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From Wild Ice to Wild Places: How Kelly Murray Found Her True North with Secret Atlas
When Kelly Murray steps onto a small expedition vessel bound for the polar regions, she isn’t just going on another trip — she’s answering a calling.
By day, Kelly serves as a Community Peace Officer with the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) in Banff National Park, working on the front lines in one of the most beautiful and heavily visited mountain environments in Canada. In winter, she often found herself gliding on figure skates over “wild ice” — those fleeting weeks when the lakes freeze into perfectly clear, glass-like surfaces. She often taught learn-to-skate lessons to visitors who had never set foot on ice before.
But the place where she feels most profoundly herself is far from home, on the small ships of Secret Atlas, threading their way through the icy waters of South Georgia, Svalbard, Greenland, and soon Antarctica.
For Kelly, these micro expedition cruises have been transformational experiences that have reshaped how she sees the world — and her own future.
A long journey to the Edge of the World
Kelly’s polar story began, like many do, with a dream of Antarctica. But a mentor and friend, renowned nature and polar photographer, Daisy Gilardini, gave her one piece of advice that changed everything:
“If you can do one thing, do South Georgia first.”
So Kelly did. It’s a journey — a flight to the Falkland Islands and two full days at sea — to reach the Subantarctic wonder of South Georgia Island. She admits she didn’t really know what to expect.
Landing in the Falkland Islands, boarding a small Secret Atlas vessel, and then heading out across the open ocean, she had time to wonder what awaited her. The seas treated her kindly — she didn’t even need seasickness medication — but the real turning point came with that first morning.
She woke into a changed world: no land for a few days behind her, and suddenly, ahead, the dark outline of mountains, the smell of ice and seabirds, Wandering Albatross wheeling in the skies overhead and the water alive with movement.
“I remember looking from the bridge and going, Oh, that’s a penguin. I just saw my first penguin. It was pretty incredible.”
In that instant, the trip stopped being an idea and became something intensely real — and deeply emotional.
South Georgia: where green hills meet glacial ice
What struck Kelly most about South Georgia was not just its wildlife — though that alone is overwhelming — but its sheer uniqueness.
Where else can you stand surrounded by tussock grass, deep azure glaciers, penguins, and seals in one sweeping vista? The island is both lush and frozen, a place where green slopes rise behind beaches crowded with king penguins and elephant seals, framed by towering ice.
“The water is indescribable. It’s beautiful and it’s crisp and it’s clean and it’s pristine. And then you see this sweeping landscape of ice and green lushness, and the shorelines are dotted with animals. So many animals.”
Her first impression came in Possession Bay — waking into calm, crisp air after rugged seas, seeing penguins for the very first time. Another place, Cooper Bay, became her favourite:
“It was magical, mystical — like something out of this world.”
She was captivated not only by the scenery but by the innocence and curiosity of the animals. Penguins, seals, and other wildlife coexist in a way that still feels pure, despite the island’s dark history of industrial whaling.
History, whaling, and a new sense of purpose
Kelly knew something of South Georgia’s whaling history, but it wasn’t until she set foot among the old stations and saw the massive rusted vats that the true scale hit her.
“I don’t think I ever comprehended how big the whaling was, or how much it impacted things, and how gruesome it must have been.”
Learning about the new whale memorial installation at Grytviken — a circular artwork medallion built with original rivets, each one representing 50 of the 175,000 whales killed there — makes a powerful impression, calling Kelly back again.. Placed this year in 2025 where the flensing factory once operated, it turns statistics into something tangible and moving. See SGHT.ORG (UK) and FOSGI.ORG(USA) to learn more about how you can help protect and preserve the whales.
Understanding not only the whales’ story but also the lives of the whalers themselves — many poor, pressured into dangerous work, and haunted by it — gave Kelly a more nuanced perspective. It also nudged her toward something that now feels like a clear direction: polar conservation.
Her working life has been about community, safety, and protection. Increasingly, she wants to apply those same instincts to the fragile polar environments she’s grown to love.
