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 Probus - A land of snow and ice
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A land of snow and ice

by David McGonigal | 12 Nov 2016

From icy landscapes to close encounters with polar bears, the Northwest Passage is a fascinating journey for the adventurous.

 

Australia has a surprisingly strong connection with the North Pole. It was an Australian, Sir Hubert Wilkins who first attempted to take a submarine under the pole in 1931. The legendary British Arctic explorer, Sir John Franklin was the Lieutenant-Governor of Van Diemen’s Land (now Tasmania) for six years before he set off on his disastrous attempt to pass through the Northwest Passage in 1845.

Much of the story of the Northwest Passage has been of a maze of ice-clogged straits proving largely impenetrable to shipping. However, that all changed about a decade ago when even the thickest ice largely thinned or cleared. Suddenly the possibility of voyaging through this almost-mystical region is a real possibility. Several companies now offer Northwest Passage cruises during the northern summer (in July and August).

All creates great and small

However, less ice is a mixed blessing. Sure, it opens up the only route, as well as provides access to tiny Inuit communities along the way, but more ice means more polar bears. And most visitors to the Arctic come to see polar bears in their natural habitat.

Nowhere else matches the excitement of a ship’s bow crowded with people looking at an inquisitive polar bear standing on a nearby ice floe sniffing you as his potential lunch. It’s said that a polar bear can smell a dead seal some 65 kilometres away. A ship’s galley preparing lunch can be even more alluring. Often, the cubs are most curious while their mothers battle to keep their offspring from investigating ships that come into their world.

Sometimes whales make an appearance, including narwhals with their long tusks reminiscent of unicorns, and even sperm whales, the square-headed whale of Moby Dick.

The other marine mammal to see, besides the polar bear, is the walrus. These impossible creatures with their long whiskers and giant tusks are apparently much smarter than they look. But that wouldn’t be hard as they certainly don’t look too bright. They can sometimes be found on ice or on the shores of bays like Dundas Harbour, the site of an early Royal Canadian Mounted Police station built to bring law (and sovereignty) to the north. The post still stands – it was used as a Hudson Bay Trading Post for a while – but it hasn’t been occupied for more than 50 years.

Even if you don’t have an interest in bird watching, you’ll find the flocks of birds nesting on the sea cliffs a remarkable sight. Each expedition ship has an expert birder on board who can explain the remarkable features of the guillemots and little auks you’ll encounter. With luck, you’ll also see cute puffins displaying truly remarkable beaks in the breeding season.

Ship to shore

A voyage heading westward through the Northwest Passage normally begins in Greenland then crosses the Davis Strait to Lancaster Sound.

From Lancaster Sound, the route gets tricky, as hundreds of historic navigators can attest. Put simply, turn left before Somerset Island, cut through Belot Strait, pass through Victoria Strait and hug the southern shore of Victoria Island until you can see the Pacific Ocean.

Victoria Strait was in the news in September 2014 when a Canadian government expedition announced it had found the remains of Franklin’s ship Erebus here in relatively shallow water. It was the first time in 169 years it’d been seen by the outside world, so we might finally understand what happened.

Franklin set off with the Erebus and Terror in May 1845. It was the best equipped and most ambitious polar expedition Britain ever launched. The ships, with 130 men, were seen in the Canadian Arctic in July and have not been seen since. Most of northern Canada was explored looking for the expedition, but it wasn’t until 1905 that a Norwegian, Roald Amundsen, finally sailed the whole way through the Northwest Passage.

While this is a wild, uninhabited land, most voyages call into one of the local communities, perhaps Resolute or Pond Inlet, historic Gjoa Haven or villages with intriguing names like Kugluktuk or Ulukhaktok.

For history buffs, the ultimate landing site along the Northwest Passage is Beechey Island. This is where the Franklin expedition spent its first winter.

For an unusual adventure, a voyage along the Northwest Passage is hard to beat. It has scenery and exotic animals, a climate as far removed from Australia as one can imagine, and it provides a chance to experience ice in all its forms, from towering icebergs to endless sea ice. There’s a glimpse into the lives of the Inuit, still hunting and fishing as they have done for centuries. Best of all, it gives an understanding of a slice of the world that is little known.