This unique expedition crosses the Arctic Circle and includes isolated Wrangel and Herald Islands and a significant part of the rugged coast of northeast Siberia. This trip has only been made possible in recent years by the thaw in regional politics and the summer deepening of the Arctic sea ice in the Chukchi Sea. There is small distance between Russia and the United States along this border area was known as the Ice Curtain, behind which then and now lies one of the last great undiscovered wilderness in the world.

The journey passes through the narrow Bering Strait, which separates Russia from the United States of America, then the route turns west along the Chukotka coast before crossing the Long Strait to Wrangel Island. There we will spend four to five days under the direction of local guards in the nature reserve.

Free from glaciers during the last ice age, this island is a treasure trove of arctic biodiversity and is perhaps best known for the multitude of polar bears that breed here. We hope to have many glimpses of this beautiful animal. The island is also a home for the world’s largest population of Pacific walruses and is close to major feeding grounds for gray whales that migrate thousands of miles north of their breeding grounds in Baja, Mexico. Reindeer, muskoxen and snow geese can normally be seen further inland. The number and type of endemic plant species, the diversity within plant communities, the presence of relatively recent mammoth tusks and skulls, a range of terrain types and geological formations in the small geographic space are all evidence visible from Wrangel’s rich natural history and uniqueness of evolution in the Arctic.