I stayed on board this morning while a few stalwarts attempted to land on the Island of Simushir. The weather was better than the previous day but the swells were still a couple of metres high and the time between swells not long enough to allow for any wrong steps or slips. As it turned out, after three attempts only one boat got to shore, one boat got loaded but had to turn back and those watching and waiting to board very wisely decided against it. It was disappointing as the landing was to be in a flooded caldera, the island of Simushir.
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| A tasty morsel Leonid picked for me to try - an oniony flavour. |
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| An absolutely stunning setting watching the earth belch out acridr fumes and the birds flying in to roosr |
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| These yellow-encrusted chimneys dotted the ground puffing out suphurous gases |
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| Leonid taking a break. He taught me so much about the Kuril Islands and their vegetation |
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| Exploring within the drowned caldera of Yankicha |
So we moved to Plan B which had us doubling back to Yankicha, another flooded caldera which turned out to be spectacular. We disembarked very late afternoon to take a stroll through a field of vents belching sulphurous fumes straight from the centre of the earth I am certain! You could almost hear the flames licking, the lava bubbling and the fiends screeching for you to step into their world. OK, so it wasn't quite like that, but peering into those dark yellow-encrusted holes was eerie not to mention a little hard on the lungs. The crust was thin in places so you had to be a bit careful where you put your feet. Quite awesome really!
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| What a wonderful experience |
Then we piled back into the zodiacs to cruise around the caldera as the light was fading and the cute little Auklets - Crested and Whiskered - started their massed flight into the caldera to roost for the night. Looking up all one could see were literally millions of birds layer upon layer, turning and soaring in great dark feathered-clouds like swarms of midges above and around you and way out to sea. We lingered for hours it seemed watching them chattering with each other, squabbling over spots to sit, and eventually hopping up or flying to their burrows which pock-marked the entire inside of the caldera. And still they kept coming. This seething mass of birds provided a wonderful 'eat all you want' smorgasbord for the large gulls and Arctic Foxes who just picked them off at will. Some of the gulls caught them mid-air, some stole their prey from other gulls mid-air or plucked single birds from among a cluster of birds straight off the rocks. It was an astonishing and ghastly performance. We returned to ship for a very later dinner - 10pm, but it was worth it.
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| A Whiskered Auklet. Absolutely adorable |
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| Crested Auklets |
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| An Arctic Fox catching dinner for her young |
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| The drowned caldera of Yankicha I |
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