An Arctic adventure

Do polar bears also eat penguins?” asked a passenger, gazing over the ice floe off the coast of Greenland.

“A polar bear would, if it could find one,” says the first officer of the expedition ship, MS Disko II, before explaining that polar bears live exclusively in the Arctic region and penguins are to be found only in the southern hemisphere.
A few days later, and with some extra knowledge — the passenger realised with embarrassment just how foolish his question was.
A growing number of people are choosing to spend their holidays travelling by ship to the far-flung corners of the Earth so they can educate themselves at the same time.
Today, the Caribbean is awash with tourists and dozens of cruise ships are docked in every port in the Mediterranean. That makes trips to remote destinations like the Arctic an attractive option for people seeking a less crowded holiday.
New Foundland, Labrador, Franz Joseph Land and Baffin Island are no longer destinations exclusive to explorers and scientists. A trip through the Northwest Passage, which connects the Atlantic and Pacific oceans in the northern hemisphere, is also possible.
The passage is 5,780 kilometres in length and the route leads through the Arctic Ocean past countless islands.
The first person to travel the passage by sea was the Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen who completed the journey in three years between 1903 and 1906.
The MS Alexander von Humboldt is voyaging to the glaciers of Greenland this summer and will travel the route taken by the Vikings who arrived on the world’s largest island in AD985 led by Eric the Red.
The ship is due to visit Prince Christian Sound, the ice floe covered bay of Qaqortoq in south Greenland and the port town of Sisimiut. It also passes the Eqip Sermia glacier, from which chunks of ice are breaking into the sea, as well as the basalt island of Disko. The most northerly point on the voyage is the fishing town of Upernavik.
Expedition ships do not just voyage to polar-regions. They also travel to the more exotic and warmer destinations of the Gambia, Orinoco and Amazon rivers, the most popular of which is the Amazon.
The Amazon is home to about 50 million species of animal and plant life and has the largest drainage area of any river in the world.
A typical cruise travels from French Guyana, along a portion of the Amazon River and then down the Brazilian coastline to Rio de Janeiro.
Passengers have an opportunity to get closer to howling monkeys, pink dolphins and if they are lucky, they might spot a humpback whale in the Abrolhos Archipelago.
Vessels travelling south will pass the Falkland Islands and passengers will see magellan, rock hopping and gentoo penguin species as well as the oystercatcher bird and the steamer duck on George Island and Barren Island as well as the emperor penguin at Volunteer Point.
There are mighty glaciers to admire on Danger Island and Paulet Island and whales to watch in the Prince Gustav Channel.
A trip to Greenland costs about $5,110. An Amazon cruise costs about $7,667 per person depending on the length of the voyage and the standard of comfort.

Hilke Segbers