May 30 2016  A little piece of paradise - Medney Island 

Another early start today - breakfast 6am, briefing 6.45 for a 7.15 departure - in order to maximise our time exploring Medney Island, the other large island in the Commander Islands chain, before sailing back west towards the Kamchatka Peninsula to venture up one of the large east coast rivers.

Scrambling aboard - careful not to slip!

Before I go into detail about this beautiful island, let me tell you about boarding a zodiac. Bear in mind that we are dressed in a few layers of warm clothing, hats gloves etc finished off with wet weather outer layer - pants and coat plus clumping great gum boots a few sizes too big - all of which hamper movement somewhat. We line up and wait our turn to go down the gangway. Oh and I should mention that 90% of the passengers are over 60. The gangway is a stair-like ladder swaying with the ship and feels like it is held together with rope - it's not of course but it's a wobbly affair.  We are helped individually into a zodiac by a couple of sailors using a 'sailors' grip to avoid hands slipping. You have to step onto the pontoon of the zodiac first then down into the boat, perch on the pontoon, shuffle down to the back and hang on. We zap across the waters like a small flotilla of harlequin beetles - black upturned carapaces dotted with bright spots of colour - there are usually 5 boats that head out. The first time was a bit nerve racking but the ride has become quite exhilarating (depending which driver you get). 

Landing at a totally deserted beach on a deserted island

We landed at Preobrazhenskaya Bay which had seen a settlement established by Russians for the collection of seal, sea lion and sea otter pelts. That was a dark piece of history but the settlement was abandoned, I don't recall when, and the remnants of the settlement left to rot. 

A large group went off bird watching, a few intrepid trekkers walked up snow covered mountains, over headlands, cliffs and rocks and I explored plant life and rocks. I found masses of beautiful green rocks which I reckoned contained copper which makes sense - I found out later that apparently Medney means copper. They had attempted to mine it at one stage but it was too hard to extract. It was all quite fascinating for me discovering strange plants including cow parsley which the bears eat. It grows about 3 feet high and when it dries, it leaves a stiff hollow stalk which the aboriginal people used to stuff with salmon roe and then dry and smoke it over the fire. They would then take these nutritious snacks with them when they went  hunting or travelling.  I saw an Arctic fox also know as a blue fox because of the bluish tinge to its summer brown coat; their winter coat is pale golden. They are around the size of a kelpie.

After our wander, we piled back into the zodiacs to explore the cost line.

Bird-snow decorated cliffs

Medney is stunningly beautiful! Towering moss covered cliffs some with grass mats on top like strange looking wigs, caves and tiny hollows where sea birds nest. The sea was fairly calm as we glided through kelp forests that hugged the cliffs and provide a safe haven for sea otters. Our little flotilla had an audience - curious sea otters kept popping their heads up in ones and twos, mums with their young on their bellies, to check us out. Adorable! They float on their backs while not diving.  Sea urchins are their food of choice but they also eat clams and other crustaceans which they gather lots of then tuck them into skin flaps under their arms before surfacing to eat it floating on their backs often using rocks and shells to crack open their food, clever things. 

Hugging rugged coastal cliffs - thrilling!

We cruised slowly around rocky headlands, passed beaches littered with debris, mainly large logs, maneuvered between rocking outcrops 'iced' with 'bird snow' and poked into the entrances of large sea caverns. I spotted  a few pairs of horned puffins - they are soooo cute! They perch and nest on the tiniest rock ledges and their babies learn to fly by basically falling off. I was very happy and there was so much more yet to come - what a magic holiday!

We rode back to the ship in dense fog which had started to descend around noon. An absolutely perfect morning.  The afternoon we set course for the Zhupanova River on the east coast of Kamchatka to search for ginormous Stellar Eagles.