Ebb and flow of the Baikal Bay on Sakhalin. The hard way to Cape Perish

Compilers

Geographical coordinates

Height

Square

a brief description of

Wetland type

Criteria of the Ramsar Convention

Location

Physical and geographical characteristics

The shores are low or slightly hilly (near the village of Nekrasovka), mostly sandy. Kosy and about. The ears separating the bays from the sea are composed of sand; among the dunes are lakes. Their water is salty. Soils are mostly sandy or silty-sandy. Depths are 13 m. Maximum tides are about 2 m; during periods of low tide, the bottom of the bays is exposed at a distance of up to 2 km from the coast. Many rivers flow into Baikal Bay: the largest of them are Bolshaya, Polishchuka, Volchanka and Nelma. The rivers Lagurinka, Koryushka and others flow into the Pomr Bay. There are many lakes on the coasts of the bays. The water level in the bays depends on the tidal currents and precipitation.

The climate is temperate monsoon, with continental features. Winter is cold, long and snowy with strong northerly and northeast directions. average temperature January is 22°C. Snow falls in October; the height of the snow cover reaches 60 cm. The destruction of the snow cover occurs in the first half of May. Spring is cold and lingering. The last snowfalls are observed in late May - early June, and frosts are observed until the end of June. Summer is relatively warm, in some years it is hot. The warmest month is August. In summer, rains and thick fogs are plentiful.

The average August temperature is +10°C. Autumn is cool. Frosts have been observed since September. In November, fresh water bodies and bays freeze. The duration of the ice period is at least 200 days. On the coasts of the hall. Baikal is dominated by marsh peat and peat-gley soils of lowland and raised bogs and dry peaty illuvial-polyhumus soils. On the coasts of the Pomr Bay, marshy peaty and peat-gley soils of raised bogs predominate (Atlas of the Sakhalin Region, 1976).

Environmental parameters

On sandbars ah and o. There are thickets of cedar and alder (Alnus maximowiczii) elfin forests and meadows of grate (Elymus mollis). Along the river valleys, mixed forests of larch, spruce (Picea ajanensis), alder (Alnus hirsuta) and various species of willow (Salix sp.) with shrub thickets are developed. In the shallow waters of the bays, eelgrass (Zostera marina) grows, and along the banks of reservoirs - reeds (Phragmites australis), reeds (Scirpus tabernaemontani), reed grass (Calamagrostis sp.) and various types of sedges (Carex sp.).

valuable flora

Valuable fauna

In spring, numerous concentrations (up to 300 or more individuals) form ducks: mallards (Anasplatyrhynchos), whistling teals (A. crecca), wigeons (A. penelope), pintails (A. acuta), crested and black blacks (Aythya fuligula, Ay marila). Killer whales (Anas falcata), common teals (A. querquedula), shovelers (A. clypeata), goldeneyes (Bucephala clangula), large and long-nosed mergansers (Mergus merganser, M. serrator) are common. Kloktuns (Anas formosa) and slugs (Mergus albellus) are rare. In the coastal sea waters are kept black scaly, stone pebbles (Histrionicus histrionicus), long-tailed ducks (Clangula hyemalis), American scoter (Melanitta americana), hook-nosed scoter (M. deglandi) and others.

sea ​​waters migrations of loons, grebes, cormorants, skuas, gulls, auks, and tube-nosed birds take place. White-tailed eagles (Haliaeetus albicilla) and Steller's sea eagles (H. pelagicus), ospreys (Pandion haliaetus), peregrine falcons (Falco peregrinus), goshawks (Accipiter gentilis) and some other falcon-like birds migrate along the sea coast and fresh waters.

Significant accumulations (numbering up to 5-6 thousand individuals) form waders. Spring migrations run from the second half of May to the first decade of June, summer-autumn migrations are observed from the second half of July to the first half of October. Mongolian plovers (Charadrius mongolus), redthroat sandpipers (Calidris ruficollis), dunlin (C. alpina) are numerous in the sandy areas of the littoral of the bays, which are exposed at low tide, and along the sandy spits. Tules (Pluvialis squatarola), Asian brown-winged shorebirds (P. fulva), Siberian ash snails (Heteroscelus brevipes), large sandpipers (Calidris tenuirostris) and Icelandic sandpipers (C. canutus) are common.

Fifi (Tringa glareola), large snails (T. nebularia), goldfinches (T. erythropus), long-toed sandpipers (Calidris subminuta), herbalists (T. totanus), curlews (Numenius phaeopus), Far Eastern Curlews (N. madagascariensis), Black-tailed Godwit (Limosa limosa) and Bar-tailed Godwit (L. lapponica). There are also rare waders: Okhotsk snails (Tringa guttifer), shovels (Eurynorhynchus pygmeus), sharp-tailed sandpipers (Calidris acuminata), turukhtans (Philomachus pugnax) and others. Common and Asian snipes (Gallinago gallinago, G. stenura) keep on coastal swamps, and carriers (Actitis hypoleucos) live along river banks. Round-nosed phalaropes (Phalaropus lobatus) migrate by sea waters.

The area serves as a nesting site for many species of birds of the lake-marsh complex. Among the ducks nesting here are mallards, common teals and codfish, killer whales, wigeons, pintails, shovelers, crested ducks, pebbles, goldeneyes, looters, long-nosed mergansers, black sables, American scoter, and possibly hook-nosed scoter. From geese, dry-nosed geese breed, which settle near lakes in swampy larch woodlands.

On shallow lakes in the vicinity of the hall. Lake Baikal nests single pairs of whooper swan. Red-throated and black-throated loons (Gavia stellata, G. arctica), red-necked and gray-cheeked grebes (Podiceps auritus, P. grisegena) live in shallow lakes, and shepherds (Rallus aquaticus) and baby chauffeurs (Porzana pusilla) live in coastal thickets and swamps. ). Ospreys, white-tailed eagles and Steller's sea eagles nest in trees. Perhaps gray herons (Ardea cinerea) and Amur bitterns (Ixobrychus eurhythmus) nest.

Plovers (Charadrius dubius) nest from sandpipers on sandy and silty-sandy areas of the coast of bays, carriers nest along rivers, black cherries (Tringa ochropus) nest in forests, fifi, large snails, herbalists, turukhtans nest on grassy and moss-grass marshes , long-toed sandpipers, common snipes and godwit. Okhotsk snails nest in coastal forests. River and Aleutian terns (Sterna hirundo, S. aleutica) inhabit the wetlands. Of the auks, long-billed chickadees (Brachyramphus marmoratus) nest in open forests. Of the passerine birds, green-headed and Kamchatka wagtails (Motacilla taivana, M. lugens), spotted pipits (Anthus hodgsoni), Okhotsk crickets (Locustella ochotensis), black-headed chasers (Saxicola torquata) and some others nest in the lands.

