Expedition to Beringia National Park

Day 1 Arrival to Anadyr

You will be met in the Anadyr airport and taken to a hotel. After a rest and lunch you will have a city tour. Just about 14,000 people inhabit the city, but this is the largest settlement in Chukotka. Also, Anadyr is the easternmost city in Russia. You will have a guided tour of the local history museum. In the evening you will have dinner at the hotel.

If the flight is delayed, the city tour will be postponed to the next day, and this time you will only visit the local history museum.

Day 2 Flight to Provideniya village

After breakfast you will have transfer to the airport for a flight to Provideniya village located on the coast of the Provideniya Bay.

Upon arrival you will meet the guides from the Berengia National Park and go to the village. You will pass around Emma Bay and get acquainted with the history of Providence village and the life of local residents. Then you will be accommodated in the hostel of the technical school and have lunch.

During a tour around the village, you will visit the Beringia Heritage Museum to learn history of the Provideniya Bay. The bay was discovered in 1660 by the Russian expedition headed by Kurbat Ivanov. However, it had been left unnamed for 2 centuries since that, until the British expedition ship "Plover" leaded by Captain Tomas Mur wintered here in 1848—1849. The wintering was successful, and the captain named the bay Provideniya (Russian for "Providence").

In the evening you will have dinner and rest in the hostel.

Day 3 Visits to ancient Eskimo settlements

Today you will get acquaintance with life and traditions of the Chukotka indigenous people. You will start from visiting early Eskimo settlement Avan. Dwellings, traditional meat holes to keep a year meat stock, observation points — the remains of the early Eskimo culture have preserved in the settlement.

If the weather is good, you will observe walrus, Steller sea lions and seals. Also, grey whales encounters are possible here; large groups of these animals pass by Avan frequently.

In the evening you will return to the hostel, have dinner and rest.

Day 4 Whale Bone Alley and Gilmimyl Bay

After breakfast you will move to the Rumilet Bay by all-terrain vehicle. From there, you will take a boat trip to the Gilmimyl Bay. During your sea passage, you will have a chance to watch whales, walrus colonies and huge sea bird rookeries.

In the afternoon you will have a tour to the Whale Bone Alley on the Yttygran Island — a fascinating place with arches made from bowhead whales’ bones. The site is considered to be a unique monument of ancient Eskimo culture.

In the evening, you will arrive at the guest house in Gilmimil Bay, where you will be staying for the next few days, and have dinner.

If desired and for an additional fee, on this day you can have a guided tour along the mouth of the Klyuchevaya River. During the walk you will visit the monument of the whaling flotilla "Aleut", the mouth of the Klyuchevaya River, as well as the Senyavinsky hot springs. If you are lucky, you will be able to observe the Canadian cranes and some rare hawk species. Duration of the tour is up to 4 hours.

Day 5 Bowhead whale watching in the Penkigney Bay

Today you will have a sea trip to the Penkigney Bay. In the bay you will observe huge bowhead whales that come here to feed. Also you might have encounters with funny eared seals.
 

After that you will move to the Pestsovaya (Russian for "Arctic fox") River delta and have a landing on the Merkinkan Island. Coastal cliffs of the island are favorite habitat area of hundreds of tufted and horned puffins. You will have a chance to make great shots of the sea birds from a close distance. In the evening you will return to the Gilmimyl Bay guest house and have dinner.

Day 6 Boat trip to Nuneangan and Arakamchechen Islands

In the morning after breakfast you will go on a boat trip along the Senyavinsky Strait with a guide and an inspector of the Beringia National Park. If you are lucky, you can watch gray and humpback whales from a safe distance.

First you will go to the Nuneangan island to observe the walruses rookery. Further you will move to the Glazenapa Bay on the southwestern tip of Arakamchechen Island. Here you will visit the grave of the sailor Yegor Purin from the clipper ship" Gaydamak", buried in 1875.

You will enjoy a picnic in the tundra, after which you will return to the guest house, where you will have dinner and relax. If you want, you can take a guided walk to the hot springs.

Day 7 Abolesheva Bay, Chaplin Cape or hiking in the Providence Bay

If the weather is good, you will make a sea crossing to Obolesheva Bay, where you can watch akiba (ringed seal) and larga (spotted seal), as well as humpback and gray whales.

If the weather conditions are not appropriate for a boat trip, you will be offered to go to Cape Chaplin by  all-terrain vehicles or make a small ascent to the top of one of the hills surrounding Providence Bay. From the height you will see a magnificent panorama of the coast of the bay with picturesque capes.

Day 8 Return to Provideniya village

In the morning after breakfast you will leave Gilmimyl Bay and go by boat along the Senyavin Strait to Rumilet Bay.

After disembarking you will transfer to the TRECOL all-terrain vehicles and move to Provideniya village. If time permits, on the way from the bay you will stop at the national Eskimo settlement Novoye Chaplino (Russian for "New Chaplino"). The settlement is located on the northern coast of the Tkachen Bay. In 1958 residents of an old Eskimo settlement Eskim were forcibly moved to Novoye Chaplino. It was part of a soviet project of Chukotka settlements consolidation.

Upon arrival to Provideniya village you will be accommodated in the hostel of the technical school and have lunch. After that you can go to the sauna (extra charge). In the evening you will have a farewell dinner and rest.

Day 9 Flight to Anadyr

Today you will leave Provideniya for Anadyr. In the Anadyr airport, you will be met and taken to a hotel. Then you will have free time in the town. In the evening you will have dinner in a restaurant. 

Day 10 Excursion to the Gudym military base

After breakfast you will cross the Anadyr Bay to visit Gudym, a former Soviet and Russian strategic missile base with an accompanying military town. Here you will have a guided tour and learn more about the history of this place.

The Gudym military base had full anti-atomic protection and was a complex of autonomous underground structures with a length of exactly 996 meters with many separate blind branches that had no other exits. Inside, they were divided into parts according to the levels of access for personnel. Transportation of goods on the base was carried out by electric cars on a narrow-gauge underground railway. In 2002, the base was finally abandoned, and the population of the military camp was relocated to other cities.

After the tour you will return to Anadyr and rest in the hotel.

Day 11 Walking along the coast and fishing

You will have breakfast at the hotel and go to the fishing camp. There you can walk along the coast, and everyone can go fishing. For lunch you will taste the fish soup and for dinner you will return to the hotel in Anadyr.

Day 12 Departure

After breakfast you will pack your bags and leave the hotel. You will have time to walk around the city and buy souvenirs.

Then you will be taken to the airport for a flight to Moscow departing at 3 pm by local time.