Marine expedition to the Magadan Region

Day 1 Getting to know Magadan

After meeting at Magadan airport you will be taken to a hotel which you should book by yourself.

After lunch (extra charge) you will go on a city tour. Visit the new Mayak (rus. for “Lighthouse”) park with a picturesque view of the main city's Nagayev Bay. You will see an unusual sculpture of a mammoth, the Holy Trinity Cathedral and visit the Gornyak bay. Optionally, you can take a trip to the Ola settlement if time allows: the road to it goes along a beautiful route with panoramic views of Gertner's bay.

In the evening you will have dinner in one of the restaurants in the town (extra charge) and rest in the hotel.

Day 2 Sea crossing to the Pyagina peninsula

On this day you will leave the hotel early (about 4-5 am) and transfer to a private marina in Gertnera bay. Here you will board a boat and sail to the Pyagina peninsula (7-8 hours at sea, breakfast and lunch will be provided onboard).

During the sea crossing, you will pass the picturesque Cape Taran (rus. for “Ram”), where an active lighthouse is located. The name of the cape perfectly fits its appearance: a rocky ridge up to 400 meters high in some places juts into the sea. Cape Taran is located on the Koni peninsula, which is a part of the Magadan Reserve. Snow rams graze here, foxes and ermines hunt, red-listed Steller's sea eagles, the largest eagles in the world, nest here. This peninsula is also called the ‘maternity ward’ of brown bears.

There is also a good chance of seeing killer whales, dolphins, and gray whales during the sea crossing. From around 4 to 5 pm you will approach Babushkin Cape, where you will have sea fishing (tackle provided). Ruff, pollack, flatfish and halibut are common here.

At about 6 pm you will disembark at Pyagina peninsula and stay at the base, where you will spend most of the expedition. In the evening you will have dinner and discuss the upcoming tour with the guides.

Day 3 Watching the bears and seals

You will spend today walking around the area and preparing for the upcoming trip to the hard-to-reach Yamskiye islands.

You can watch the bears from the water in the estuary and see the colonies of seals, which take fancy to the local bays. Do not forget to take your binoculars: here, the chance of meeting killer whales and dolphins is high. 

Lunch and dinner this day will be served at the base. In the evening you will prepare your gear for the next day's trip to the Yamskiye islands.

Day 4 Journey to the Yamskiye Islands

You will spend almost the whole day at the sea (18-20 hours). Early in the morning (around 4-5 am) if the weather is good you will take a boat trip to Yamskiye islands. It is one of the most beautiful and hard-to-reach places in the north of Russia. The islands are part of the Okhotsk-Chukotsky volcanogenic belt and are part of the Magadan Nature Reserve.

Yamskiye islands are extremely poorly explored due to their remoteness from the mainland and inaccessibility. The waters around the archipelago are distinguished by an unusually complex bottom relief, large drops in-depth and a difficult regime of currents up to 18 km/h fast, which often become an obstacle for low-powered vessels. 

Most of the archipelago consists of giant rocks in the middle of the sea, ranging in height from 21 to 700 meters. The relief of the islands is amazing: on Hatemalu Island the waves have carved two giant tunnels into the rocks, and on the island of Atykan a huge grotto has been eroded. 

On Baran (Rus. for "Ram") island, you will see a large colony of birds (about 100 thousand sea birds). On the whole, the Yamskoy archipelago is home to about 10 million seabirds, among which are little auklets, guillemots, puffins, Pacific gulls, cormorants and fulmars. In the evening you can catch a surprising phenomenon here – the so-called "swarming" of the auklets. Birds join each other in a giant dark cloud, almost covering the sky – it looks very unusual!

From about 1 to 2 pm you will approach the island of Matykil – the largest island of the Yamskoy archipelago (700 m high). Among all the islands this is the only one that you can land on, but only if the sea is absolutely calm. You will have lunch on the boat and then go to a rookery of Steller sea lions, the largest of the sea lions. This is the northernmost reproductive colony of sea lions, numbering about 5000 animals.  

