30 Jul 2015

A perfect evening at Kolyuchin Inlet

One of our planned landings had to be changed yesterday because all of the locals were engaged in some way or another with a whale hunt and they were not available to host us.  While that was a bit disappointing we made up for it with a special landing at Belyaka Spit at Kolyuchin Inlet. This is one of the most important wader habitat breeding areas in the Russian High Arctic. Its wildlife value has been recognised by the fact that it is included in the new Beringia National Park. The weather was perfect for our landing which lasted the entire afternoon, the last of the folk returning to the ship after 6pm.  We hosted local rangers on board for dinner and later in the evening a few of us went ashore to visit some Chukchi reindeer herding friends and had a brilliant evening with them watching the setting sun and a rising (full moon) in the same cloudless sky.

Gray Whale Encounter

Right now we are whale watching as we sail along the coast towards the Bering Strait.