Arctic Adventures



RUSSIA'S FAR EAST
AND WRANGEL ISLAND
6 to 19 July 2006
on board icebreaker
Kapitan Khlebnikov

Read this itinerary as a guide only; our actual program and routing will depend on local ice and weather conditions - which vary unpredictably from season to season, and day to day - unexpected opportunities and our luck with wildlife sightings. A flexible approach to alterations of the itinerary will be essential for the success of this exciting voyage of discovery, and will maximize our chances to see marine wildlife on the way.
06 - 19 July 2006
on board Icebreaker Kapitan Khlebnikov

July 6–8
Anchorage, Alaska, to Anadyr, Russia
Arrive in Anchorage and transfer independently to the Millennium Hotel for our overnight stay. Modern, bustling Anchorage offers quick access to the state’s vast wilderness of mountains, glaciers and forests. We take a morning flight from Anchorage to Anadyr, capital of Chukotka province, “losing” a day as we travel west across the International Date Line. After officially entering Russia (crossing international boundaries is often an adventure in itself), you then fly by helicopter to the Kapitan Khlebnikov.

July 9–10
Chukotka Peninsula
After an evening departure, our onboard presentations get under way with an introduction to the wildlife, geology, glaciology and history of Russia’s Far North. Your shore adventures begin on the remote, rugged Chukotka Peninsula, a naturalist’s paradise where high-latitude plants such as Arctic poppies and saxifrages are in flower. Explore the coast and nearby islands, home to myriad nesting seabirds, including least auklets, crested auklets, tufted puffins, horned puffins, guillemots. At ancient cultural sites, you can examine stone rings and ceremonial grounds, learning about the early inhabitants of the Russian Arctic. We’re also hoping to explore Whalebone Alley, a sacred place for early native whalers on Ittygran Island, where you can wander among the 500-year-old skeletons of giant bowhead whales.

July 11
Bering Strait & Cape Dezhnev
We sail through the famed Bering Strait, the relatively narrow waterway separating Russia from the United States, with the island of Big Diomede, Russia’s furthest outpost, off our starboard bow. The politically significant strait is rich in wildlife, welcoming migratory seabirds in the summertime, as well as bowhead, gray and Minke whales. We plan to visit Cape Dezhnev, the easternmost point of Eurasia, where you can visit a weather station and walk to the monument to Russian navigator Semyon Dezhnev, who in the 1640s determined that Asia and North America were not attached. We then continue north along the Siberian coast and cross the Arctic Circle.

July 12–13
Kolyuchin Island
Our exact course northward will depend on ice and weather conditions, but count on being on deck to watch our impressive icebreaker plunge into the formidable pack ice of the Arctic Ocean. Our planned landings include the wildlife sanctuary on Kolyuchin Island, site of an abandoned weather station surrounded by thousands of nesting cormorants, murres, puffins and other species. At this time of year above the Arctic Circle, the sun never fully sets, so you can count on round-the-clock activities.

July 14–15
Wrangel Island
Wrangel Island was discovered in 1820 by Baron Ferdinand Wrangel, though he did not set foot on shore; it apeared as a fata morgana – an optical illusion, caused by temperature inversion, that made the island appear to hover upside down on the horizon (an effect we may see on our voyage). A UNESCO World Heritage Site, Wrangel Island has the Arctic’s largest winter population of denning polar bears and the world’s main concentration of walrus. Musk ox and reindeer thrive here, as do tundra geese. In 1992, a tooth was discovered on Wrangel apparently belonging to one of the last mammoths, which roamed here just 3,600 years ago. You explore alpine valleys and the snow-covered tundra in the company of Russian scientists charged with protecting the island. In the past, the Kapitan Khlebnikov has battled incredibly thick ice in Long Strait to get here; if we’re lucky with weather, we’ll be aloft in helicopters to watch our ship’s dramatic progress.

July 16–18
Chukchi Sea, Siberian Coast
Heading south, we leave the ice behind and explore Siberia’s coastal wilderness as well as remote villages of the Chukchi, one of the last groups to be subdued during the expansion of czarist Russia. We hope to visit at least two communities where the local people still herd reindeer and carry on traditional hunting. We may also call at Uelen, with its small museum devoted to carving and other traditional crafts and activities.

July 18–19
Anadyr to Anchorage
Returning to Anadyr, fly by helicopter to the airport and board our flight over the Bering Sea back to Anchorage – recrossing the International Date Line to reach Alaska the day before we leave Russia. After a final overnight stay at the Millennium Hotel, head home independently on July 20.