Episode 3

Compulsory life boat drill was the first thing on the agenda the next morning after breakfast. First there was instruction in procedure in the lecture room followed by a practice run of actually getting into the life boats. David, despite being barely able to drag himself around, had to attend and L feels sure that him having to join the rest of us in the close confines of the lifeboat helped to spread the 'bug' about the rest of the passengers though no-one get anywhere near as ill as D, which was probably just as well for Suzi the ships doctor.

Later that same day we anchored in a fairly calm bay, Preobrezhniy bay. Here there are some high cliffs that are favoured by nesting sea birds. This late in the season the chicks are well grown fledglings almost ready to head of south to warmer climes. So it was time for our first outing in the zodiacs. For this there is a gangway on either side of the ship so that the zodiacs can be loaded on which ever side the sea is the calmest. Not an easy procedure in rough weather or a heavy swell. We had been given some instruction on how this should be done in the morning briefing in the lecture room.

It wasn't yet that cold outside, probably about 9C but with quite a wind chill factor and we would be sitting in zodiacs and could possibly get splashed so suitable clothing had to be worn and wellington boots so that we could make a shore landing if warranted without getting our feet wet. Also a life vest had to be worn and this somehow hung around the neck like a horses harness. As for me I was pushed into L's backpack along with the camera and the binoculars and could only hope that L was wearing the backpack should an emergency situation arise. No stuffed toy life vests exist apparently, what an oversight!

There was only 43 passengers and some of them were Russians we would be putting ashore at villages later in the trip where they would be doing some studying of walruses mainly. With 5 zodiac there would be only 8 or 9 passengers in each and a driver who is a crew member.

So off we set on our first outing, D stayed on board as he was far too ill. As I said it was a relatively calm sea and we were soon at the base of the cliffs where thousands of sea birds had nested. Such a cacophony on noise one could barely hear oneself think, as they all seem to squawk at the same time, chicks calling parent, parent calling chick. There were two species of puffins, kittiwakes, guillemots/merres, auks, auklets and at the very top of the cliffs glaucous gulls. The last are the largest nesting here and they prey on first the eggs, then the young chicks of all other species. We spent a good length of time here and whilst most people got reasonable photos L just couldn't manage to get anything much. Between first focusing her eyes, then the camera, by which time the zodiac had moved or the bird had, most of her photos were of nothing. Apart from that she doesn't have a fancy camera which is probably just as well. She did however manage to see some of the birds through the binoculars.

There were other species of birds there too apparently but L never did get to see them, then when we went looking for a place to land the zodiacs on a beach some distance away we disturbed some harlequin ducks, but L didn't get to see them either. Everyone else did.

Once on shore some set off on a long walk while others opted for a shorter walk with time to take photos, and some of the less active stayed near the zodiacs. L went off on the short walk. She loves bouncing across the tundra on the spongy mosses. The wellington boots come into their own again because one often unwittingly ends up with a foot in quite deep water, marshy as this region is.

The first thing we spotted on the beach were huge great bear prints, and not the stuffed toy type bear either, but the big brown, people eating type bear. All those with sharp eyes had a good look about to check that the owner of the prints had vacated the area.

As I haven't been into this high arctic region before it was all a new experience for me. L saw blueberries, cranberries and crowberries, but she really only likes the blueberries. Already the plants were beginning to show their autumn colours. There were vehicle tracks here too as local native people use the area to hunt sea mammals. They are supposed to have a quota system but no-one is sure how strictly implemented it is as we had seen some walrus carcases that had only had the head, including tusks removed and the rest just left to rot. We loaded back onto the zodiac and returned to the ship after a very pleasant afternoon.

Overnight the ship moved location and next morning a good many of us were up early and out in the zodiacs by 6am on a very calm morning to see whales. This is an area where humpback and grey whales like to feed and they were about in huge numbers. Over the next 3 hours they kept us entertained first by blowing and surfacing, showing their tail flukes when they dived. Sometimes one would come right next to one of the zodiacs. At any one time 6 or 8 could be seen blowing. There were mothers with calves too. After about a couple of hours when they had presumably be feeding a couple of teenagers started to put on a show of breaching, and followed this with a dance of fins. Even L got some photos, albeit of dubious quality. She really is bloody hopeless. D might have done better but he was still well out of things with his 'bug'.

Later that same morning we made another landing in whale bone alley, Yhegranls Island. Here, standing near the beach are a number of whale jaw bones. They are quite ancient apparently though no date was mentioned, and no-one really knows what they were meant to represent though there are a number of theories, isn't there always! Many more lay where they have fallen over. Other ancient whale bones abound too.

L joined those that headed off up the hillside to the top of a peak that overlooked much of the fjord. I even got my photo taken at the top just to prove I'd been there. In amongst the rocks Chris spotted a Pika, this is a small member of the rabbit family, and L even managed to catch a glimpse, but no photo of course. We did enjoy some blueberries and took a few photos on our way back down where we then had a walk along the beach among all those whale bones. There is also a little ground squirrel that lives amongst the tundra but L never did get to see one of those, most other people did, but not D.

We had one more outing in the zodiac later in the afternoon. This time we visited a hunter and his son who had their summer camp on a lagoon not far away on the mainland. Some of the crew knew this hunter from visits in previous years as well as earlier this season, and had met his wife who was tragically drowned last year in a boating/hunting accident.

The hunter had prepared a buffet of local food for us to try. This included walrus skin, blabber and meat as well as meat from whale, salmon, salmon roe/caviar, and a lovely salad made of plants from the tundra and kelp from the shore. L could pass on most things but did enjoy the salad, she would probably starve if she should have to live in this region. The hunter also had a number of reindeer hides and fox furs on display showing both their summer and winter coats. He showed us how he prepares a reindeer hide ready for use. Whilst here we also met a film crew from Moscow who were filming a documentary of the life of the local native people.