Wetlands are places for molting waterfowl, mainly river and diving ducks. On large lakes along the coast and in the shallow waters of the bays, flocks of mallards, killer whales, wigeons, pintails, crested and black chernets, pebbles, goldeneyes, lutkas, long-nosed mergansers and others are noted. White partridges (Lagopus lagopus) can also be attributed to the birds of the wetland complex on the coast of the bays, which settle in swampy woodlands, grassy and moss-grassy bogs and shrub-grass thickets.

The avifauna of the wetland includes at least 210 species of birds, of which about 110 species are ecologically associated with wetlands (Nechaev, 1991).

Terrestrial mammals are of value: brown bear (Ursus arctos), fox (Vulpes vulpes), sable (Martes zibellina), wolverine (Gulo gulo), wild reindeer (Rangifer tarandus), etc., as well as sturgeon, salmon, carp and others. fish.

The following species of birds are listed in the Red Data Book of the Russian Federation: among the nesting ones, the swan swan, osprey, white-tailed eagle, Steller's sea eagle, Okhotsk snail, Aleutian tern, long-billed fawn; from migratory - lesser swan, lesser white-fronted swan, kloktun, peregrine falcon, golden eagle, Far Eastern curlew, shovel; from wintering - gyrfalcon. Of the fish - Sakhalin sturgeon (Acipenser medirostris) and kaluga (Huso dauricus). The Red Book of the Sakhalin Region (2000) includes 36 species of birds, 2 species of mammals and 5 species of fish.

Social and cultural significance of the site

Forms of land ownership

land use

Factors negatively affecting the state of the site

Environmental measures taken

Suggested Conservation Measures

Scientific research

Recreation and tourism

Jurisdiction

site management authority

The White Sea was under the influence of ebbs and flows. The water level makes regular fluctuations twice a day, and since the moon controls the sea tides, this is a lunar day, which is slightly longer than the sun, and lasts 24 hours and 48 minutes.

The cycle of tidal fluctuations in the water level is not 12 hours, but 12 hours 20 minutes. Every day, the tide is a little late, which can cause it to fall on different time days.

In the Kandalaksha Bay, and with it in the vicinity of the White Sea Biological Station of Moscow State University, the height of the tides reaches 2.5 m, the speed of the current, which at high tide carries water to the tip of the Rugozerskaya Bay, and on waning water turns towards the White Sea Basin - up to 0.5 m /c. The range of level fluctuations depends on the lunar phase. When the Earth, Moon and Sun are in the same line, the gravitational forces of the Sun and Moon act in the same direction and add up, during such periods the water rises higher than usual at high tide, and recedes further at low tide. Such tides are called spring tides, they are observed during the new moon and full moon. If the Moon and the Sun are located at a right angle relative to the Earth, then their gravitational forces partially cancel each other out, and the vibrations of the water are weaker. Such tides are called quadrature; they occur when the Moon is in the phase of the first quarter and the last quarter of its cycle.

It is very important for marine explorers to know the time of the tide and the height of the water in advance. Those whose work is connected with the study of the littoral coincide with observations at the time of low tide. Navigators prepare loading and unloading operations for high water, divers lay underwater routes, taking into account the direction and strength tidal currents. For most of the inhabitants of the biological station, the tide table is the main document necessary for planning a working day.

Thanks to the data of the weather station installed at the berth of the biostation, and the efforts of students of the Department of Oceanology of the Faculty of Geography of Moscow State University, a new reference point appeared in the program developed by the MultiEdit campaign (MultiEdit) - the White Sea Biological Station of Moscow State University. If before we were forced to focus on the port of Kem, the nearest settlement point to us in the White Sea, to introduce corrections, and the accuracy was low, now we have a tide schedule directly for the BBS.

Ebb and flow in Severodvinsk

With the help of this program, you can see the tidal wave graph, determine the state of the water at the current moment (according to the summer time, which now, as they promise, will not change), get the tide schedule in the form of a table and print it, inquire about the phase of the lunar cycle, about the height tidal fluctuations, daylight hours. When you start the program, the data for the current moment is automatically displayed, but by moving the "slider" to the left or right, you can get the same data from the past and the future, without restrictions, with an interval of days, months, years. For example, if you have a sample taken several decades ago and know the time of sampling, you can easily determine at what phase of the tidal cycle it was taken, and whether it was light or dark during the day.

To run the program, you need to copy the archive to your computer, unpack and run the file with the "exe" extension. A graph of the tidal wave near the Moscow State University WBS with a mark for the current moment will immediately appear on the screen. The menu has a "Calendar" option to get tide tables for any time range. Using the button "Help" you will understand other features of the program.

We warn you that nature does not always follow calculated canons. Negative or surge winds can also lead to some deviations from the schedule in any direction. What can you do, such is the sea!

The program can be downloaded here:

WXTide32.zip 1.58MB
High and low tide program

Mordvinov Island

Mordvinov Island (Elephant)(Eng. Elephant Island) - ice-covered island of the southern hipelago Shetland Islands. It is located approximately 1300 km southwest of South Georgia and 900 km southeast of Cape Horn.

Geographic coordinates: 61°07′ S sh. 55°11′ W d..

Geography

The size of the island is 47 by 27 kilometers, the direction is from west to east. Highest point islands - 852 meters above sea level.

Story

The island was discovered in early February 1820 during the voyage of Edward Bransfield. The first name of the Island of Sea Elephant Island was given to it by the English fisherman Robert Fildes because of the many sea animals seen on its coast.

On January 29, 1821, the island was mapped by the expedition of F. F. Bellingshausen and named after Admiral S. I. Mordvinova.

The island became most famous after the end of Shackleton's Imperial Transantarctic Expedition (1914-1917), when 28 members of the crew of the Endurance, crushed in the Weddell Sea, landed on it on April 14, 1916. On April 17, the expedition members set up camp at Cape Wild (named after Frank Wild, Shackleton's deputy), where they spent the winter under his leadership until August 30, 1916, until they were evacuated by Shackleton to Punta Arenas.

