Canadian author and conservationist Margaret Atwood is set to join Adventure Canada’s 2015 Out of the Northwest Passage sailing from western Nunavut to Greenland aboard the Ocean Endeavour. Highlights of the journey through Canada‘s arctic region include stops at Kugluktuk (formerly known as Coppermine), rich in musk oxen, wolves, moose, grizzly bears, caribou and foxes; Gjøa Haven where explorer Roald Amundsen spent 22 months in the early 1900s; Bellot Strait, Fort Ross and Prince Leopold Island.

Stops include Aujuittuq (Grise Fiord), known as “the place that never thaws,” Smith Sound, and a visit to the historic graves of the members of the doomed Franklin Expedition. The journey marks Atwood’s ninth sailing with Adventure Canada. Other noted guest speakers on this sailing are geologist Marc St. Onge, historian Ken McGoogan, seabird biologist Mark Mallory, astronaut Charlie Duke, Arctic explorer David Reid, archaeologist Latonia Hartery and photographer Freeman Patterson. Prices begin at $8,995, excluding commercial flights, visas, possible fuel surcharges, a $250 Discovery Fund Fee, mandatory medical/evacuation insurance and various personal expenses.