20 Jun 2016

Successful 'Sea of Okhotsk' expedition ends in Magadan

Our Sea of Okhotsk expedition finished today (Monday 20^th June) with all the passengers disembarking in the Port of Magadan.  The weather was fine and gloriously warm - a great send off for what has been a great group of people.  The majority of them will spend at least a couple days in Magadan and the environs; I am hoping all of them get to visit the “Mask of Sorrow” at some stage.  This is a very moving and powerful memorial to the thousands of political prisoners who passed through this town on their way to the Gulags in the Kolyma River and beyond, the majority of whom never returned.

Our expedition finished on a real high.  We spent an evening near Matykil Island, this is a little known but absolutely incredible Bird Island that simply has to be seen and experienced  to be believed.  Words are totally, completely and utterly inadequate to describe the experience of watching millions of Crested and Least Auklets wheeling and circling overhead as they returned to their breeding colony on dusk.  We had early dinner at 4.30pm and then took front row seats at one of nature’s greatest and least seen shows.  The show ended at 11pm as the curtain of darkness descended over the land.  The following day we made a landing, our last of the expedition, on the Koni Peninsula. We divided in Birding, Botany and Mammal groups (depending on our individual interests) and enjoyed at least 4 hours of complete indulgence.  Under beautiful blue skies and warm temperatures we soaked in the beauty and abundance of this little known and rarely visited nature reserve.  All too early we had to return to the ship, we had miscalculated the tidal range a little bit and had to drag the zodiacs out into deep water, a small price to pay for such and amazing experience.

As I write this we are cruising (repositioning without passengers) to Petropavlovsk-Kamchatskiy where our next expedition 'Kamchatka Coast: Siberia's Forgotten Coast' will commence on the 24^th of June.  The Kamchatka coastline is one of the most remote and least visited regions of the globe.  Home to several groups of indigenous people it also home to brown bears, walrus, and a range of birdlife that includes the critically endangered Sppoonbilled Sandpiper and the majestic Steller's Sea Eagle.   

©Heritage Expeditions

Red flag indicates 'Magadan' - endpoint of 'Sea of Okhotsk' expedition.  

Kamchatka Peninsula can be seen jutting southwards in the middle of the image.

'Mask of Sorrow' perched on the hill above Magadan.