts show that the Norse traded with the natives here on Ellesmere Island, far north of their settlements on Greenland. Last summer, quite unexpectedly, we discovered the remains of a summer encampment of natives, we think of the Thule Culture (the third of the three Inuit cultures to occupy this area.) We saw rings of stones that held down the edges of skin tents against the wind, and stone chambers that might have been constructed for storage. Perhaps the Inuit camped at this very site as they traded with the Norsemen, exchanging skins and walrus ivory for European goods, especially metal.

Days 17-19 Exploring above 80 degrees North

On these two days we explore to 80ºN and beyond, ice conditions permitting. We take full advantage of our “human resources”—our experienced captain, expedition leader and naturalists—as well as our technological resources. We chart where the ice is impenetrable and where there are leads guiding us to exciting discoveries.

Day 20 Kiatassuaq Island, Greenland

Marking the southern border of Melville Bay, Kiatassuaq Island means “a large torso” in the Greenlandic language. Known as an important area for whaling in the 19th century, we spend the day exploring the southern reaches of Melville Bay and shores of the island, marvelling at the ice dispatched from the Greenland Ice Cap as well as being on the lookout for whales and other marine life.

Days 21-22 Disko Island, Greenland

Continue south, stopping to explore the volcanic Disko Island, home to isolated Greenlandic settlements, dramatic cliffs laced with waterfalls, and black-sand beaches.

Another beautiful locale is the Ilulissat Icefjord, a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Home to Jakobshavn, one of the most active glaciers in the world, this is a great spot to enjoy a Zodiac excursion past towering icebergs. Venturing ashore in the town of Ilulissat (which means “iceberg”) will allow you to visit the icefjord on foot and gaze at this unforgettable river of ice from the rocky shore.

Days 23-24 Disembark in Kangerlussuaq and fly to Reykjavik

Sail back into Søndre Strømfjord to Kangerlussuaq and disembark the ship. Take an evening charter flight to Reykjavík and transfer to the Marriott Keflavik Airport Hotel. On our final morning, you may choose to enjoy a soak in the Blue Lagoon or take a tour of the Reykjanes Peninsula before transferring to the airport for flights home.