Pristine Kamchatka: Pacific Ocean

The splendor of this morning exceeded all our expectations !!!

Sunrise is a glorious time of every day, which never repeats in its glory the colors spilled by the Creator!

An hour before dawn, the very original Kamchatka, that other Kamchatka, which once met the first sailors admired by their unprecedented beauty, was revealed to us in all its grandeur.

Bright, fresh, wonderful - real in its being, Kamchatka will delight the eye and win the heart of the most sophisticated esthete on Earth.

Sun-scorched fire clouds above the tops of hills, creating bold reliefs on the horizon, will not leave anyone indifferent!

Why hills and not volcanoes, you might be interested in? The "culprits" are again the first seafarers, or rather their first impression. The fact is that when they approached these shores, the high mountains with regular cones seemed to them to be poured, hence the "hill" (from the word to pour) went. Even on maps of the last century, all the names of volcanoes are marked with. Flounder, with. Ilyina, s. Zheltovskaya, etc.

All this coast from Cape Lopatka to the confluence of the Ilyinskaya River in Vestnik Bay, including the three-mile sea area, is the territory of the South Kamchatka Reserve.

Volcano Ilyinsky

Zheltovsky hill

Volcano Flounder

Closer to dinner, we approached Utashud Island, which is also part of the reserve, despite the fact that it is separate.

In the southern part of this island, on the rocks, there is a small rookery of sea lions.

When we circled Utashud Island a couple of times and made sure that these wonderful places were discovered for us, our yacht moved further along the rocky coast of Kamchatka, overcoming the rising wind on its way.

From that very moment, everyone began to gaze steadily at the ocean, to see if there are tall fins where those who really, really wanted to see and shoot! And about an hour after that, after an unpleasant incident with the front sail, THEY finally appeared on the horizon ...

Killer whales !!!

3 or 4 families passed by us, which, unfortunately, did not let us close.

But we did not give up hope of seeing them again before arriving in the city, and “holding our breath” cameras did not abandon our visual hunt until the last ...

The wind did not subside, evening was approaching. Only after sunset did the wind gradually calm down, by then our yacht had already passed the Asacha and Mutnaya bays.

At night, we anchored in Russkaya Bay.

After a day of cradling on the waves and the impressions I received, I did not even remember how I fell asleep that evening. And when he woke up, he was delighted with the stunning dawn !!!

In this wound, we got up not only for the dawn. Our second goal was a rookery of sea lions, located on Cape Kekurny near Russkaya Bay, where we immediately set sail.

And our time calculations did not disappoint, because we were near the lion rookery just at the moment of the best light!

There were only females on the rock, but later the harem owner also joined them.

At the departure from the cape, we were still waiting for a small surprise in the form of welcome killer whales!

Avacha hill

Volcano Vilyuchinsky

In the finale of our sea part of the trip, we, of course, could not pass by Starichkov Island, on which there is a large colony of birds and nerpa loungers resting.

"Applause"

Perhaps this is where the sea route of our journey came to an end. And after 2 hours we were in the city at the place where, in fact, we started our journey. Thus, we made a large southern ring in Kamchatka, as if “turning around” with our native Earth, opening it in a new light.