09 Aug 2017

SOE: Whales, Walrus and Hot Pools

After breakfast we loaded five Zodiacs and set off on a whale-watching excursion from our anchorage near Whalebone Alley, Yttygran Island. After initially watching a gray whale only a hundred or so metres off the stern of Spirit of Enderby, we continued east encountering dozens of gray whales, several humpbacks and even a couple of breaching minke whales in the waters between Yttygran and Nuneaagan islands. Time passed quickly, as we photographed the mottled backs of gray whales as they cruised close to our Zodiacs. We continued toward the western side of Nuneaagan Island, where we found several hundred walrus in the water close to shore. For nearly a half hour we drifted quietly as groups of walrus swam toward us curiously, before backing off, then coming close again. It was a wondrous time. We returned Yttygran Island where we landed amidst the remains of and incredible avenue of vertical jawbones from bowhead whales. Their exact age and meaning remain a mystery, explanations ranging from what was once a Chukchi Delphi, to practical markers for meat caches in the winter snows, to drying racks for walrus-skin boats. Some followed Sarah on a leg-stretcher up to the saddle, then the western high point; others joined Chris in search of the elusive northern pika, while the rest of us ambled along the shoreline, discovering the massive skulls of bowhead whales, including one that was used as the roof of a rock-walled food cache. What a morning!

After lunch we took Zodiacs up the shallow outlet of a small lagoon at Gil’mimyl, where we were greeted by Ivan, a reindeer herder and his son Alexander. To our delight, they invited us to their summer camp (while nine of his reindeer grazed on the slopes above and ground squirrels and his cat played around his house) for some tea and traditional food. We tried some delicious locally-smoked trout and salmon, red caviar on fresh bread, flat bread, battered salmon and a salad from local herbs. Meanwhile, Ivan’s wife was busy shaving the hairs off a reindeer skin with a long draw knife to prepare the skin for other uses. Afterwards, we split up, with half the group going in search of the very vocal, but elusive sandhill crane, while the other half  made a beeline (stopped only by crow and blueberries) to the hot springs up the valley. Many of us hopped in, blissfully relaxing, gazing at cloud-wreathed summits, to the song of the nearby salmon-filled stream beckoning us for a cooling dip. Magical.