Category: Russia

If you are considering booking an Arctic wildlife cruise from WILDFOOT, John can give you a small insight into what to expect. He’s already been recalling highlights of his time spent on the Russian islands at Franz Josef Land – and below, he continues his story from previous blog posts.

Day 7

A broad variety of birds to enjoy seeing

Tuesday. I woke up to another beautiful day with the sun streaming into the cabin – we were told this is exceptional, because there is usually much more mist in Franz Josef Land. So, we spent lots of time out on the Zodiacs. In the morning, we did a circuit of the bizarrely-named Coal Mine Island: apparently, an explorer 100 years or so ago saw that there were some deposits of coal there, but no one has ever actually lived or even mined on the island!

Just 10 minutes out and we saw today’s polar bear, climbing up a steep hillside towards the base of cliff-bound seabirds looking out for young birds that had fallen out of nests. This morning, there were lots of birds, including our first little auks: these are each about the size of a small thrush, but black and white. Also, they swarm around like budgerigars do in Australia and nest on cliff ledges, where you can often see half a dozen or more of them perched in a line.

In the afternoon, we found ourselves in a ‘Commonwealth’ Zodiac with our little group of five Aussies, two Kiwis and us, who were keeping loose company on board. We moved onto nearby Apollonia Island, which has more bird cliffs where we saw more little auks – along with Brünnich’s guillemots, black guillemots, kittiwakes, glaucous gulls, Arctic terns, common eiders and some barnacle geese.

I am the walrus… watcher

The day’s highlight was a colony of walruses, mostly hauled up on a beach, but with many of them also in the water, splashing around us curiously. Here in Franz Josef Land, they are all females and pups – the males live in Svalbard and come north once a year for mating.

As it happens, we had seen walruses before – Pacific ones in the Russian Far East. That was a haul out of males numbering some 4,000 and we were told that sort of number and more is common with the Pacific genus, whereas Atlantic walruses tend to be in the hundreds.

A bit of humour for the evening

In the evening, we at last got round to having the captain’s welcome cocktail reception, when we all sort of dressed up and had some fizz before dinner. The officers all wore their full uniforms, too. The captain was quite a jolly Russian who gave a humorous talk in passable English.

We reached our northernmost point that day, at over 81 degrees north. It was the northernmost point of land in Russia and only about 600 miles from the North Pole. I was determined not to go to the bar that night as it was already 22:30. But still the sun shone…

 

John has been telling this blog’s readers a lot about his recent time on Franz Josef Land, a Russian archipelago. Here, he continues the story – and if it excites you, remember that you can enjoy experiences similar to John’s by turning to WILDFOOT to book excursions in the Arctic.

Day 6

Seeing the site of an amazing adventure story

Monday was another beautiful and bright, but cold day. In the morning, we were moored up off Jackson Island, at the top of the British Channel. This is where the Norwegian explorer Fridtjof Nansen overwintered in 1895 when he became stranded in his quest to reach the North Pole.

He was then rescued by the British explorer Frederick George Jackson. We went to see the site of Nansen’s hut – I wouldn’t have fancied staying there in total darkness with winter storms and temperatures down to -40. Would you?!

A “hike” in the snow

In the afternoon, we went for a walk on Ziegler Island – they call it a hike, but it is difficult to make any pace with us all walking in single file over snow and muddy tundra. Anyway, we had managed about 4km when we were told that there was a polar bear swimming towards our Zodiac pick up point, so we had to walk back the same way. This was actually really good, because we could then enjoy the spectacular scenery from both directions!

We then Zodiaced over to the other side and enjoyed time watching the bear wandering around and pausing to roll in the snow.

It really was much colder this far north, with a very chilly breeze. However, the parkas provided to us were very good quality, and we also had thick Muck Co. boots, which were well-insulated, too.

Another Zodiac cruise and another late night

After dinner, we were out on another Zodiac cruise around the icebergs and glaciers. The sun was a bit lower in the sky at this time and the light was fantastic. We enjoyed a stunning landscape of snow-clad hills and bergs and glaciers shimmering under clear blue skies, with occasional banks of mist drifting in for ethereal effect…

As we weren’t back until past 23:00, it was after a couple of night caps that we were once again late to bed. Still, it was so beautiful outside that we were reluctant to close the curtains – so we decided to spend a few more moments on the balcony…

 

Continuing his expedition to the Russian archipelago of Franz Josef Land as described in previous blog posts, John embarked on yet more exciting Arctic wildlife viewing on the fifth day of his trip. Here is a rundown of what he saw – and you can enjoy similar experiences when you book Arctic trips with WILDFOOT.

