Polar Bear and Cub, SpitsbergenEver since Christopher Columbus discovered that his route to the Orient was blocked by a new and unexpected continent, the quest for a Northwest Passage – a sea route from the Atlantic to the Pacific around the New World’s northern extremities – has been the dream of explorers and adventurers. Drake, Cook and Hudson were among the early seafarers who joined the search, but it was not until the 19th century that arctic exploration hit its peak with England leading the way. The twin arctic quests of the discovering a Northwest Passage and reaching the North Pole became a matter of great national prestige and pride.
Throughout the 19th century dozens of ships and hundreds of men ventured into the vast, unexplored Polar Regions. The tales of their heroic but often ill-fated expeditions provide some of the most thrilling adventure stories ever written. Perhaps the most well-known was the ill-fated Franklin expedition in which Sir John Franklin and his 128 man party left England in 1845 in search of the Northwest Passage and vanished into the Arctic forever. Over a dozen relief expeditions were launched to find the Franklin party but they, too, were unsuccessful, many resulting in further loss of life. It was not until 1905 that Roald Amundsen, a Norwegian, would complete the first successful navigation of the Northwest Passage. Four years later, in 1909, Robert Peary, an American, claimed the North Pole.
In any discussion of the great polar explorers, we should not fail to mention our own son-in-law, Whit Jackson who, as a young college student, spent a summer crossing the high Arctic in a walrus-skin umiak with a National Geographic expedition team, attempting to retrace the migration route of the native Thule Inuit people from Alaska to Greenland a thousand years earlier. Certainly Whit deserves to be included in any panoply of heroic Arctic explorers.
Today, one hundred years after Amundsen and Peary, commercial ships make seasonal transits of the Northwest Passage, giant nuclear submarines patrol the seas below the Arctic ice cap and tourists arrive on giant ice breakers to have their photos taken at the North Pole. Fast forwarding another one hundred years, ships may well be traveling in open waters from Europe to the Far East over the North Pole, if global warming continues at its current pace.
The holiday of a lifetime. The company is Alaksa-owned and thhat makes a big difference to the experineces you get i.e. meet genuine First Nations tribes people. The amount of wildlife was beyond my expectation, and seeing everything on sucha small, intimate boat made it even more spoecial and unique.
Liz O
1 day ago
Adventure Life covered all the details in planning our trip to Ireland. Any questions we had were answered immediately. Any trip glitches, which always happen when traveling, were resolved immediately. There were no worries, just fun!
Kathleen Weller
1 day ago
It was an outstanding, up-close, educational vacation of nature, culture, history, animals and geology! It was everything they promised! Binoculars were plentiful on the boat, but I'm glad I brought my own. Food was excellent. Rooms had black-out shades. Pack/wear multiple layers of clothing (I carried a small backpack when off the ship). Crew were delightful and very accommodating! Remember to jump FEET FIRST first when taking the optional polar plunge! Spend as much time outdoors as you are able and ENJOY!!!
Janet Dutton
6 days ago
Excellent travel advice and service
This is my second experience working with Adventure Life. I’m sold. Jess Heuermann is an experienced traveler and provides a lot of useful information when planning a trip. These are the questions I like to ask at the outset - What’s it like to go here, there, what would you suggest, what do people report, can we add any additional side trips? Jess took the time to answer my questions and seek additional information to share with me. Petchie Colina is outstanding in helping with travel logistics and final preparations. Adventure Life has excellent guides and offers private guides and small group adventures. We enjoyed the opportunity to talk with the guides and drivers to learn more about their countries, cultures and histories. A highlight was having the guides pick local restaurants where we could share meals together. Highly recommend.
Claire Cordon
1 week ago
Our six-day tour in Iceland went smoothly with one exception. We had asked for two rooms each night. Somehow we were booked with one room with three beds. It could not be fixed at the first hotel in Reykjavik because the hotel was fully booked. Once informed of the problem, however, Adventure Life rebooked for two rooms for the remainder of the trip. As an 85-year-old traveler, I appreciated that one could participate at different physical levels at many of the stops. Iceland is a great place to visit but on the expensive side.