Franz Josef Land with RUSARC

We check into our cabins, get acquainted with the boat and crew and set off. At the safety briefing, the crew will tell you about the rules of behavior on the boat and the rescue equipment available on board. This day will be spent on the water.

This is the name of the polar station on the South Island of Novaya Zemlya. It is the oldest operating polar station in Russia. In 2021, it celebrated its 125th anniversary, in honor of which a new residential module was installed there. Now the specialists working here have conditions like on the big earth, there is even a gym and a sauna.

Novaya Zemlya's largest bay, where we will look at an abandoned polar station.

Cape Zhelaniya is located at the northern tip of Novaya Zemlya. The Pomors called the cape “Revenues” - it was the extreme point where fur trappers reached: it was impossible to fish further because of the impassable ice of the Kara Sea. This is not an obstacle for us: we are going further, to Franz Josef Land. On the way we admire the wildlife of the Orange Islands, where we can see walruses, polar bears and even whales.

We begin our acquaintance with Franz Josef Land in the very place where the history of the archipelago's exploration once began. In 1873, the sailing schooner “Admiral Tegethoff”, on which the Austrian expedition was planning to open the North-Eastern Passage, was nailed by ice to this then unknown coast. Thus it was named Franz Josef Land, in honor of the Emperor of Austria. A monument was erected on the cape to commemorate the discovery of the schooner Admiral Tegethoff.

On Gukera Island we will visit the polar station, where restoration work is currently underway: they plan to open a museum complex on the basis of the station's former hangar. Also, the northernmost post office in the world works here! Opposite the Tikhoi Bay we are waiting for the amazing Rubini Rock. It is a 174-meter basalt rock, which is a solidified in the form of pillars pieces of lava. Since these protrusions are ideal for nesting, the rock has become a bird market. It's not called “Rubini” for nothing, after the opera singer Giovanni Batista Rubini: it can get very loud here. We'll see Thistle-billed Buzzards, Washing Gulls, Luriks, Great Arctic Gulls, Glaucous Gulls and Pipits.

Another historical cape: at the end of the 19th century, a food warehouse was set up here for the next expedition to conquer the North Pole. Two Norwegians - Bentsen and Bjervig - were left to guard the storehouse. During the wintering Bentsen died of illness. Before his death he asked his companion not to bury him until spring, because he was worried that the shallow burial would be dug up by bears and foxes. Bjervig fulfilled this wish and buried Bentsen two months later, when spring came and the expedition leader returned to the island. Bentsen's grave is still preserved on the island today.

The island is named after a famous American geologist. Our goal here
is to see the spectacularly beautiful Cape Fisher.

There is also a polar station on this island, but as it is a border station.
it's a border station, so it's unlikely to be visited. However, here we will be able to admire the population of beluga whales, and if we are lucky, we will also see narwhals - sea unicorns.