Guide suggest the Arctic first | We learn about the early explorers
By Eileen Ogintz
Should we go to the Arctic or Antarctica, many travelers ask. Answer: go to both. But “Go to the Arctic first,” says Dr. James McClintock.
As many as 75 percent the 120 people on this Abercrombie & Kent expedition to the Arctic, have already been to Antarctica, including us.
“I’ve wanted to come to the Arctic ever since we went to Antarctica 10 years ago,” said Californian Lisa, who asked that we not use her last name. She is traveling with her three grown children and her son’s partner. Now that the kids live across the country in New York and Colorado, it is a real gift for them to be together, she said, adding that her husband opted out of this trip. “I thought our days of traveling together were over when they went to college,” she said, delighted that hasn’t been the case, though it has taken 10 years before they could make this trip happen. “I’m grateful not only to be here—it’s fantastic—but to be here with my people.”
[Photos by Andy Yemma unless otherwise noted]
Dr McClintock, the endowed professor of polar and marine biology at the University of Alabama at Birmingham and the author of “Lost Antarctica, Adventures in a Disappearing Land,” has been part of expeditions in both places, as have other members of the Abercrombie & Kent expedition team. Our Expedition leader, Chris Srigley has been on over 100 voyages to Antarctica, for example.
He compares Antarctica to a person “with a big personality… look at me, they are saying.” The Arctic on the other hand, is like “the shy person you have to draw out and appreciate their subtleties. You have to be patient and be accepting of what the Arctic gives you,” he said.
He was talking specifically about the thousands of Harp Seals on sea ice we saw from the ship. “In all my trips, I’ve never seen that many seals at once. Neither had any or the guides or people steering this ship,” Srigley said. Likewise, he marveled as we did at the huge gaggle of Walruses, we were fortunate enough to see on the beach a few days ago in Wahlbergoya.
“I love the challenge of the Arctic,” he continued. “But you have to manage your expectations…there is weather, there is fog the animals move…the important thing is we do our best to give people the experience they came for,” whatever their physical challenges, he noted.
“I would never say I have a favorite,” said our Cruise Director Arthur Diaz who has done 10 seasons in Antarctica and six in the Arctic. “I love both for their uniqueness.” For children, he added, Antarctica might be easier as the wildlife is so abundant, whereas in the Arctic “you have to search for it. That makes it so gratifying when you see it. I have not had a trip when I haven’t seen a Polar Bear,” he added, “But there is no guarantee… that’s part of the excitement.”
The reason Dr. McClintock suggests visiting the Arctic first is because here you must search for wildlife, as opposed to Antarctica where the wildlife is so abundant. In fact our expedition is called “In Search of the Polar Bear.” When you see a Polar Bear—or the thousands of Harp Seal as we did this morning–it is very special and very exciting, he said. “But the wildlife isn’t everywhere,” as it is in Antarctica.
Antarctica, he believes, “leaves an imprint on you for the rest of your life…it is as if you have been to another planet, it is so otherworldly.”
The Arctic, of course is beautiful in its own way. Very Beautiful. But makes us no promises of what we will see.
That’s OK with us. We just have to keep looking. Whoa! Whales sighted from the bridge. Bring the cameras and binoculars!
Yesterday and today we are crossing the Greenland Sea, southwest from Svalbard to Greenland. It is nice to have some down time–if we want it. There are two lounges for reading and chatting, a fitness center, a spa, a never ending array of meals and snacks. But there are also interesting lectures from our expert expedition staff. For example, yesterday Ornithologist Dr. Pepper Trail (yes, that really is his name) talked about how birds of the Arctic world survived. Botanist Nellie Nilsen, from northern Norway, discussed growing up in the Arctic while Geologist Dr. Jason F. Hicks gave a talk on “Forming an Ocean–the Birth of the Atlantic.
As if that weren’t enough, Historian Rob Caskie gave a rousing presentation on some of the early explorers seeking the North Pole. Caskie said he was particularly interested in what people do “when the chips are down.”
That was certainly the case with early Polar Explorers like Fridtjof Nansen, who first crossed Greenland on skis. Then he tried to reach the North Pole on the revolutionary designed ship the Fram. The ship was designed with no straight edges so it could stay on top of the polar ice and not get crushed. Nansen’s goal was to float in the Fram on top of the ice to the North Pole, though he never got close and barely made it back alive with his companion.
“Consider the risks,” Caskie said. “The journey was excruciating.” At one point, Nansen needed to jump in the frigid water to rescue their kayaks. They had to hunker down in a hut made from snow, ice, and walrus skin for nine months. They had to eat all of their sled dogs before they were found in June 1896 by British explorer Frederick Jackson. The Fram, meanwhile continued its drift until it emerged from the ice and floated all the way to Greenland.
Nansen was also a neurosurgeon and humanitarian. He worked tirelessly to help refugees after World War I, for which he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize after his death.
Roald Amundsen, who famously was the first to reach the South Pole and navigate the Northwest Passage, also sailed on the Fram and reached Antarctica in September 1910. Amundsen got to Antarctica in September of 1910, and reached the South Pole on 14 December 1911. It was 14 months between arrival into Antarctica, and arriving at South Pole.He flew over the North Pole in a hydrogen dirigible in 1926 and may have been the first human to reach the North Pole, although that was claimed by American William Peary in 1909. Sadly, Amundsen died in June 1928 while flying a plane on a rescue mission in the Arctic.
Our A&K Expedition of 120 is divided into two groups – Amundsen group and Nansen group – for excursions and certain shipboard events. Caskie also regaled us with tales of an early Swedish explorer, SA Andree, and two companions, who attempted to reach the North Pole in poorly designed and built hydrogen balloon. The three perished. But they had a most interesting packing list:
Today, you can step aboard the Fram at the Fram-Polar Exploration Museum in Oslo, Norway.
And you can learn much more about these heroic scientist explorers as we will from more of Caskie’s talks.
As we sail on this very comfortable ship, Ponant’s Le Lyrial, what those explorersendured.