Ebb and flow

Notes

1. William James Mills. Exploring polar frontiers: a historical encyclopedia. - ABC-CLIO, Inc., 2003. - P. 208. - 844 p. - ISBN 1-57607-422-6.
2. Bellingshausen F.F. Double surveys in the Southern Arctic Ocean and sailing around the world. - Bustard, 2009. - 992 p. - (Library of travel). - ISBN 978-5-358-02961-3.

This page is based on a Wikipedia article written by authors (here).
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 3.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.

From the author

Of all my campaigns so far, this was perhaps the most difficult, the most extreme and the most dangerous: I literally walked along the edge. But the beauty of any thing, place or phenomenon is revealed in its entirety only when you make great efforts for this and endure certain suffering, that is, you overcome yourself.

July 23, 2017 (Sunday)

By train Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk - Nogliki at 18.49 I leave from Novoaleksandrovka station to the north - to Tymovskoye station. From Novoaleksandrovka because they check luggage at the Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk railway station, and I have a knife with me. I am going on a multi-day expedition along the northwestern coast of Sakhalin. One, since my partner could not due to circumstances. The train rumbles along the tracks.

Alexandrovsk-Sakhalinsky - Mgachi - Mangidai
July 24, 2017 (Monday)

At 6.02 we arrive in Tymovskoye. The conductor didn't wake me up. I could have gone further, but I woke up when people were walking past to the exit.

Going to the highway to Aleksandrovsk-Sakhalinsky, I braked the UAZ bread truck, and Andrey drove it to the bakery, from where Valera and I already went to Aleksandrovsk-Sakhalinsky, stopping at various points along the way: kindergartens, a hospital, the village of Voskhod, etc.

Heavy lead clouds hang over the earth. Chilly.

Let's see what will happen in that hemisphere, - says Valera, referring to the west coast.

In the "other hemisphere", where we arrived at 8.35, it is lighter, while it was dripping along the way. Sunlight breaks through. The city of Aleksandrovsk-Sakhalinsky meets with the fragrance of herbs.

Having bought the necessary products in a store near the Chekhov Museum, I move out at 9.15. Sprinkles. Descending from the city to the coast, I walk along the road, which soon merges with the coast. I walk along high steep sandy shores that come close to the water. The tide. Turbid yellow water impedes progress. I go up to the shore along the path and along the rut I go out onto the track. The road branches off from the highway to Polovinka, a fairly large holiday village.

What's up? - immediately welcomes me, holding out his hand, unhurried good-natured grandfather, whom I see for the first time in my life.

The fishermen say that the full tide was at 11.15, it takes about two hours to wait for the water to leave in order to go further along the coast. One of the fishermen brought me boiling water from the house: at dinner I pass the waiting for the ebb tide.

Departure at 13.25. The water has dropped significantly. I'm walking along a great beach. Behind in the distance are Cape Jonquiere and the rocks of the Three Brothers, sloping, tilted and not so majestic from a distance. Light rain. I take a break in the rusty wreck of a discarded ship. I ford the Arkovo River, at the mouth of which houses are located.

This is the shore of the Alexander Bay, stretching from the city of the same name to Cape Tanga. It clears up, the southern part of the sky is almost cleared.

At 17.15 I go to Mgachi, a former mining settlement. The mine is closed. Coal is mined only at the mine in Mangidai. According to local residents, about 800 people now live in Mgachi. Near the mouth of the Small Sartunay River, from which it smells of sewerage, there is a dilapidated wooden coal-loading pier.

There are ten families left in the village of Mangidai, located five kilometers to the north. Officially, 60 people live there. In summer, the population increases due to visitors.

At 19.50 I camp near the mouth of the Maly Machi River, the Priboy tract. Until the fifties, there was a village called Priboy, and the forest was cut down. Alexei, who set up a net near the mouth of the river, supplied me with water, since the water in the river is slightly brackish due to the influence of powerful tides.

We covered about 25 km per day.

Ebb and flow
July 25, 2017 (Tuesday)

In the morning it began to rain: it stops, then it starts pouring again - it drives gray clouds to the northwest. In addition, the tide began - so powerful that it flooded the mouth of the river, they had to move the fire. The fire withstood the onslaught of rain, greedily devouring wet snags.

I've been waiting for the tide since morning. The tides here, in the north, are powerful: the northern part of the Tatar Strait narrows, increasing the height of the tides to two meters.

The water begins to subside, finally ebb. Departure at 12.50. Passing along the coal banks, I go out onto the sandy shore to the mouth of the Bolshaya Macha River. Here I meet three people: Vladimir Vasilievich, 83 years old, in a raincoat, boots and a cap - the old Soviet style, his daughter Lyubov and grandson Dmitry, who fishes on a rubber boat in the sea. They treat me with fish soup and pancakes, give me onions and dill for the journey.

Vladimir Vasilyevich, a man of the sea, told me about the local ebb and flow, the so-called. quadrature or spring waters. High and low waters alternate every five days: high waters occur when the moon is growing, tides are from 1.7 to 2.3 meters high. During the period of low waters, the height of the tides is on average 1.9 m, the height of the ebb reaches 0.7 m. Now big water. Today was the maximum water height at high tide - 2.2 m, at low tide - 2 m. Today is the last day big water. Now the height of the water will decrease, and after five days - again to increase.

In the day, high and low tides alternate every 6 hours. After the end of each low tide, 40 minutes pass before the high tide, this is the so-called. water parking. Taking into account these factors, the time of high and low tides is calculated and a schedule is drawn up in advance. I quickly learned to calculate the tides. Today the peak of the tide was at 11.50, the peak of the ebb will be at 17.50. We add 40 minutes (parking water) and it turns out that a new tide will begin at about 18.30. According to Vladimir Vasilyevich, the stoppage of water - these forty minutes - is apparently due to the fact that the earth rotates. It is noteworthy that there is no standing water between the end of the high tide and the beginning of the low tide. Here, on the western coast of Sakhalin, there are two high tides per day, in contrast to the eastern coast, where there is one high tide per day.

I respect travelers, - Vladimir Vasilyevich, a man of Soviet hardening, a sea wolf, firmly shakes my hand in parting.

Tanguy

Gloomy sky, rain, drizzle. I pass the mouth of the Shirokaya Pad river with the remains of wooden buildings. I was told that there was a village of the same name, which, apparently, had the same fate as its older namesake south of Aleksandrovsk-Sakhalinsky.

