June 1 2016  Bukhta Russkaya and Stellar sea lions 

Kayakas preparing to paddle the fiord

Bukhta Russkaya is one of Kamchatka's fiords and quite spectacular. We anchored as far up the fiord as possible around 7am (so you know what time we had breakfast .... hmmmm?!) and some went ashore, including Lindsay, to explore all the while keeping a careful eye out for bears who are known to wander around the abandoned buildings of what was once a settlement/base, maybe a border guard post - ship hulks, abandoned boats and even the remains of a crashed helicopter littered the shore. There was quite a bit of snow around and Lindsay walked in drifts knee deep - thank goodness for the gum boots!  No bears were seen thank goodness, but they are not aggressive we were told unless frightened or trapped and then they can become dangerous.  The idea is to make lots of noise to scare them off if they come near. So a couple of the staff packed crackers and pepper spray just in case - bears are loved and protected in the whole region.

Once the small landing group had finished having a look around, we weighed anchor and headed for the mouth of the fiord where we loaded into zodiacs for a magical few hours of  exploring the coast in our trusty zodiacs hoping to find a colony of Stellar sea lions and hopefully spot some Orcas, those amazing black and white whales/large dolphins with huge straight dorsal fins - Killer whales, a misnoma. 

A cluster of very vocal Stellar sea lions 

The scenery was magnificent - awesome towering sheer cliff faces, steep ravines and crevasses lined with snow mixed with scree. Snow topped the cliffs and spread down slopes and some rocks and cliffs were also frosted with 'bird snow'.

We saw Stellar eagles (they are about the size of our wedgies) perched high on the cliffs, masses of other birds including gorgeous Tufted Puffins clinging to cliff walls, sea otters and we found the colony of Stellar sea lions. Actually we heard it before we saw it - 20 odd snorting, honking, barking red brown lumps of furry blubber.  Man, they big and the couple of males were humongous! There was a batch of solar panels powering monitoring equipment tucked on top of the rocky outcrop that the colony calls home.

We had a date to meet the kayakers at the entrance to fiord at noon so we turned seaward and crashed and thudded our way back to the ship across a sea of heaving grey satin. There was little wind and we had clear view for miles until the fog and mist started to roll in from the ocean and down from the cliff tops.

Mother ship!

It was a pretty special morning and the excitement of seeing these amazing wild creatures up close made us numb to the sharp sting of sea spray that doused us as we made our way back for lunch.  In spite of being rugged up warmly, it is cold out on the sea in those little rubber dinghies particularly when you're barrelling along at maybe 20 knots .......... brrrrrr, but you wouldn't miss it for quids!