25 Aug 2013

Cape Dezhnev

We have a new group on board who joined us in Anadyr on the 21st of August. Since they embarked we have been very busy making landings and are now on our way to Wrangel Island for our final visit of the season. This federal nature reserve is well protected by legislation as well as rangers, so we have spent time preparing the group for the conditions we must abide by whilst ashore.

Yesterday morning we managed to get everybody ashore at Cape Dezhnev. For our Russian friends aboard, this is their “Lands End” albeit just a little harder to get to, so they were pretty excited. The rest of us took time to stand and look out across the Bering Strait and reflect on the history of the Eskimo people who first populated the region, the Chukchi people, the arrival of the Cossacks and the Cold War. Cape Dezhnev is a very poignant place which has played a significant role in all those events. Ever since the strait opened hundreds of thousands of years ago, it has been a migratory route for marine mammals and birds as they pass between the Chukchi and the East Siberian Seas. Yesterday was no different as we watched whales and birds moving north and south. There was so much happening it was hard to drag ourselves away - but we will be back as we have to pass this way on our way back to Anadyr.

The anticipation is building for our arrival at Wrangel tomorrow morning.