At Cape Tangi, I wait out the rain in a small grotto. At six o'clock in the evening I go to the limits of the village of Tangi. About 150 people live here, almost only pensioners. Previously, the village was engaged in logging, like other villages in the area. There was a rich timber industry here, ships from Japan, the Philippines and other countries came. As in Mgachi, on the seashore there are the remains of a wooden pier, from which timber was shipped. Elderly people - the then Komsomol members - remember those times. There is a bald hill near the village - the consequences of logging and recent fires. Many abandoned wooden houses. There is one student in the village school. Two more preschoolers are growing up. This year the commission did not accept the school: the building is dilapidated. Where to put the children, they do not know.

The rain is falling almost non-stop. The tide is coming. I decide to wait it all out in Tanguy. On a hill above the village there is an abandoned house, abundantly overgrown with grass. Chaos inside: the windows are broken, there are no floors, earth, bricks, grass, the ceiling is half falling off, dripping from it in places. Against the wall I find an old iron bed in disassembled form. I lay its net on the ground, unfold a camping rug on it, spread a sleeping bag on top. You can live. Even good dinner. The house is dead, a little lower is a cemetery, but it opens beautiful view on the sea, however, for this you need to get out of bed and go to the window.

In advance, in the village, I took 1.5 liters from a local resident Yegor - a burnt and weather-beaten man with expressive eyes drinking water into a bottle.

Lights out around 21:30. We covered about 14 km per day.

Hoy. Hoe
July 26, 2017 (Wednesday)

It rained all night. There were drops in the place where the ceiling had collapsed. I slept well, had vivid dreams. In the morning I go down to the village. The rain had stopped. I have breakfast in the store: the saleswoman, my namesake, gave me boiling water and tea with sugar.

I leave Tanga at 11.00. I'm going to the coast. Fog, drizzle.

Rock Alvah. It used to be called the Elephant, as it had a "trunk", which was beaten off by a pontoon, now rusting nearby.

To the vast rocky cape of Hoy I walk along the high tide and the barriers, for which I had to change into more bathing clothes. At Cape Hoi itself, where the water is high and the surf is strong, I decide to wait for the low tide, which is about to begin, and arrange dinner. Cape Khoy has a loud name and personally I associate with the well-known Yura Khoy, although according to the topographic dictionary of the Sakhalin region, this word is translated from Nivkh as "taimen".

At low tide, I overcome Cape Khoi and go towards the village of Khoi, which can be seen in the distance. By four o'clock I go into the village. The village is big and beautiful. The gloom of the outgoing cyclone spreads along the slopes of the Kamyshovy Ridge. Quiet, beautiful - North! Lots of abandoned, bombed out houses. Bridge over the wide river Hohe. You can hardly see people, but they say that 350 people live in the village. There was also once a timber industry enterprise here. To the north, near the mouth of the river - the remains of a wooden pier for shipping wood. The school, although it has 22 students, wants to close. The saleswoman of the local store told me that she didn’t know what to do with her schoolgirl daughter if the school was still closed: you can’t take it to other villages to study on bad roads. There are about 30 children in the village. At the local bazaar, where there are no sellers, no goods, no buyers, three men are drinking. You are invited to join. I join the company, exchange phrases, refuse to drink.

Whenever I find myself in such places, the thought does not leave me that the people were simply abandoned.

Wandi

Immediately after the mouth of the Khoe River there was a bank characteristic of the forest-tundra: a high peat slope with a dense black "puffed out" forest. The first stream on my way carries swift brown water.

I pass Cape Boshnyak past the Boshnyak rock. Behind Cape Boshnyak, on the Bolshaya Wandi River, not reaching Cape Wandi, there is a fishing industry, several houses guarded by Alexander and Vasily. In winter, fishing is here, navaga is mined. I spent the night with them. Sanya treated me to fried pink salmon and lobastic, a northern white fish that buries itself in the mud for the winter.

The wind is up, it's cold. Talking, watching TV. Break at midnight. We covered about 26 km per day.

Trumbaus
July 27, 2017 (Thursday)

Rise at 6.30. Having hastily sipped tea from spruce water with Vasya, I set off at 6.55. The light brown sea is stormy. South wind. I'm going until the tide is out. I go out to Cape Wandi, behind it is a sun-drenched bay. At 10.05 I approach the village of Trambaus.

At first glance, Trambaus is a typical Russian village with characteristic wooden houses. It is located on a high bank and overlooks the Tatar Strait. Beautiful place. From here, the outlines of the mainland and its mountains are already clearly visible. 11 families live in Trambaus - both Nivkhs and Russians, all equally divided. As before, in Trumbaus they go fishing, picking berries. Here is the most delicious navaga on Sakhalin, says Valera, who drove me to the well on his three-wheeled motorcycle. Fish from Trambaus is sold even in Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk.

Valera has been in Trumbaus for two years already, he is from the regional capital. Came here and stayed, married a Nivkh woman. Valera invited me to visit for tea. He told me many interesting things. Previously, the village was larger: three hundred meters extended further to the west, but most of it has gone under water over these decades - the sea is advancing.

Viakhtu

I go to Viakhtu along the road (to the village 13 km), as the tide has begun in the sea. The road winds, goes longer than along the coast. Two guys in a Rostelecom UAZ van drove 12 km to Viakhta.

In the village council, the head of the village, Ivan Yuryevich Polikarpov, is talking to me while I dine in a small canteen: I was kindly allowed to rest here. Ivan is 36 years old, we quickly switched to "you". He talks a lot about the peoples of the North of Sakhalin, about archeology, which he is fond of.

In the village there used to be a large state farm "Olenevod", there was a military unit. Now about 150 people live here. Representatives of the indigenous peoples of Sakhalin in Viakhta and Trambaus (they are, as it were, a single village) are actually about 50 people, although 80 are registered. Migration is strong, which is associated with their traditional occupation.

People in these parts keep, among other things, vegetable gardens. Viahtu has its own diesel power plant, which also supplies Trambaus. At the local recreation center there is a national ensemble, there is a circle of national applied and decorative arts. There is a two-story boarding school, which was originally built for children from Trumbaus, but now they are recruiting students from Aleksandrovsk-Sakhalinsky and others - so as not to be closed.

For some reason, the village of Viakhtu is not given the status of the Far North, although the village of Nysh, located at the same latitude and even a little further south, has this status.

