Page 70 - DreamScapes Magazine | Spring/Summer 2024

EXPEDITION CRUISES
70 DREAMSCAPES SPRING/SUMMER 2024
MUST-READ BOOKS
• Erebus: The Story of a Ship (Michael Palin, 2018)
• Searching for Franklin: New Answers to the Great
Arctic Mystery (Ken McGoogan, 2023)
• The Arctic Grail (Pierre Berton, 1988)
That is, until ten years ago, when a team of Parks Canada underwater archaeologists dove into the murky, icy seabed in Wilmot and Crampton Bay to locate the HMS Erebus. Its sister ship, the HMS Terror was later discovered off King William Island in 2016.
Some expedition cruise ships will be Northwest Passage bound this summer for the 10th anniversary of the Erebus discovery. My own Franklin interest was re-established after watching AMC’s The Terror. The drama series, which incorporates Inuit mythology, reimagines the doomed bid to find the Northwest Passage to Asia.
As a history buff, I was thrilled to retrace Franklin’s quest. Unlike the on-board conditions of the British explorer, I’d enjoy the polar expertise of Quark Expeditions and the creature comforts of helicopter tours and à la carte dining. So what could go awry?
After boarding Ultramarine in Kangerlussuaq, Greenland, our route quickly changed. Baffin Bay ice obliged us to extend our stay on Greenland’s west coast. So be it. I relished navigating between cathedral-sized icebergs off Illulisat, viewing the 550-year- old Qilakitsoq Mummies in Nuuk, and sampling Greenlandic shrimp and muskox soup in Sisimiut.
On our Atlantic crossing, I feasted on swordfish steaks and crème brûlée and sweated it out on the Concept2 rowing machine in the gym overlooking the wave- strewn Atlantic Ocean. In the Ambassador Theater, historian Ross Day explored Franklin lore, while biologist Fabrice Genevois provided seabird-watching tips. My Explorer Suite was kitted with a cosy double bed, rain shower and heated bathroom floor.
PHOTOS: SAM EDMONDS | QUARK EXPEDITIONS/ACACIA JOHNSON | ACACIA JOHNSON