From Kamchatka to Chukotka. Part I
Kamchatka greeted us with mist. . . Milky low sky, hidden peaks of volcanoes and salty burning air. HURRAH! I'm in Kamchatka! Eight hour flight and voila!
The ship left only two days later, ahead of two planned and eventful days: the Valley of Geysers, climbing Mutnovsky and Gorely volcanoes.
Yeah, I was dreaming. . . The weather had its own plans. Therefore, when planning ground programs, be prepared to wait and pack in a minute if the weather suddenly changes mood. So here you act according to the situation.
We skip everything that you can read in guidebooks: Kamchatka is amazing and you need to visit it! I managed to climb the Avachinsky volcano, enjoy the hot springs of Paratunka, walk around the city and see the small valley of Geysers, taste fish and caviar.
But ahead of me was an amazing and unusual journey. . . A cruise around Kamchatka and Chukotka, with a stop at the Commander Islands. Not just a cruise, but an expedition cruise!
Last fees, transfer to the port. And here is my home for the next two weeks: Spirit of Enderbery, a former Russian ship: Professor Khromov.
There is time to look around while the last preparations for our departure are underway and take the last photos of Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky, which is seeing us off in a drizzle.
Stunning landscapes and the first sightings of slaty-backed gulls, cormorants and bird markets on the rocks were waiting for us just an hour away at the Three Brothers rocks.
Speaking of seagulls, did you know that there are about 50 species of seagulls in the world? ! During the trip we saw 12 species! And a team of ornithologists enthusiastically talked about every bird they saw.
We left Avacha Bay, and the mobile network stops working. Yes, yes, we are cut off from civilization for the next two weeks. No selfies with a bear on Instagram =)
Getting to know the team, safety briefing, welcome dinner - the evening flew by.
And in the morning, the first landing on the zodiacs was waiting for us, before that we had breakfast and a briefing, at which Rodney (our expedition leader) tells our plan for the day and draws a map of the upcoming landings.
So, the first landing: the Zhurpanovka River, Steller's sea eagles nest up the river, to which we are heading. On the way, we meet seals, which emerge with curiosity between the zodiacs, our drivers slow down, giving us the opportunity to take beautiful photos.
The main meeting was ahead of us - majestic Steller's sea eagles, with a bright plastic-orange beak.
On the way back, stop in the village of a fish factory at the mouth of the river. We were greeted with hot tea, red fish and caviar. Very colorful.
We were waiting for a long passage to the Commander Islands, in order to arrive in the morning at the village of Nikolskoye on Bering Island. During sea crossings, the expedition team, consisting of ornithologists and marine biologists, gave lectures about the history of the discovery and the indigenous population of the North, about animals and birds of the Far East region. Always someone from the expedition team was on duty on the bridge and announced over the speakerphone about interesting things overboard!
There is such a law of meanness: when you really expect something, you just stop waiting, and it happens... "Whales on the port side" - I have never run so fast. Our group spent more than one hour on deck waiting for the whales and the most persistent were rewarded, others hurried to the deck.
On the edge of the Earth, where there is no more land,
The ocean gave us life.
Seagulls are aground and stand in the distance
Commander Islands.
(I. Mikhalev)
Our acquaintance with the Commander Islands began with the village of Nikolskoye. A very small settlement, in which only about 750 people live, but not completely forgotten by those in power, in recent years a new kindergarten, school and cultural center have been built in it. Bright houses along the street are pleasing to the eye, on the main square, as expected, there is a monument to Lenin and a board of honor, where children's drawings dedicated to May 9 flaunt. If you go down the stairs - and we, of course, did it - then you get to the Aleutian Museum of Local Lore, it was recently renamed the V. Bering Museum. The museum turned out to be very wonderful.
But I do not know of any other person whose name in one limited area of the globe is named so many geographical objects - a sea, a strait, an island, a group of islands, and even a bay. There are three different monuments to Vintus Bering on the shore here in Nikolskoye, but I was more interested in the sculptures carved from wood by the artist Sergey Pasenyuk.
His house and workshop are a little to the right. At the entrance you will be met by the skeleton of a sea cow. Inside, the eyes run wide, it is very unusual and interesting, but the main attraction is Sergei himself, his personality and life stories. He is always happy to have guests, so if you are on the Commanders, be sure to visit!
And to Moscow 7920 km.
In the afternoon at Cape North-Western, we saw beaches dotted with sea lions and fur seals! I'll tell you the smell, still the same! But the picture presented to the eye is amazing. This is full-scale chaos, life in all its manifestations: fur seals play close to the shore; on the shore, sea lions protect their offspring from the Arctic fox, which wandered among the rookery; at the hole, the fox dines with a fur seal cub; and a little higher on the slope, cormorants hatch their chicks.
By evening, the sea was agitated, but our experienced Zodiac drivers masterfully made their way to Bird Island - our next stop.
A large and very noisy communal apartment where colonies of many thousands of birds nest: red-footed kittiwake, Pacific guillemot, thick-billed and slender-billed guillemots, puffins, white belly, and, of course, gulls!
The next day, a landing on Medny Island was planned, but the military exercises made adjustments to our route and, having rounded Bering Island, we landed in Komandor Bay, where Vintus Bering died in 1741.
Next to the grave, on a small pebbly elevation, fastened with cement, right on the ground, there are five specially processed cedar boards, on which Fyodor Konyukhov, a member of the crew of the Chukotka yacht (now a famous and famous navigator), personally carved the names of 31 sailors of the Bering expedition, which or forever remained in the commander's land, or did not return, having died on a long voyage.
Next we went to Karaginsky Island. Continued here Part 2