These settlements, although he did not visit them, are described by Anton Chekhov in his book "Sakhalin Island" (I am rereading it right now): "On the western coast, above the mouth of the Arkay, there are six insignificant villages. ... They were based on capes prominent in the sea or at the mouths of small rivers, from which they got their names. ... it was decided (in 1882) to populate the largest capes between Due and Pogoby with trustworthy, mostly family settlers "in order, among other things," ... to establish a general police supervision of coastline, which is the only (?) possible way for fugitive prisoners, as well as the transportation of alcohol prohibited for free sale. "The following is a list of villages and the number of inhabitants in them: Mgachi, inhabitants 38; Tangi, inhabitants 19; Hoe, inhabitants 34; Trambaus , inhabitants 8; Viakhta ("on the river Viakhta, connecting the lake with the sea and in this respect resembling the Neva. They say that whitefish and sturgeons are found in the lake"), inhabitants 17; Vanga (Wangi - V.S.), inhabitants 13. It seems that the demographic situation in these villages tends to Chekhov's times.

Bay of Viakhtu. Tundra

Ivan Yuryevich organized my crossing through a serious obstacle - Viakhta Bay, for which I am very grateful to him. On motor boat the three of us - driven by Timur from the indigenous peoples - crossed the bay, teeming with fur seals, curiously peeking out of the water. Having taken a picture with me as a keepsake, the men went back, and I was left alone, as if on a desert island: further, to Cape Perish, there are no settlements.

Through the wet flooded tundra for about forty minutes I walk - in some places along the tracks of the tracks of the all-terrain vehicle - to the seashore. The water area of ​​the stormy sea is flooded with sun. The tides in these parts occur an hour later than in Aleksandrovsk-Sakhalinskiy. Just recently - at 15.20 - the ebb began. You have to move along the northwestern coast, in accordance with these movements of the water.

Near the Emelyanovka River I meet a hunter from Viakhta from the indigenous peoples. He explained the route and location of the huts to me. Having crossed the impetuous Emelyanovka ford, I climb a hillock and go out onto the track of an all-terrain vehicle, in places heavily overgrown, in places - sand, on which there are bear tracks.

Large footprints of a reindeer are printed on the sandy wasteland. I got lost in the forest-tundra and lost track. I go towards the coast and from a hillock I find a young bear eating something from the ground in the course of its movement, apparently, a berry. In the distance ahead in the course of my movement, a second bear roams. Devouring handfuls of shiksha, I watch them through binoculars and think about my position.

A bear in the distance began to enter the thicket. I go down to the rut and immediately discover the lapel of an all-terrain road that bypasses Tyk Bay. The track here is excellent, well-trodden. A hundred meters away from me, I suddenly see a muzzle in the thickets, similar to a dog's. "Dog face" - the third bear in a row - stands on its hind legs and watches me with surprise. I calmly pass by. The muzzle disappears into the thickets.

Not finding the houses that the hunter told me about on the Emelyanovka River, at 20.00 I set up camp in a fir grove near a stream and some large lake.

During the day, he moved about 45 km.

Tyk Bay. Marie
July 28, 2017 (Friday)

Cloudy in the morning. There are mosquitoes in the morning, afternoon and evening. I walk along the swamps: every now and then my foot falls into the wet pulp. The track of the all-terrain vehicle is dotted with traces of bears, deer and a man in boots, probably yesterday's hunter. It's hard to walk, but there is a cloudberry, which, they say, hasn't been harvested much this year. Somewhere out there, in the west, the sea roars - Tyk Bay, which I bypass along these maria. Tyk Bay is a huge lagoon, fenced off from the sea by a long branch - Cape Tyk.

The presence of mari in these places - from Tyk Bay and almost to Cape Wangi itself - is explained by the fact that this part of the island, like the whole of Northern Sakhalin itself, was under water even in the Pliocene epoch of the Neogene period (5.3 - 2.58 million years ago); it was here that the mouth of the Paleo-Amur was located. In addition, according to the Sakhalin geologist Alexander Solovyov, the advance of the sea on the western coast of the North Sakhalin Plain is due to the fact that the western coast of this part of the island is slowly sinking, and the eastern coast is rising. Hence the swampiness of Tyk Bay and its environs.

The water area of ​​Tyk Bay up to Cape Lakh is a nature reserve. There are warning signs.

Having crossed the swamp (the Tyk River?), I wade out onto a sandy road and right there - to two winter cabins, about which the hunter spoke yesterday. I missed them an hour and a half the day before. Garbage is scattered - a manifestation of a person's pathological desire to pollute everything around.

I approach the banks of the vast Varnak River, which at first I confused with a lake. I tried to force it, but too deep - the river is big. I get up for lunch, I need to wait out the tide, the peak of which will be at 16.20. A bear is grazing one kilometer south of me.

From two to six o'clock he waited for the ebb. The water, which had previously flowed in the opposite direction in the Varnak River, suddenly flowed violently in the right direction - downstream, the tide began to ebb. But even now do not force it - the river is still deep and wide. You have to go a kilometer or two upstream and cross the river with a heavy backpack on your shoulders waist-deep in water.

... I walk along the mari with its ruts, muddy streams, all dirty, drowning in mud. It's full of bears here. Soon I'm going to the sandy shore. The most powerful ebb: the water went almost to the horizon. I want to drink, there is no clean fresh water. The thought of a bottle of cold kvass is relentlessly haunting.

It's getting dark. In the coniferous more often I find a lake, I put up a tent on its shore. All is well, next to fresh water, but here is another misfortune - a small taiga midge that eats you even in a tent.

We covered about 14 km per day. Hard day. No one would wish to be in the Marys of Tyk Bay.

Cape Lakh - the westernmost point of Sakhalin
July 29, 2017 (Saturday)

At night, it suddenly started to rain, so we had to throw a second awning over the tent. It rained midnight. In the morning the sky is cloudy, but with gaps. Departure at 9.20. Forced to live by the clock and even - a conceivable thing?! - set an alarm clock on your cell phone in the evening in order to have time to run the distance at low tide.

I am forcing the Black River at the mouth. I make my way, drowning knee-deep in silt: Black, like Varnak. On the bottom of Tyk Bay, exposed at low tide, animal tracks go into the distance - mostly bear tracks: apparently, they collect something there after high tide.

I walk along the peaty shores of the tundra, under the shore - slurry, quicksand, on which it is impossible to walk. The shore is strewn with glass vodka bottles, plastic bottles, pieces of polystyrene foam and other rubbish: it’s like walking through a landfill. And that's just on this coast! And how much more plastic has been produced, is being produced and will be produced! Garbage is the dead end of mankind.

