‘Arctic Explorer’: New Arctic Cruise from Fred. Olsen

When Fred. Olsen Cruise Lines announced its first-ever ‘Arctic Explorer’ cruise for 2015, it sold out within a week. Now, Fred. Olsen Cruise Lines are once again offering guests the opportunity to experience the breath-taking Arctic, one of the most isolated regions on the planet, with another cruise in the summer of 2016.

Sailing out of Tilbury on July 17th 2016 and crossing the Arctic Circle, passengers on the ship ‘Black Watch’ will witness the breath-taking fjords of Norway and the peaks of Iceland and Greenland, with the chance of spotting whales and maybe even a polar bear along the way.

Being a smaller cruise ship, Black Watch is able to navigate closer to the sights than many of her contemporaries, ensuring passengers some of the most scenic cruising they will ever experience.

First calling at Kristiansund in Norway, this vessel will explore sites where the first Norwegians were said to have lived, before allowing guests to take part in sightseeing along the harbour front aboard a boat service that has been in operation since 1876; the ‘Sundboat.’

Guests will then be presented with an astonishingly scenic route passing Rørvik, Torghatten, and the Seven Sisters Mountain Range. It is here that Black Watch will cross the Arctic Circle before arriving at The Black Glacier.

Black Watch then continues her voyage, making a stop at Tromsø, where guests can visit the oldest wooden house in Norway, and the Arctic Cathedral before continuing on to Honningsvåg, the most northern city in Norway, and continuing through the picturesque views of North Cape, weaving around ‘Bear Island’ and onto Longyearbyen, in Spitsbergen,Tempelfjorden, Sassenfjorden, and Barentsberg.

Next is a cruise around the impressive Jan Mayen Island, a volcanic outcrop sitting in the Arctic Ocean, followed by Iceland’s Akureyri, Drangaskörđ, Eyjafjörđuras, Hælavikurbjarg, Hornbjarg and Latrabjarg, before heading over to Iceland’s capital city Reykjavik, giving passengers the opportunity to bask in the ambience of the Blue Lagoon and with plenty of time to sample the Thingvellir National Park as well as the Gullfoss and Seljalandfoss waterfalls.

Black Watch will then take a leisurely cruise though the Prins Christiansund channel, before setting sail for Greenland and making her first port of call at Qaqortoq, the most populous town in South Greenland, followed by Narsarsuaq, nestled on the banks of the Tunulliarfik Fjord.

Black Watch will make her final stop at Kirkwall, on the Orkney Islands in Scotland.

Images sourced via Flickr Creative Commons. Credits: PJ Hansen