"You are among the very few lucky people on Earth to see this part of the world": these were the words of our expedition leader, Siberian scientist Dr Katya Uryupova, on our first night's briefing in the Arctic.

Ever heard of the term frontier tourism? I certainly hadn't until I got an invite to go to the High Arctic. Specifically it was a 10- day "expedition cruise" with Swan Hellenic, who specialise in such adventures with a fleet of smaller, top of the range expedition boats, specially designed to make minimal environmental impact and kitted out to withstand the complicated, often harsh, seas of the far north, enabling us to "see places others don't".

I would travel from the Arctic former-mining town of Longyearbyen, population 2,500, and circumnavigate the island of Svalbard, 300 miles from the North Pole, and the most northern, most inhabited place in the world, on the SH Vega, a 372- foot ship, along with 110 guests and just as many crew representing over 70 languages and four religions.

I’ll be frank; when I hear the term frontier along with the word expedition, I think of my grandad on Aberdonian trawlers. In my imagination there are noisy boiler rooms, rows of bunk beds and lots of sitting around a well worn crew mess table playing endless hands of cards through storms.

Read more by Kerry Hudson

It’s a surprise then, to learn that on this trip, there would be afternoon tea, sumptuous five-course dinners, the best Espresso Martini in the Northern Hemisphere and........

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