By the peat river, on its muddy brackish water, I am preparing dinner.

On the outskirts of Cape Lakh went sea ​​sand, normal such dense sea sand, an outlet after so many kilometers through swamps, swamps and silt. And the waves are splashing, and the marsh slurry of the seashore is not squelching underfoot! It was a difficult path. I will never forget that loneliness in the bare wet tundra.

At six o'clock I go out to Cape Lakh, the extreme western point islands. One of the goals of this trip has been achieved! Thus, all the extreme points of Sakhalin - southern (Cape Aniva and Cape Crillon), northern (Cape Mary and Cape Elizabeth), eastern (Cape Patience) and now western - I have reached. Across the strait, the outlines of the mainland, the mountains of the Khabarovsk Territory, are distinct. I lie down on the sand for a long time - fatigue from mares and swamps affects.

Here is the land of fearless animals and birds. Sturgeons, bears, hares, chipmunks, white-tailed eagles... At night, twice, loudly quacking, a duck descended on the lake, on the shore of which I spent the night.

Along the bear path on the peat shore I approach the Lakh River, which is about 7 km from the cape of the same name. The structure of the river and its environs is the same as that of Varnak: a muddy, wide, deep river, water the color of coffee with milk, knee-deep boggy banks. Milky rivers, jelly banks - these images are probably taken from the Varnak and Lakh rivers. We have to force the river Lah in several stages, transporting things to the other side. One time I almost choked. It's hard, wet, dangerous. But fun.

On the right bank of the Lach I pitch a tent, at ten o'clock. Crescent moon. The sky is clearing up. Heavy clouds hung in the sky all day, but sometimes the sun broke through.

We covered about 20 km per day. At night, the rare lights of that shore shine. In the north of the Sakhalin coast - a lonely light. Friendship?..

Friendship (non-resident). Tatiana
July 30, 2017 (Sunday)

There was a short rain during the night. Sunny morning. I follow the bear tracks in the grass. I ford several rivers, the last was the Black River. After a tedious walk on quicksand far from the coast, I finally reach the sandy coast near some structure that looks like a shipping pier. There used to be a zone in these places, on the map this place is marked as Druzhba (non-residential).

I cross the brown river Malaya Uanga, and after 3 km a road leaves the shore, which leads to the house; hear the generator running.

Hosts! - I knock on the gate.

A guy comes out, from indigenous peoples. This is Igor, the son of Semyon (about Semyon later), opens the gate. I ask for boiling water, knowing in advance that in such places boiling water is not enough.

Tatyana is in the house, the same legendary Tatyana, whom I was waiting for a meeting with. She sits at the kitchen table, her long hair flowing over her shoulders, and looks at me intently. A TV is on in the next room, the decoration of the house is quite consistent with a standard Russian dwelling, you can’t even say that this is happening in the wilderness. Wearily, I sit down on a chair and introduce myself. We have common friends with her.

I learned about Tatyana Ivanovna Khalamova from the book of the Japanese traveler Sekino Yoshiharu " Northern route". In 2005, this traveler crossed the Nevelskoy Strait from the mainland to Cape Pogibi on skis in the winter as part of the expedition" Settlement Routes Japanese islands"and went down south to Viakhtu. In Druzhba, he waited out a snowstorm for several days. This book, written in Japanese, was presented to me by my friend, an orientalist in 2009. As it turned out, it was not in vain. Before this trip, I re-read several chapters dedicated to Tatyana and her husband Simon.

Tatyana has been living here for 22 years: at the age of thirty she moved here from Lazarev. Here, on the site of the former Stalinist zone, she began to live with her husband Semyon Beldy, a Nanai by nationality, and his son from a previous marriage, Igor.

This is the history of this family. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, Semyon with three sons and four comrades settled in Druzhba, where buildings from the Gulag era were preserved. Here they organized reindeer herding. We started with eight deer, which they brought with them after the collapse of a large reindeer-breeding state farm in Viakhta. Soon the reindeer farm grew to several dozen animals. However, the deer fell victim to poachers: the entire livestock was destroyed. Four of Semyon's comrades died: some were killed by poachers, some drowned in the sea. Two sons moved to Viakhta. Semyon stayed with his son Igor.

Tatyana is from Astrakhan region. In her youth, she moved to Lazarev, where she worked as a cook in the dining room. Lazarev and the Sakhalin coast in the section Cape Perish - Cape Wangi are essentially one territory, and here Tatyana met Semyon. Semyon died in 2013. Now Tatyana and Igor live together.

Tatyana poured me cold goat's milk, which I drank in one gulp. They poured me soup and okroshka. They have a large farm: chickens, goats, a garden. Tatyana sews fox hats, makes belts and jackets embroidered with beads, and makes butter from goat's milk.

Tatyana is a charismatic woman, which is probably due to long years of living in the harsh conditions of beautiful places.

It's not like sitting in the city doing a manicure. Here you take a gun and go to a deer, and then you drag it on your chest up to your chest in the snow for thirty kilometers. So we walked with Semyon. The women have now gone limp. It's the men who ruined the women! - says as is Tatiana.

She is a rare type of Russian woman and woman in general. When I first stepped over the threshold of their house, I saw a lady at the table: imperious, talkative, hospitable. Living in nature, running a large household and doing needlework: leather dressing, beadwork, etc., Tatyana, by and large, implements the functions of the indigenous peoples of Sakhalin, while not being a native of the island.

The house in which they live was built in 1929 (!) and guards lived in it: until 1953 there was a zone in which Article 58, political ones, was contained. A ruined wooden pier can be seen on the shore. Here, in Friendship, there should have been ferry crossing, and in Die to Lazarev - a tunnel. According to the information (on the Web) of one Moscow archaeologist who worked here in the early 2000s, prisoners were massively shot on that wooden pier - they were testing a new automatic machine gun. The great construction projects of communism entail great human sacrifices.

I was offered to take a bath (it was just melted) and spend the night. Didn't refuse. Legs are buzzing, the muscles of the ankle joint of the right leg hurt, it is hard to step. I picked a broom in a birch forest, steamed up.

