Across the Top of the World itinerary:
Day 1: Nome Alaska,
On arrival at Nome Airport, you will join a private charter flight to Provideniya with your fellow passengers. During this flight you will cross the International Date Line, on arrival into Provideniya, Russia you will clear Russian Customs and Immigration and have the opportunity to explore Provideniya. You will meet your expedition team and board Spirit of Enderby.
Day 2: Laventiya
Today we visit the town of Laventiya located on a bay of the same name. Captain James Cook named the bay in 1778 after St Laurence, whose day it was when he arrived. It is a comfortable, modern town with a population of 1000, the majority of which are Chukchi. This is an opportunity to meet the local people, to join them in an entertainment program and to visit the local museum. From Laventiya you have the opportunity of travelling inland by truck, where you can discover a world of expansive tundra, wildflowers and possibly some reindeer. You might also take the opportunity to soak in the thermal pools south of town. As we sail across Laventiya in the evening, keep a look out for whales, especially Grey whales that frequent the area in significant numbers.
Day 3: Cape Dezneva / Uelen Village
Sea conditions permitting, we will land at Cape Dezneva early this morning. This is the northernmost point of Eurasia as well as an historic landmark, named after the Siberian Cossack Semyon Dezhnev, the first European to sail from the Arctic to the Pacific. A steep scramble from the beach brings you to the abandoned Border Guard and the monument to Dezhnev. A few nautical miles to the west, we stop at Uelen Village, which has been continuously inhabited for at least 2000 years. Today the settlement is best known for its ivory carving school.
Day 4: Kolchyn Island
This small island was once an important Russian Polar Research Station, and for good reason. The place fairly teems with life. Near the abandoned station at the western end of the island are some of the most amazing bird cliffs in the entire Arctic. Puffins, guillemots, gulls and cormorants can be seen from just meters away. Activity is intense, with birds continuously wheeling and circling. At the eastern end of the island is a walrus haul-out. A relatively easy scramble from a landing beside a walrus hunter’s camp brings us to a great observation point overlooking the scene.
Day 5-8: Wrangel and Herald Islands
Ice and weather conditions permitting, we will spend four days on Wrangel Island, an outstanding High Arctic nature reserve just recently opened to tourism. Wrangel was formerly a large weather station with a staff of over 80, and for a few years indigenous people grazed reindeer. Today it is a Russian Federal Nature Reserve, sometimes referred to as a polar bear maternity ward on account of the large number of cubs born each year. Local Rangers will accompany us during our stay.
Our activities will be determined by the weather, sea and ice, but there are many landings that we can make to search out wildlife and wildflowers. Polar bears will be high on our list of animals to see, and with a little patience we should be rewarded with a number of encounters – hopefully including females with cubs. Muskoxen and reindeer were brought to the Island long ago, and we hope to see these in various locations. There is also a great number of bird species breeding here, including the Snow Goose, which breeds nowhere else in Russia. Other species include the Snowy Owl and Skuas.
We will also visit a number of historic sites like Dragi Harbor, where the Karluk’s crew overwintered in 1914 after their ship was crushed by ice. And if conditions permit, we will explore the Herald Islets to the east of Wrangel Island home to one of the largest walrus haul-outs in this part of the world.
Day 9: Cape Vankarem
Next, we make a stop at Cape Vankarem, a headland projecting across the mouth of a lagoon and home to the Chukchi settlement of the same name – probably one of the more traditional villages that we will encounter on this journey. Although mapped and charted, much of this coastland has seen few tourists and so these expedition landings offer a rare opportunity for interaction. The area around the Cape is bounded by narrow sand ridges with numerous coastal lagoons and inlets. In addition to visiting with the Chukchi, we will keep an eye out for Bowhead and Gray Whales, abundant in these waters.
Day 10: Kolyuchin Inlet
Today we explore the coastal area of the Kolyuchin Inlet. This is a 100 kilometre-long bay substantially separated from the Arctic Ocean by a mouth only 2.8 kilometres wide.
It is a wild, desolate region that has a strange beauty about it. The sand dunes and tidal areas around the mouth of this Inlet support a rich variety of birdlife, including Emperor Geese and Spoon-billed Sandpipers. Grey Whales frequent the area and are sometimes spotted feeding only meters offshore.
Day 11: Whalebone Alley
One of the more remarkable sites in Chukotka, this historic archaeological site is found on the north shore of Yttygran Island and dates back to the 14th century. Here you will find 50 to 60 Bowhead Whale skulls and 30-odd jawbones. There are also hundreds of carefully laid stones and about 150 meat storage pits. Archaeologists suggest that this was a central gathering place for a good number of coastal villages in the region. As you might expect, this is close by a migratory route for whales, some of which we hope to see from the Zodiacs.
Day 12: Provideniya/Flight to Nome Alaska
We return to Provideniya to board our private character flight to Nome, Alaska, on departure we will clear Russian Customs and Immigration. Cross the International Date Line and arrive in Nome clear US Customs and say our farewells.
Optional Free Anadyr - Anadyr extension:
If you wish to maximise your time in the Russian Far East you can join your ‘Across the Top of the World’ expedition in Anadyr for no extra cost.
Flight to Anadyr (flights not included) and join Spirit of Enderby in the Port of Anadyr and meet your expedition team.
Depending on your flight arrival into Anadyr your afternoon is free to explore the town, which is the administrative centre of the Chukotka Autonomous Region.
After a night onboard in Anadyr we depart early the morning for Providenyia a former strategic military town and seaport.
Sailing from Anadyr to Providenyia presents good opportinies to see Beluga and Grey whales as well as a wide range of birdlife.
#1128 - 27th July to 10th August* - Anadyr - Anadyr
#1130 - 10th August to 24th August* - Anadyr - Anadyr
#1132 - 24th August to 9th September* - Anadyr - Anadyr
(*Russian local time/date)
