Franz Josef Land - M/V Greg Mortimer

Arrive in Kirkenes (KKN), on the northern coast of Norway, where you will be met on arrival to commence a tour of Kirkenes, prior to boarding the MV Greg Mortimer in the late afternoon.

The tour of Kirkenes will start with a drive to the Russian border, where you will learn about the significant events that occurred in this area. Afterwards, you will continue to the mining community of Bjornevatn, discovered in the 1860s and holding the largest iron reserve in Norway. At Mount Storfjellet, enjoy marvellous views of the area before ending your tour with a visit to the Borderland Museum. You will then transfer to the pier for embarkation and will have time to settle into your cabin before our important safety briefings. Sail the scenic Bokfjord to reach the Barents Sea, on our way to Murmansk in neighbouring Russia.

After sailing overnight, we stop in Murmansk to clear security for entering Russia. While the ship undergoes its security clearance procedures, you may have the opportunity to go on a city tour of Murmansk, visiting the monument to the soldier of WW2 and also, the first nuclear icebreaker - Lenin.

The next two days are spent at sea, allowing you the opportunity to get to know your fellow expeditioners and to settle into ship life. Enjoy informative on-board lectures from the expedition crew, preparing you for your forthcoming landings. Depending on weather conditions, we may attempt a landing or Zodiac cruise in front of our first glacier.

We will cruise along the coast of Novaya Zemlya and will enjoy our first glimpse of the tundra of the high Arctic. The Novaya Zemlya archipelago was once an important nuclear research site during the cold war and today, only a few places in the north are accessible to visitors. These islands offer stunning rugged Arctic landscapes - enormous extinct volcanoes, jagged cliffs and the most isolated mountain range in the Baltic Sea. For wildlife lovers, Novaya Zemlya boasts a great variety of flora and fauna, many of which are on the brink of extinction.

We hope to visit Inostrantseva Bay, which has one of the most picturesque glaciers in the entire archipelago, offering breathtaking panoramic views of Arctic wilderness. The fog can be quite thick here and the swell can be high, but we will attempt to launch our Zodiacs to explore the bay and photograph the stunning icy landscape. If we're able to land, we will enjoy hiking along the coastline and observe some of the endemic species of Arctic flora and fauna.

Just north of the northern tip of the Novaya Zemlya Archipelago is Oransky, a group of several small inshore islands, established in 20019 and located within the Russian Arctic National Park. The islands aren't inhabited by humans, but remnants of early hunting activity are visible here. At nearby Zhelania Cape, situated at the northeastern-most tip of Northern Island, a manned weather station and a military base were in operation, but both were closed in the 1990s. On Oransky Islands, Brunnich's guillemot, black-legged kittiwake, glaucous gull, black guillemot, Atlantic puffin and great skua can be found breeding. You may get a chance to see a massive walrus rookery, various whale species and the Novaya Zemlya reindeer. If you're very fortunate, you may also be able to see polar bear and the ones found at Novaya Zemlya, are considered to be a genetically unique sub-species.

Franz Josef Land is a stark yet beautiful world of glaciers, mosses and lichens. Approximately five million sea bird nest on the archipelago every year, with the thick-billed guillemot accounting for approximately a fifth of the birdlife. Other seabird such as fulmar, kittiwake, Brunnich's guillemot, black guillemot and little auk are common throughout the archipelago. On the flat tundra, nest other species such as common eider, purple sandpiper, Arctic skua, glaucous gull, ivory gull, Arctic tern and snow bunting. In addition to its prolific birdlife, Franz Josef Land is also home to two Arctic giants - the Polar bear and the walrus and there is also a population of Arctic fox, which typically have their territories near seabird habitats. The waters of Franz Josef Land are visited by whales, including humpback, bowhead, narwhal, and white beluga whale. Walrus, ringed seals, bearded seals and an amazing species of mammals, choose Franz Josef Land, and the water areas around it, as their home.

There are a host of landing sites to choose from over the next 7 days, weather, wind, and sea-ice conditions will determine our final itinerary and the order in which we visit these sites, but our expert crew will ensure that no opportunity is missed along the way.

