By the time we leave and move on, we would have spent three full days on the beach just west of Cape Siniavin.
Alaska once belonged to Russia, and Russian fur hunters were the ones moving along this peninsula, this part of history is here, mainly written in the names of the places. And while Cape Kutuzov as named after a ship that was used to explore the Aleutian Islands, Cape Siniavin is named after a political and explorer.
The place where we made our camp was incredible. Long black sand beach, with ridge just behind full of berries and wild flowers, cliffs with birds, and nesting sea eagles on both ends. We decided to go for walk towards the main cliff, the Cape Siniavin. Following previous experience, before we took off along the beach, we decided to check over the ridge what our neighbours are doing, and sure, one of them was there.
Right, we didn’t fancy to leave the tent and risk that the bear would like it and move in while we are away. So we tried yesterday’s tactic to scare him away. Also, it’s not really advisable to go for walk with bear behind our backs. However, this time the bear wasn’t having it, it just would not get disturbed in whatever he was doing. Probably munching on berries, he was slowly zigzagging towards us or the beach. We showed off all our tricks, shouting, Freya’s steel band orchestra, my magic bear scare stick, nothing worked. The bear kept on going towards the beach and the cliff, where we wanted to go, too, seemingly not noticing us at all.
In the end we gave in, and slowly followed behind him. At some point it looked like we just went for stroll on the beach and took our pet bear with us. He was graciously going ahead of us, from the grass to the beach, then further along. Finally our paths split, as he continued under the cliffs, and we joined the path on top of them. The bear found a dead fish, pulled it along a bit, then ate it. I also made a discovery, not a fish to eat, but a glass ball. Hurray, my first glass float!
Since we decided to closely follow the cliff edge as not to miss anything that might be happening underneath, we soon had to wade through high, hard, wet plants drenching our shoes completely. The view was worth it though. First we climbed on top of the navigation light, and took in the scenery, then we went to see the walruses.
They were lying on the narrow strip just under the highest of the cliff, a mass of blueberry brownish pinkish bodies, long tusks everywhere. Suddenly we also saw our bear, just sneaking past them and walking away further east. Probably moving to better place since we invaded and kept disturbing his current one.
We spent time watching the walruses, first from the cliff, then from the beach in good distance away from them as not to cause stampede. Amazing, they swam, then laboureusly climbing onto the beach. It must have been a heck of a hard work for them, as they would move few paces. Then lie down and rest, then move again. The whole pack never seemed to stop, as as soon they all found a space, and lied down, one started to encourage his neighbour to move and to give him space. The tusks were long and strong, although some were missing one or parts of both.
We watch the and watch them until it was time to make our way back over the hill. We followed the well traveled bear trail and reach and our tent comfortably, quite fast without any further issues.
I was please, I brought my crocks with me, hopefully it would be sunny and dry tomorrow, and my shoes would have a chance to dry, as I am not putting wet ones on.
Indeed, we were lucky, the day broke into sunshine, and by one in the afternoon our shoes and socks were dry. It was time for another walk, this time east of the Cape. Again we chose the bear trail and then joined another long beach. It was bit of a glass ball hunt. But really we just walked for the sake of walking until we found a perfect couch to sit on and watch the life go pass by for a while. Tomorrow is the time for rescue.
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