You will be able to observe sea lions and take photographs at relatively close range. Sluggish and heavy on land, the sea lion males become nimble swimmers at the sea and can approach the boat closely.

You will have dinner on board and then get back to the base. In July this area experiences white nights, so you can admire the scenery all the way back. You will reach the base closer to midnight and rest.

Day 5 Rest day

Today you will have a free day at the base. If you want you can put out to sea, go fishing or take a hike near the base to one of the capes of Kekurny bay (about 3 km by foot). Steller's sea eagles live in these places and you can see snow sheep on the coastal rocks.

In the evening you can have a rest at the base and take a bath.

Day 6 Sailing to Babushkin cape

After breakfast, you will take a boat trip to Babushkina cape (about 2 hours), located in the south of the Pyagina peninsula. The cape has an interesting landscape: coastal cliffs reach hundreds of meters in height, and above, on steep slopes there are a lot of stone pillars.

Drifting along the shores, you will look for snow sheep. The chance of seeing these animals is quite high, as they live in the same gorges all year round. Sea fishing for halibut is also waiting for you: fish weighing up to 50 kg are often frequent here.

The lunch will be organized on the boat, and you will return to the base for dinner. In the evening you will rest and watch a themed video or a movie.

Days 7-8 Trekking to the Pyaginskaya ridge

These days will consist of a two-day trip to the Pjaginskaya ridge. In the morning after an early breakfast, you will be taken by boat to the place where the trekking route starts. 

The trekking will not be easy: in two days you will have to walk 15-20 km along the bear paths, mountain tundra, shrubbery and big rocks. Each participant of the trekking will carry a backpack with personal items and food (total weight about 10 kg). There are a lot of bears here, that is why experienced game wardens will provide your safety on the route.

By the evening of the first day you will make camp on the glacier pass (800 m above sea level), have dinner and spend the night in tents. The next day you will have a lightweight radial hike to the highest point of the Pyaginskaya range (914 m). From its top, you can admire a picturesque panoramic view of two bays with high steep shores, reminiscent of the Norwegian fjords. On the way to the top, you may encounter a colony of black-tailed marmots adapted to very harsh conditions.

Then you will descend to the camp, pack your gear and continue trekking to Kharlankin bay, where you will be picked up by a boat. Depending on the weather, lunch will be provided on the shore or onboard. You will cross the bay to see the red-pink jasper rocks on the opposite shore. You can disembark and take a short walk to the rocks or stay aboard the boat and fish if you wish.

If you do not want to participate in this hike, you can stay at the camp and walk around and go fishing.

Day 9 Reserve Day

The weather in the Sea of Okhotsk is unpredictable and fickle, so this day will be used as a reserve day in case you do not manage to make your trips to Yamskie islands or hike to the Pyaginskaya ridge on the previous days.

If all the items on the program were completed successfully, you can just relax at the base this day, go fishing or go to Harlankin bay in search of gray whales and killer whales. You can also go to nearby capes. For example, at Vnytrenniy (rus. for “Inner”) cape is perfect for landscape photography, as well as looking for the remains of dugouts of the Koryaks, who used to herd reindeer in these places in ancient times.

Day 10 Sea crossing to Magadan

After breakfast, you will take a boat trip from the base on the Pyagina peninsula back to Magadan (7-8 hours trip).

Passing the Koni peninsula you will have a chance to take beautiful pictures of the lighthouse at Cape Taran at sunset. Lunch and dinner will both take place on the board of the boat on this day. Around 7-8 pm you will arrive in the city and will be taken to your hotel (extra charge).

In case of bad weather, the departure to Magadan can take place one or two days earlier depending on the group's wishes. In that case, additional guided tours in Magadan will be included in the price, and hotel accommodation and meals will be paid separately.

Day 11 Returning home

After breakfast at the hotel, you will have a city tour of Magadan. You will learn the history, culture and nature of the region by visiting the local history museum and the museum of natural history. You will visit the fish market and buy souvenirs for your friends and relatives.

After lunch (extra charge) you will have a transfer to the airport for your flight.