We hope to stop on Bell Island, where the remains of an empty cabin, built in 1880 by British explorer Benjamin Leigh Smith, can be found. Moving onto Mabel island, you will have the opportunity to get close to a little auk colony, as the birds nest between the rocks on the slope above the beach where the Zodiacs land. Located in an unglaciated area in the Southwest of Northbrook Island, Cape Flora is one of the most famous historical sites in Franz Josef Land, because it is one of the most accessible locations in the archipelago and often served as a base for polar expeditions in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Cape Flora features some of the most beautiful tundra in Franz Josef Land, but landings on the rocky beach, which is prone to swell from the Barents Sea, can often be tricky. Cape Flora is where Benjamin Leigh Smith's vessel Eira was shipwrecked in 1881, after being trapped in pack ice.

Prince George is the largest and longest island of the Franz Josef Archipelago. Most of the island is covered in large glaciers and ice domes, such as the Brusilov Ice Dome - the highest point of the island. A landing at Geographers Bay allows for a hike up one of the ice domes to stretch our legs and to enjoy the wonderful views over the archipelago, as Prince George Island is not fully glaciated. It's also a great spot for enjoying the typical flowers of the north Arctic tundra.

Tikhaya Bay was a major base for polar expeditions, and where a team of meteorologists from the Russian Sedov station were marooned at the beginning of the Second World War. It was also the location of a meteorological station between 1929 and 1963. The remains of the old Russian station is worth a visit and after thousands of rusting barrels were found and cleared here in recent years, the station now resembles a ghost town or a living museum. Here, you will also find the world's northernmost Russian post office.

At Rubini Rock on Hooker Island, the impressive basalt cliffs create the best bird cliffs in the archipelago, housing more than 100,000 birds comprising mostly of Brunnich guillemot but also kittiwake and little auks. The bird cliff lies just off of Calm Bay and is perfect for Zodiac cruises. The island is a volcanic plug, the central remains of a conical volcano. At Cape Tegethoff, the first landing point of Austro-Hungarian expeditioners Julius Von Payer and Karl Weyprecht in 1873, you will find beautiful basalt rocks and bird cliff rookeries full of guillemot, gull, kittiwake and little auk.

Champ Island is famous for the incredible stone spheres or geodes, commonly called Devils Marbles, with sizes ranging from tennis balls to boulders that are three metres in diameter. These rocks are a unique geological feature that can be found only in the Arctic regions. Keep a look out for walrus in the water, or hauled out on the beach, during our wet landing.

At Cape Norway on Jackson Island, explore the site where the famous Norwegian explorers Fritjoj Nansen and Hjalmar Johansen spent the winter of 1895-96, after returning from their attempt to reach the North Pole. You can see the remains of the stone hut built by the men, including a big log that was used as a makeshift roof. A commemorative plaque marks this event, where the men survived the winter until the following summer, before resuming their journey southwards.

Cape Fligely on Prince Rudolf Island is situated at 81° 51'N, this is the northernmost point of Eurasia, where we can cruise along the ice edge and perhaps get a glimpse to the North Pole, in very clear weather conditions. A visit to Teplitz Bay, will allow you to witness an abandoned Russian meteorological station, once the northernmost weather station in the world. The bay is often full of ice, but provides a marvellous opportunity to enjoy the northernmost Zodiac cruise.

Walrus can be found everywhere on the sea ice in the Franz Josef archipelago. We hope to visit one of the established haul out sites at Stolichky, to observe walrus on land. Polar bears can be seen almost everywhere on, or between the islands. We may see some on land but we hope to find them in their natural habitat, on the pack Ice. Seeing polar bears is a highlight on any voyage to Franz Josef Land and can happen at any moment. We will change the itinerary in case we encounter one or more polar bear, maximising every opportunity and spending time observing the king of the Arctic.

On leaving Franz Josef Land, there is an opportunity to see whales - possibly the elusive bowhead whale - as we set sail across the Barents Sea.

Enjoy time on deck, with a variety of seabird following in our wake.

We arrive back in Murmansk for clearance procedures, before continuing to Kirkenes.

Arrive in Kirkenes in the morning and bid farewell to your expedition team and fellow expeditioners, before continuing on your onward journey. A transfer to the airport will be provided.