Arctic Russia Travel

04/11/2021

Keniskun Bay on Chukotka's Arctic Ocean coast is home to the world's largest walrus colony. When the ice recedes in autumn, up to 118,500 walrus haul themselves out onto the land and form a rookery that covers up to 20km of coastline. This is about half the world's walrus population and almost the whole Pacific walrus population.

We visited this year in September, when the colony was just starting to form. There were about 1400 walrus on land and another 500 visible in the sea, swimming towards the main colony.

The colony starts about 11km from an indigenous village called Enurmino, population 300. Enurmino is accessible by twice monthly helicopter from the district capital, Lavrentiya. The helicopter is often delayed for weeks or cancelled altogether due to extreme weather conditions. Lavrentiya itself is only accessible by a weekly airplane or monthly 48-hour ferry from Chukotka's capital Anadyr, which has no land transport connection to the rest of Russia.

Enurmino can also be accessed from Lavrentiya by a 24-hour off-road ride in all-terrain vehicles across Chukotka's interior, which can easily turn into 48 hours with breakdowns, getting stuck in swamps, etc. Taking a motorboat along the coast from Lavrentiya is also an option, but you may end up waiting days or weeks for seas calm enough to try this.

In short, this spectacular natural event is something that very few people are ever likely to see. However, we can organise trips to visit the colony and live in a cabin right there on Keniskun Bay. In October, the walrus colony comes right up to the walls and windows of the cabin.

These trips are only for the VERY adventurous traveller with a flexible mindset and plenty of spare time!

18/07/2021

A new video from Arctic Russia Travel’s YouTube channel. Turn on subtitles to see captions and subscribe to receive updates when we publish new videos!

A video from a trip sailing from the village of Egvekinot, centre of Chukotka's Iultin District, to Provideniya, centre of Provideniya District. It begins by...

18/06/2021

We haven't run many tours over the last year, for obvious reasons. However, since January, things have been gradually getting back to normal as Russia opens its borders to more and more countries. Here are some photos from the few tours we have run over the last year. In chronological order, they are from:

* Magadan
* Chukotka
* Yakutia
* Moscow
* The Yamal Peninsula
* Archangel Province
* The Kanin Peninsula
* The Komi Republic

06/06/2021

Our overland trip across Chukotka from the Pacific Ocean coast to the Arctic Ocean coast. It begins in Egvekinot and takes guests to Vankarem and Kolyuchin Island.

Vankarem, a remote indigenous village of 180, is home to a walrus colony that appears every August. By the time it disperses in October, there are usually 35,000 walrus at the colony. Polar bears also come to prey on them.

The trip to Vankarem is a wildlife photographer's dream. On the way there are many brown bears and reindeer. At Vankarem and nearby Kolyuchin Island, as well as the polar bears and walrus one can see huge numbers of whales and enormous bird cliffs.

Guests will also get to enjoy stunning mountain scenery, explore old gulag camps and travel in enormous all-terrain vehicles through the tundra.

05/06/2021

In winter, Chukotka, like much of the Russian Arctic, has a network of zimniks: temporary winter roads often built on frozen river surfaces. In summer, however, these melt away. There is only one summer road, a dirt track that crosses Chukotka 1350 km from Anyuysk in the west to Egvekinot in the east. There are also turnoffs to the town of Pevek, population 4000, and the village of Ilirney, population 230. Pevek is a 200 km side trip one way and Ilirney is a 95km side trip one way.

If you follow the main road without any side trips, you will pass only one settlement: Bilibino, a town with a population of 6000 about 250 km from Anyuysk. After that, it's 1100 km to Egvekinot without a single settlement, although there are two gold mining sites, a weather station and some nomadic Chukchi reindeer herders.

From "mainland" Russia, Anyuysk can be reached either by flying into Bilibino from Magadan, or by sailing up the Kolyma River from Magadan Province and through Arctic Yakutia. Egvekinot can be reached by flight or boat from Anadyr, Chukotka's capital, by driving 1100 km from Bilibino or 850km from Pevek.

The whole route from Anyuysk to Egvekinot takes around 4 days if you have ideal conditions and river levels aren't too high. If river levels are high, it can take up to 3 weeks, as drivers have to wait for the water level to go down.

If you have plenty of time, it's an easy route to hitch hike, as literally everyone stops to pick you up. However, you can often wait several days without seeing a single vehicle, especially after you pass the turnoff to Pevek. Bring a tent, food, a portable gas stove, an inflatable boat and the means to scare off bears!

If time is of the essence, you're better off hiring a Trekol all-terrain vehicle. These have extremely high tyres and can even float in water with a speed of 10 km/h. They can cross rivers so deep that truck drivers would have to stop and wait. Beds can also be set up in the back of the Trekol.

15/05/2021

Polar bear swims towards thousands of walrus in Chukotka. Please feel free to subscribe to our YouTube channel if you would like to see more videos like this.

From August to October, we run tours to the village of Vankarem on Chukotka's Arctic Ocean coast. In late August, a walrus colony appears on nearby Cape Vank...

13/05/2021

Nomadic Nenets reindeer herders migrating on Arctic Siberia's Yamal Peninsula. We are now regularly updating our YouTube channel with more videos like this. Click the link below and subscribe to see more clips from this spectacularly remote destination.

We run extreme cultural immersion tours to Arctic Siberia's Yamal Peninsula. Our guests get to join the nomadic Nenets reindeer herders on their epic migrati...

28/06/2020

The groups of nomadic Nenets reindeer herders we work with have the biggest herds in the world - from 3,000 to 11,000 reindeer per camp. Contact us if you would like to join them on their epic migrations.

23/11/2019

Join nomadic Nenets reindeer herders migrating on Arctic Siberia’s Yamal Peninsula. Truly one of the most spectacular events to witness on the planet. Imagine 11,000 reindeer, 100 sledges and 50 people crawling across the barren snowy landscape in a caravan up to 8km long!

28/09/2019

Currently offering trips to the of ‘s Peninsula from $1500 in a group or $4000 for a private 1-person trip. Get in touch at www.arcticrussiatravel.com .

08/01/2019

An Argish (train of collected sledges with reindeer pulling each one) of migrating on ’s Peninsula. The sledges are loaded with food, possessions and the family’s home - the chum, or reindeer-fur tepee.