- Ship
- 6 Breakfasts, 6 Lunches, 6 Dinners
Cruise further east exploring the Kara Sea. Know as the "ice cellar" of the Arctic, Kara Sea is often encumbered by trapped ice floes. There are several sites and small archipelagoes along the Siberian coast to explore, tracing the path of polar explorers searching for the Northeast Passage. The areas to explore are determined considering the weather and ice conditions but some areas you can visit include Russky Island, Troynoy Island and Cape Chelyuskin.
Both Russky Island and Troynoy Island are part of the Great Arctic State Nature Reserve, the largest reserve in Eurasia. Russky Island is the site of a former polar station, established, in part, to monitor navigation along the Northern Sea Route, the Russian section of the Northeast Passage.
Troynoy Island is the largest of the Izvesti Tsik Islands, about 90 miles (150 km) off the coast of the Taymyr Peninsula. The island is uninhabited, except for the researchers at the weather station. Home to an ivory gull colony, the island is also frequented by polar bears.
At the tip of the Taymyr Peninsula is Cape Chelyuskin, the northernmost point of the Russian and Eurasian mainland and the site of another active research station.
Dependent on ice and weather conditions, an exploration of Severnaya Zemlya embodies the true spirit of adventure. Dominated by glaciers and polar desert, the archipelago was not discovered until 1913 and remained virtually unexplored till 1930–32, the last major undiscovered territory on earth. Amongst many possible destinations, visit a number of glaciers, including the Vavilov Ice Cap and those at Marat Fjord. If conditions are favorable, cruise the Red Army Strait, flanked by the massive Academy of Sciences Glacier (which also runs along the eastern shore of Zhuravlev Bay) and the smaller Rusanov Glacier. As one of the very few people to ever explore this remote area in depth have your camera ready to capture these amazing sights.