Day 5

Taken ashore after a medical emergency

The first Sunday of my trip started slowly but turned out quite busy. We woke up in the same place offshore from the Russian base, when we had expected to be some five hours away. It emerged that one of the crew had been in a medical emergency serious enough to require an operation (an appendectomy, we later found out), which couldn’t be properly conducted onboard. So, he was taken ashore to the Russian base hospital where our doctor – aided by one of the Swiss passengers, who is a practising surgeon – and a military team undertook a successful procedure. He later returned back on board to recuperate.

That meant we didn’t set off until after breakfast – which in turn, meant that our first Zodiac excursions were delayed. We had a great talk from one of the Russian guides, who had worked three of the short seasons at the Barneo camp at the North Pole. We got some great shots of the airstrip being prepared, the supplies being dropped and the aircraft themselves, as well as all of the other mundane events, like the marathon, weddings and polar golf!

Abundant wildlife that we enjoyed seeing in the Arctic

We enjoyed the bright sunshine and had lunch out on deck and then, before we reached our planned destination, right on the other side of Alexandra Land, we came across a large pod of beluga whales;  the captain reckoned they were staying around, so we should go out in the Zodiacs to try to get closer.

We were a bit doubtful ‘cos it was about half an hour or so before the boats were launched and we were at sea and predictably, they were long gone, however, there was a big bonus – our first polar bear was there posing for us on an iceberg – all very exciting! Anyway, we had been promised a landing, so 19.00 dinner was abandoned and at 18.30 we went off to do a landing on the tundra.

 

There are four national park rangers who came aboard yesterday and will stay with us whilst we are in Franz Josef Land. As they say, their job is to protect the polar bears from us, so they go ashore first and scout for bears and then they either post a perimeter, within which we can wander, or they lead and escort single file groups on a longer walk. Each of them carries a high-powered rifle.

Back for dinner and then we had a call for anybody who wanted a zodiac cruise close to the edge of the glacier. Still broad daylight of course, so back into our gear and off we went again at 22.30 for about an hour. This also meant we were very late in the bar tonight!

John has already spent two previous blog posts telling of his adventures while on an expedition to the archipelago of Franz Josef Land, a part of Russia. Here is an update on what else he came across on his fun Arctic wildlife cruise.

Day 4

Hearing about a range of fascinating wildlife

On Saturday at sea, we had a morning talk about the birds we could expect to see in Franz Josef Land. I’d read that upwards of 50 species have been or can be seen on the islands, but it seems that we will probably only catch a few of these. The northern fulmar, black-legged kittiwake, Brünnich’s guillemot, black guillemot, little auk, Arctic tern, glaucous gull, pomarine skua and rare ivory gull all nest within the archipelago.

It was interesting hearing about the Brünnich’s guillemots and little auks. Both referred to as “penguins of the Arctic”, they are black and white and both dive and swim underwater to feed. The difference is that they can also fly, albeit on very short wings that they flap a lot; they do not glide and soar like gulls and petrels.

This afternoon, while ashore, we had a briefing on polar bear safety. We were always accompanied by armed guides and should a polar bear appear unexpectedly, their job is to check it out and if it is being too curious, scare it away. In extremis, they would shoot to kill – but fortunately, this has never happened with a boat-based group and we hope it never will.

Reaching Franz Josef Land at last

Later that afternoon, we crossed into Russian waters and anchored off the military base at Nagurskoye on Alexandra Land. Here, the land is covered with thick snow and there are floating bergs and floes. It is noticeably colder, too – and we were all out on deck in full cold weather gear.

On arrival, Zodiacs went ashore and returned with a party of Russian military officers who set up in the lounge. Over a period of four hours, we then had to present ourselves individually with passports for immigration and visa checks.

It took time because the officials were soldiers who had never done this before and were acting on instructions – we were only the second expedition to make a first landing in Russia here, with most others instead starting off in Murmansk.