23 Aug 2017

SHO: Captivated by Franz Josef Land

We have been so engrossed and busy exploring Franz Joseph Land that time has marched on almost unnoticed. Our voyage across the Kara Sea was pleasant, it was great to welcome back some of the wildlife that had been noticeably absent since leaving the Chukchi Sea.

We arrived at Franz Joseph Land last Saturday. We had arranged to rendezvous with staff from the Arctic National Park at Alger Island. They had been undertaking some archaeological work at ‘Camp Ziegler’ which had been first established by the explorer Evelyn Briggs Baldwin in 1898-1899. Sadly the site will soon be lost due to erosion, as will many other sites in the Arctic, so the team was gathering as much data and artefacts as possible.

The team joined us for our time here and we will drop them at their base on Hooker Island before departing for Murmansk. We have since visited numerous other sites here in this amazing archipelago, ice conditions this year have prevented us from reaching a couple sites, but that has been more than made up for by the spectacular landings we have made.

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