“When I retire, and I’m pretty close to retiring, I would like to do something in the polar regions in terms of conservation. I don’t know what that looks like yet, but that’s where I’m drawn.”
Why small ships matter
Kelly travels solo for nearly all of her photography trips, but on a Secret Atlas voyage, she’s never alone. One of the things she values most about micro expedition cruises is the intimacy of the small-group experience.
On these vessels, you share long days on deck, early-morning wildlife sightings, and once-in-a-lifetime landings with a tight-knit community of like-minded travellers. People arrive as strangers and leave as friends.
“You’re on trips with like-minded people… It’s my place. I feel safe, I feel welcomed. It’s educational. You can form some pretty deep friendships or bonds with these people in a short amount of time.”
She stays in touch with fellow adventurers via social media, WhatsApp, and even Christmas cards. On one unusual Greenland voyage, there was just one man on board — the rest of the group was female — and Kelly remembers it as one of the most joyful, cohesive groups she’s ever traveled with. Days spent exploring were followed by evenings in the hot tub with margaritas, watching icebergs drift past under an Arctic sky.
The small group size doesn’t just benefit the social side. It also means more flexibility, more time ashore, and a deeper sense of immersion in each place. For Kelly, that intimacy — with landscape, wildlife, and people — is a defining part of why she keeps coming back to Secret Atlas.
She’s also realistic about another truth: polar travel is expensive. Secret Atlas’ small-ship model, she’s found, offers a more affordable, more personal alternative to large luxury vessels, while still delivering exceptional access and safety.
Greenland, Svalbard, and the Dance of the Northern Lights
Though South Georgia holds a special place in her heart, Kelly’s polar path also stretches across the Arctic.
She’s journeyed with Secret Atlas to Svalbard and East Greenland, drawn by her lifelong love of bears, winter, and wild spaces. As a Canadian who has always thrived in the cold, she feels entirely at home there.
In East Greenland, she was stunned by the scale and individuality of the icebergs:
“Greenland, I think, had the biggest icebergs — and beautiful colors. And again, the lighting was incredible.”
She experienced polar bears on ice for the first time, watching them jump from floe to floe and slide across the surface, and shared close encounters with curious Arctic foxes. She also met local people in remote communities, including a subsistence hunter from Ittoqqortoormiit whose relationship with polar bears and the land gave her a grounded sense of what life in the Arctic truly entails.
On that same voyage, the aurora borealis appeared again and again — sometimes before she went to bed, sometimes waking her in the small hours. Even shooting Northern Lights mostly with her iPhone, she came home with images that still astonish us at Secret Atlas.
Kelly’s message to future travelers is simple: you don’t need to be a professional photographer to return with extraordinary images. In the polar regions, the landscapes and light do half the work for you.
Catching the “Polar Bug”
Ask Kelly why she keeps returning to the polar regions with Secret Atlas, and it comes down to a feeling: the crisp air, the ethereal light at high latitudes, the closeness to wildlife, and the depth of connection that forms in small groups far from everyday life.
“All of my trips have been very special, and I’m looking forward to Antarctica… It’s contagious. Particularly the polar regions — that’s where I want to be.”
There’s a name for it: the polar bug. Once you catch it, you’re never quite the same.
For now, Kelly continues serving Canada in Banff, sometimes still teaching visitors on cold sunny weekends to trust their edges on wild ice. She heads north and south with Secret Atlas whenever she can — camera in hand, heart wide open, always ready for whatever the ice and sea decide to reveal.
Ready to find your own True North?
If Kelly’s story resonates with you — the draw of small groups, wild places, real connection, and meaningful travel — you can follow in her footsteps.
Explore our micro expedition cruises to South Georgia, Antarctica, Svalbard, and Greenland, and experience the polar regions the way they’re meant to be seen: up close, in a small group, with expert guides and plenty of time on shore.
Book your Secret Atlas expedition today and start your own polar story.
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