A forty minute walk up hill from the hunters' camp, across tundra with lots of the usual berries, we came to a hot spring. It has been boxed in making a small pool about a metre deep and 42C. After a soak in the hot pool a dip in the very chilly swift stream almost beside it soon cools one down. I stayed in L's backpack as I was under strict instructions not to get wet. After everyone had soaked here for a while we returned over the same route stopping to pick numerous blueberries on the return walk.

What a wonderful day we had experienced, starting with the whales and their display and ending with a soak in a thermal spring, what more could one ask for, at least that's how the humans looked upon it. No-one bothered to ask me how I felt about having been stuffed in a back pack all day. Although I did get to try one of those reindeer skins.

Next day D was feeling a little bit brighter so decided he could join us on a trip into the village of Lavrentiya. Captain James Cook named the area St Lawrence in 1778 as it was St Lawrence's day when he arrived here. L had no idea that he had come this far north. Anyway the name of the village is the Russia version of Lawrence. It is also not in a very good position. This village didn't exist until the 'cold war' era of Soviet times. It was during these times of high tension that the Soviets moved all the small villages hereabouts into this area, creating this town. They were taken from their traditional dwellings and put into concrete block apartments willy nilly. Each village had it's own ethnic background but this was totally disregarded when moving them. The apartments did have heating just as all Russian town have, with a central heat station that sends hot water round all the buildings. There was also a school and a hospital, something the villages had not had. However, the site of the present town had been deemed unsuitable by all native peoples and no-one had lived around here. It was always very windy and the sea too rough for launching the native boats most of the time. It was also very rough for our modern zodiacs and most of us got wet to some degree going ashore. It wasn't a good area for hunting and fishing either as the sea mammals avoided the area.

However, in typical bureaucratic fashion all that was ignored and the town built on this site.

All somewhat wet from our zodiac ride we waited on the beach in a bitter wind, just what David needed and L was beginning to feel the onset of a cold too. The supposedly waterproof pants my lot were wearing had turned out to be nothing of the sort. While waiting on board for the zodiacs some Orcas had been spotted, D got to see a fin, while L thought she might have spotted one.

While ashore we were taken and shown the local calender in the square designed by the school children and describing each month in the activities that local people would traditionally do at that time of year. Then next we visited the museum where Elisabeth, the curator, told us some of the local history and way of life of the local peoples. Her ancestors had long ago come from Mongolia and western China. Her village had been at Cape Dreznev, the most easterly point of the Russian mainland and the southern entrance to Bering Strait. Because of its position the Soviets had set up a border patrol post there so the last thing they wanted was load of villagers around them, especially ones with family just across the strait in Alaska and whom would make frequent visits back and forth. Just couldn't have that so everyone was moved into the town. The old border post is now a crumbling ruin having been abandoned since the demise of the Soviet Union.

When Chris (one of the crew) asked Elisabeth if she would like to return to the village she gave a curios answer; she said that she didn't know if the land would accept her people back there. This connection to land is something we westerners seem to have lost and don't fully understand.

In the main square a couple of souvenir stalls had been set up with lots of native carvings in walrus tusk, whale bone and even mammoth tusk, plenty of the last having been found in this region. Also a variety of garments, gloves, slippers and such like make from skins and fur of local animals. Some of these items could well proved to be restricted items into some of our home countries.

Another tent had a buffet of local foods similar to what the hunter had served us yesterday. L partook of the salad while D said he wasn't up to facing any of it, so just settle for a cup of tea.

Inside the adjacent community hall a local artist had a display of his paintings and in another room we were entertained by a small troop of local folk dancers to quite a display. L managed to get some video of the dancers, Elisabeth from the museum was amongst them.

When it came time to return to the ship the sea was even more rough and we got a proper drenching on the way, just as well my lot could get out of their wet things as soon as we were back on board. I had been safely stowed in the backpack and remained quite dry, fortunately.

Late in the day we came to Cape Dreznev where a landing had been planned, however the sea was far too rough for this so we just sailed on past. We were close enough to shore to see the ruins of the old border post and also what was left of the former village.

The next morning both my lot were quite ill so neither of them, or me for that matter got to do the zodiac cruise to see some polar bears and walrus on this our first stop north of Bering strait. They both missed the afternoon zodiac cruise too, but apparently they one didn't encounter much at all apart from a very windy and rough sea where most people got very cold and wet.

Suzi the doctor came along and gave them both some cold and flu tablets and they stayed in bed most of the day.

By the following morning my lot were slightly improved and we were approaching Wrangell Is. It was a brisk 5C outside and fairly rough although it was quite sunny and clear. We came round into Doubtful Bay where we were to have a shore excursion and also where 5 of the passengers who were doing an overland tour of the island would be getting of for their land journey. We would pick them up at the north end of the island and 5 others would disembark to do the overland journey back south and we would pick them up in Doubtful Bay four days hence. Three wild life rangers from the Island would be joining us for our cruise and landings over the next 5 days while we circumnavigated the island. They would leave us again when we picked up the overlands in Doubtful bay and hopefully that time it would be calm enough for us all to make a shore excursion, as this is the main ranger camp and also where the scientific people doing various studies are based.

To console us for not being able to get ashore here Sarah, one of the crew and an ornithologist gave a presentation on a research trip she had done with 5 others into the Canadian arctic to study an eider duck breeding population. It was an interesting presentation that we all enjoyed, including me. I was included in most of these activities seeing as I would have to prompt my secretary when it came to writing up the blog. Not that I could get L even vaguely interested in starting the blog. She flatly refused. Strewth! You just can't get the staff these days can you!

© Lynette Regan 10th September 2017