Pond Inlet to Pond Inlet - 10 night cruise

Day 1 Pond Inlet, Nunavut, Canada

Located in northern Baffin Island, Pond Inlet is a small, predo¬minantly Inuit community, with a population of roughly 1,500 inhabitants. In 1818, the British explorer John Ross named a bay in the vicinity after the English astronomer John Pond. Today Pond Inlet is considered one of Canada's "jewels of the North" thanks to several picturesque glaciers and mountain ranges nearby. Many archaeological sites of ancient Dorset and Thule peoples can be found near Pond Inlet. The Inuit hunted caribou, ringed and harp seals, fish, polar bears, walrus, narwhals, geese, ptarmigans and Arctic hares, long before European and American whalers came here to harvest bowhead whales. Pond Inlet is also known as a major center of Inuit art, especially the printmaking and stone carving that are featured in the town's art galleries.

Day 2 Bylot Island, Nunavut, Canada

Bylot Island, off the northern end of Baffin Island has an area of 4,273 square miles, making it one of the largest uninhabited islands in the world. Cape Burney lies on the east coast of Bylot Island, and is used regularly by local Inuit during their hunting and fishing seasons. The island is named for the Arctic explorer Robert Bylot who was the first European to sight the island's steep mountains, ice fields, sheer cliffs, snowfields and glaciers in 1616. A total of 74 species of Arctic birds thrive on this island. In fact, it is such an important nesting area that the entire island has been incorporated into the Sirmilik National Park, and the eastern part of the island is federally designated as the Bylot Island Migratory Bird Sanctuary. It is also a major nesting site for birds, including Thick-billed Murres, Black-legged Kittiwakes and Greater Snow Geese.

Day 3 Radstock Bay, Devon Island, Canada

Devon Island is Canada's sixth largest island and was first seen by Europeans in the early 17th century. The Thule culture had already settled there many centuries before, and left behind qarmat homes, made of rocks, whale bones, rock and sod walls, and skins for roofs that tell a story of over 800 years of human habitation. Other striking finds in this area are the many fossils of corals, crinoids and nautiloids that can be seen. Just across Lancaster Sound is Prince Leopold Island, a Canadian Important Bird Area, a federally listed migratory bird sanctuary, and a Key Migratory Bird Terrestrial Habitat site with large numbers of Thick-billed Murres, Northern Fulmars and Black-legged Kittiwakes that breed there.

Day 4 Dundas Harbour, Devon Island, Nunavut, Canada

Dundas Harbour is located in the southeast of Devon Island, Canada's 6th largest island. It is a forlorn but starkly beautiful spot. The island was first sighted by Europeans in 1616 by the English explorers Robert Bylot and William Baffin. But it did not appear on maps until after explorer William Edward Parry's exploration in the 1820's. Parry named it after Devon, England. In the local Inuktitut language, the place is called Talluruti, which translates as “a woman's chin with tattoos on it.” This refers to the deep crevasses and streaks on Devon Island, which from a distance resemble traditional facial tattoos. On land there are remains of a Thule settlement dating back to 1000 A.D., including tent rings, middens and a gravesite. There are also much more recent remains a Royal Canadian Mounted Police outpost. The first post was established in 1924 to monitor and control illegal activities, such as foreign whaling, in the eastern entrance to the Northwest Passage. But conditions were so isolated and severe that the post was abandoned in 1933. It was reopened in 1945, but again closed, this time permanently, in 1951. Today, Devon Island is the largest uninhabited island in the world.

Day 5 Grise Fjord, Canada

Grise Fiord is an Inuit hamlet on the southern tip of Ellesmere Island, in the Qikiqtaaluk Region, Nunavut, Canada. It is one of three populated places on the island; despite its low population, it is the largest community on Ellesmere Island.

Day 6 Markison Fjord, Ellesmere Island, Nunavut, Canada

Markison Fjord was cut into Ellesmere Island by glaciers during the last Ice Age. Today, the combination of calm blue-green waters, icebergs, snow-covered mountains, and glaciers makes for a stunning scenic cruise. Polar bears and beluga are frequently seen in this area.

Day 8 Kap Constitution, Greenland

Day 9 Qaanaaq, Greenland

In AD 850, the Vikings established their parliament in Tórshavn, a name which translates as "Thor's harbor." It was named after Thor, the god of thunder and lightning in Norse mythology. The town became a center of trade for the island, and in fact was designated as the only legal place for the islanders to sell and buy products. This trade monopoly was abolished in 1856. Today it is the capital and largest city of the Faroe Islands, with fish-processing plants, a shipyard, and woolen products making up. It is considered to be one of the oldest capitals in Northern Europe.

Day 10 Cape York, Greenland

Visit the arctic seascape of Cape York, Greenland. Located on the northwestern coast of Greenland in Baffin Bay, Cape York is an important geographical feature delimiting the Melville Bay at its northwestern end and Kiatassuaq Island at its other end. There is a chain of coastal islands that stretches between the two capes, most notably Meteorite Island, named for the discovery one of the world's largest iron meteorites in Savissivik, a settlement on the island. The iron from this meteorite attracted Inuit migrating from Arctic Canada who used the metal in making tools and harpoons. Visitors to this region will see iconic drifting blue-white icebergs that are shrinking as the earth temperature rises.

Day 11 Pond Inlet, Nunavut, Canada

Located in northern Baffin Island, Pond Inlet is a small, predo¬minantly Inuit community, with a population of roughly 1,500 inhabitants. In 1818, the British explorer John Ross named a bay in the vicinity after the English astronomer John Pond. Today Pond Inlet is considered one of Canada's "jewels of the North" thanks to several picturesque glaciers and mountain ranges nearby. Many archaeological sites of ancient Dorset and Thule peoples can be found near Pond Inlet. The Inuit hunted caribou, ringed and harp seals, fish, polar bears, walrus, narwhals, geese, ptarmigans and Arctic hares, long before European and American whalers came here to harvest bowhead whales. Pond Inlet is also known as a major center of Inuit art, especially the printmaking and stone carving that are featured in the town's art galleries.