With Igor on his three-wheeled "Ural" went ashore, he - to check the grid. The mainland Cape Lazarev is visible through the strait. On the shore, near the destroyed wooden pier, two pipelines go under the seabed towards the mainland: the Chaivo-De-Kastri oil pipeline (Sakhalin-1 project) and the Sakhalin-Khabarovsk-Vladivostok (Gazprom) gas pipeline. In the area of ​​pipelines - sand: in the course of construction work, the fertile layer was completely removed; the wind rises - everything is in the dust. In winter, you can hardly drive through a snowstorm here: there is sand on the snow. The forest was cut down: there are no more deer, capercaillie, goldeneye, mandarin ducks, etc. in these places. The sea is dirty, the water in it is somehow muddy. "We used to swim here," Tatyana says contritely. In general, the ecosystem is broken. Here, in this wilderness, no one will go with environmental checks, it's too far.

When the pipe was pulled, something like this happened: in order to cut off the broom for the bath, they felled the birch with an excavator. Can you imagine? For the sake of one broom! People are completely pissed off. A she-bear comes out on the road with two cubs, so they shoot the she-bear for fun, they also shoot the cub, the second one runs into the forest. What is it?! - Tatyana was indignant, talking about the penetration of mass people into these parts.

Here, on the shore, underfoot - pieces of rusty barbed wire, apparently from the times of the zone. Accidentally stepped on her foot, pierced to the blood - the Stalin era sends greetings from the distant past.

... At sunset, at dusk, I again go out to the coast. The beckoning lights of that shore, the lighthouse flashes on the mountain above Lazarev - monumental beauty. The water in the Nevelskoy Strait is rapidly, splashing, flowing, overflowing to the north.

Here, as well as on Cape Pogibi, they live according to Khabarovsk time - an hour earlier: the mainland is closer than the eastern part of the island, some 7-15 km to it. In general, the North-West of Sakhalin is another country, another world. The people here are different, the mentality is different. Landscapes are also not the same as in other parts of Sakhalin.

For the night I was given a separate room, in which there are several iron beds; beds, apparently, from those times - the Gulag. We covered about 12 km per day.

From the history of the opening of the strait

For a long time Sakhalin was considered a peninsula. The expedition of the French navigator Jean-Francois de La Perouse visited these parts in 1787. The depths here are small, and the French, who came from the south, considered that Sakhalin was connected to the mainland. La Perouse turned back.

In 1797, the British navigator William Robert Broughton faced the same problem - a decrease in depth in this part of the strait. Compared to La Perouse, he moved 8 miles north, but also turned back, deciding that he was at the entrance to the bay. In addition, the mountains of the mainland went to the northeast, merging with the island, which created the appearance of a single coast (the author also drew attention to this when he approached Cape Perish).

In July 1805, the first Russian round-the-world expedition led by I.F. Kruzenshtern, rounding northern capes Sakhalin, headed south, but the ship "Nadezhda" could not go any further because of the same shallow depths. Kruzenshtern came to the same conclusion as his European predecessors: there is no strait between Sakhalin and the mainland. Subsequently, Kruzenshtern got acquainted with Broughton's diaries and was finally convinced of his conclusions. In Europe, the opinion is firmly established that Sakhalin is a peninsula.

In April-June 1808, two Japanese explorers - Matsuda Denjuro and Mamiya Rinzo - made an expedition to Sakhalin, which in Japanese was (and is) called Karafuto. This was the fourth expedition sent by the Bakufu government to the island. They split up at Siranushi (Cape Maidel, near Cape Crillon on the western coast of Sakhalin): Mamiya Rinzo went by boat along the eastern coast of the island, reaching almost to Cape Patience, and Matsuda Denjuro along the western coast. There was a strong current in the sea, and from the town of Noteto (near Cape Tyk) Matsuda went on foot and reached the Rakka (Lah) River. Here, the natives told him that if you go further north, you can go to the east coast, that is, go around Karafuto. Thus, Matsuda realized that Sakhalin is an island. However, he did not go further north, since the places were very swampy, it was difficult to walk there (the author was convinced of this from personal experience). Matsuda turned back and met at Noteto with Mamiya Rinzo, who had just arrived there from the east coast for an agreed-upon meeting with him. Mamiya wanted to go further north on his own, but, firstly, not a single Ain agreed to be his escort, and secondly, she was bad weather, thirdly, the swampy space made the way difficult. Mamiya obeyed the elder Matsuda, and the expedition turned back.

The discoverer of the strait between the island and the mainland should rightly be considered Matsuda Denjuro, and not Mamiya Rinzo, but the merit of Mamiya Rinzo lies in the fact that he further confirmed Matsuda's assumption that Sakhalin is an island.

In July 1808, Mamiya began his second expedition to Sakhalin and the mainland, which lasted until September 1809. He reached the town of Nanvo (now Lupolovo) on the northwestern coast, having passed by sea the narrowest point of the strait, which European navigators could not do before him. Then, together with the natives from Noteto, he crossed the Tatar Strait and visited the Manchu Deren camp (in the area of ​​\u200b\u200bpresent Nikolaevsk-on-Amur). On Japanese maps The Tatar Strait is called the Mamiya Strait.

On Russian maps the narrowest section of the water area between Sakhalin and the mainland is called the Nevelskoy Strait. In June 1849, the Russian navigator Gennady Ivanovich Nevelskoy, as part of the Amur expedition (1849 - 1855), on the transport ship Baikal, leaving Petropavlovsk, approached the north of Sakhalin. They explored the Amur estuary on boats, found that the Amur was navigable, and then, making depth measurements along the mainland coast, they reached a latitude of 51º40 ", to which Laperouse and Broughton reached from the south. In Ayansky Bay on September 1, 1849, he reported to a specially arrived from Irkutsk through Yakutsk to the Governor-General of Eastern Siberia N.N. Muravyov: "Sakhalin is an island, the entrance to the estuary and the Amur River is possible for seagoing ships from the north and south. The age-old delusion has been positively debunked, the truth has been revealed!" (Information about G.I. Nevelsky is taken from the book by S.A. Ponomarev, "The Book of Admiral Nevelsky", Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk, 2015).

Wangi
July 31, 2017 (Monday)

At 9.50 with Igor on a motorcycle we set off at low tide to the mouth of the Wanga River: he offered to give me a little ride. Then, in a rumbling dot, Igor disappears in the opposite direction behind the toe.

I cross the full-flowing Wangu up to my chest, up to my throat in cold water. The sky frowns and only turns blue over the mainland. Wind. I go around Cape Wangi. Behind Cape Wangi, three kilometers to the north, there is an abandoned lighthouse. I go into its territory and see a "wonderful" picture: some batteries are lying around the lighthouse. All this sours under the onslaught of climatic conditions.

Moreover, upon returning home, I learned from one person that the RTG (radioisotope thermoelectric generator) that powered this lighthouse was flooded in a nearby swamp. Information about this zone of ecological pollution has been published.

perish

The houses of the village of Lazarev on the mainland coast are already clearly visible. A peat wall crowds the sandy shore. On its top there is a sea of ​​berries: shiksha, blueberries, etc. I have lunch by a peat stream. Completely cleared up.

At 16.10 I reach Cape Perish. I am met by a pile of rusty scrap metal: the remains of a pier, the skeletons of ships, in the water - the skeleton of an excavator, a mournful bucket creaking in the wind. Apocalyptic picture.

Here, at Cape Perish, four years ago, in July 2013, I crossed over from the mainland. Through binoculars, the wide water area separating the island and the mainland does not seem equal to 7.3 km, but looks like a strip of water that can be walked almost knee-deep. On the barge, we then walked for an hour - we crossed a powerful current. They say that from Cape Perish the fugitive convicts swam to the mainland, many of them did not swim. Allegedly, hence the name of the cape - Die. Actually according to toponymic dictionary In the Sakhalin region, the name Pogibi comes from the Nivkh village of Pogobi (Pokhobi) and is translated as "a turning point".

About the bridge

There is a lot of talk (especially on the eve of the elections) about the need to build a bridge or a tunnel between Sakhalin and the mainland. Even if we hypothetically assume that the bridge will appear, and the Japanese will transfer the bridge from Hokkaido to Sakhalin from their side, then an unsightly prospect will open up: Sakhalin will become a passage yard, everyone and sundry will pour in here (is it not enough to cancel the border zone?). Public catering facilities, trade facilities will be built along the route passing over land, a service sector will appear and, as a result, dirt, garbage and other human factors. The forests in the district will be cut down, the sea will be defiled completely. Examples with pipelines succinctly speak of this. I already see this apocalyptic picture. It would be better if my Sakhalin remains cut off, isolated from the mainland. Personally, I do not believe all these fables that the appearance of a bridge / tunnel will improve something there, stimulate some kind of growth, enrich the region, etc. It will only enrich a certain cohort of people.

Secondly, the northwest of the island is the only BIG place of untouched Sakhalin; all other untouched places are smaller. This unique area, a unique water area, and any intervention of civilization here causes irreparable damage. We need to leave alone these places and the people living there. There is no need here for any bridges, tunnels and other projects, because these projectors have no matter what the construction is, the destruction of nature, the eviction of the natives. In addition, the more inaccessible the place, the better: lovers of an easy and comfortable life remain within their habitats and do not interfere with free people's lives.

Thirdly, the connection of the islands (Sakhalin and Japan) with the mainland is part of globalization. Thus, the Japanese will, without leaving the train, travel, say, from Tokyo to London via Sakhalin and mainland Russia, and in a short time (on an improved Shinkansen bullet train). But why all this rush? Mankind is already in a hurry somewhere, the world is accelerating, the so-called. "progress" (due to the killing of nature) goes further and further. You won't go back, but you can still stop before it's too late, at least leave it as it is. But ... these are all utopian thoughts, you need to take a sensible look at the realities: the so-called. "the progress of civilization" will never stop, it is a snake swallowing its own tail. The apocalypse will be primarily ecological.

So I thought on the outskirts of Cape Perish.

***

From Cape Perish I turn to the east and along the country road I go deep into the island - the road home begins! Immediately heat, mosquitoes, gadflies. I go in the mode of 25 minutes of walking - 5 minutes of rest. On this kind of road in this mode I pass 1 km in ten minutes.

From Cape Perish begins the land of lakes, large and small. They are scattered on both sides of the road. Mosquitoes are brutal, I fight them with a spray.

I walked until 22.45 and, although I saw an arrow-shaped sign "22 km DIE", at dusk I did not find signs of human habitation. I pitched a tent in the woods by a small stream. During the day I did about 45 km, including a couple of kilometers on a motorcycle with Igor to the mouth of the Wanga River. After tea - immediately lights out, there is no strength for anything.

Big Vagis. Road to Val
August 1, 2017 (Monday)

In the morning, through a dream, I listen to the singing of a forest bird. How beautifully she sang! No human music compares.

Sunny morning. Departure at 9.50. By 11.10 I suddenly go out to the cordon on the Bolshoy Vagis River. Vladimir Salimzyanov lives here. I stayed with him four years ago on the way from Perish, he immediately recognized me. Vladimir Shakirzyanovich Salimzyanov works at Sakhalinmorneftegaz, oversees the pipeline that crosses the entire island to Cape Perish and further under the seabed stretching to the mainland. Vladimir has been here for 62 years, since his birth, not counting his service in the Navy, he brought his wife here. Nearby, his brother and his wife live, they also monitor the pipe. Uncle Volodya's farm is large. With me, he prepares pickles for the winter. This year the summer is hot here, there is little rain, unlike other regions of Sakhalin.

Uncle Volodya fed me fish soup and told me everything, told me. His father went through three wars: Khalkhin Gol, Finnish and Great Patriotic Wars, fought for a total of ten and a half years. His arrival to Sakhalin was facilitated by the following: being a forester near Chita, he left his initials (there was such a rule) USA on the stumps of cut down trees, which interested the KGB. It was the dashing year of 1953, the height of the Cold War. Someone warned Shakirzyan about the impending disaster, and he had to flee to Sakhalin, just the recruitment was.

... In the meantime, two dump trucks drive up, carrying rubble somewhere in the direction of Perish. The drivers had lunch at Uncle Volodya's and on the way back they promised to pick me up and give me a lift to Val. The route to Val goes northeast from Vagis. The road to Dagi - I walked along it in 2013 - goes directly to the east, but now there are no people on it, since work is not being done there, and no one will pick it up. There is no point in feeding mosquitoes.

We go to Val by two dump trucks: I am with the Kyrgyz Aibek in his KamAZ, my backpack is with Vasily in the Ural. Men daily dangle there (carry rubble to the pipe) and back. 102 km in one direction only along a dead road: descents, ascents, ditches, dust. I drove with them for five hours and I'm already exhausted, and they do it every day!

closer to federal highway we are greeted by fog and cold. Typical Sakhalin. From Val to Noglik I get on a beam crane. I drive into Nogliki after eight o'clock in the evening. I am checking into a hotel.

Over 210 km covered during the entire trip.