Dates: April 19 to 29, 2022*
* The dates of the expedition can be shifted 1 week back or forward, depending on the spring schedule of ChukotAvia Airlines' domestic flights in Chukotka, as well as depending on the dates of the annual Nadezhda ("Hope") dog sled race (mushers and dogs participating in our expedition, must also participate in the "Hope" race).
The final dates of the expedition will be determined upon receipt of information on the flight schedule and the dates of the "Hope" race, in any case no later than in January 2022.
Duration: 11 days / 10 nights
Number of participants: 4 – 6
TRAVEL PROGRAM: PHOTO TOUR TO CHUKOTKA
Day 1. April 19, 2022 (Tuesday). ANADYR
Arrival in Anadyr at 12:30 pm (UTair flight 533 from Moscow).
Meeting at the airport, transfer to the city.
City tour (monuments to Grinevetsky, Rytkheu, Revolutionary Commissioner of Chukotka, St. Nicolas).
Visit to the Chukotka Heritage Museum.
Performance of the folk group - throat singing or dancing.
Dinner and tasting of salmon, caviar and other local delicacies.
Stories from ethnologist about local rituals and traditions. Ritual of feeding the spirits
Meals: dinner
Accommodation: hotel "Anadyr"
Day 2. April 20, 2022 (Wednesday). ANADYR – LAURENTIUS – INCHOUN
Breakfast, transfer to the airport.
Flight from Anadyr to Laurentius, to the very east of the Chukotka Peninsula. Meeting at the airport with a guide and team-leader (scientist – ethnologist)
Lunch in Laurentius.
Transfer to the coast of the Arctic Ocean to the village of Inchoun (90 km, 3 - 4 hours), photographing the tundra along the way.
Arrival, arrangement in the apartments of the mushers, acquaintance with the locals.
Dinner - home cooking, traditional coastal food.
Meeting with representatives of the Eskimo and Chukchi cultures, discussion on issues of intercultural interaction.
Meals included: breakfast, lunch, dinner
Accommodation: apartment
Day 3. April 21, 2022 (Thursday). INCHOUN
Breakfast. Walking tour around the village
Master class "musher school" - acquaintance with mushers and their dogs, teaching the basic skills of driving a team.
Test drives. Everyone drives their dog sleds, accompanied by an experienced musher-instructor.
If possible, going out to the ice edge with sea mammals hunters, subject to good weather, observing the seal hunting.
Overnight at the apartment, preparing for the trek.
Meals: breakfast, lunch, dinner
Accommodation: apartment
Day 4. April 22, 2022 (Friday). INCHOUN – UELEN
Breakfast. Dog sledding from Inchoun to Uelen (about 30 km) along the coast of the Arctic Ocean. The group is accompanied by the TrEkol all-terrain vehicle and two snowmobiles.
Along the route meeting with animals is quite possible - polar bear, arctic fox, wolverine.
On the way - a picnic, hot tea.
Arrival at Uelen. Accommodation in a hotel or boarding school.
Dinner. Walking tour around the village, meeting the locals.
Overnight at the apartment or hotel.
Meals: breakfast, lunch, dinner
Accommodation: hotel or boarding school
Days 5. April 23, 2022 (Saturday). UELEN – CAPE DEZHNEV – UELEN
Breakfast. Departure by dog sleds to Cape Dezhnev, the easternmost point of Eurasia (round trip about 30 km).
The dog sleds remain with the mushers. Trekking to the lighthouse and the monument to Semyon Dezhnev. Visiting of the archaeological site - the Eskimo old settlement of Naukan. The descent takes about an hour, the ascent is about 2 hours, the elevation difference is 400 meters. If icy occurs, the slope can be slippery, then descent will be impossible.
The Eskimo (the Inuit) are a group of culturally similar indigenous peoples inhabiting the Arctic regions of Greenland, Canada, Chukotka and Alaska. The Inuit languages are part of the Eskimo-Aleut family. Inuit are the descendants of what anthropologists call the Thule culture, who emerged from western Alaska around 1000 CE. They had split from the related Aleut group about 4,000 years ago and from northeastern Siberian migrants, possibly related to the Chukchi language group, still earlier, descended from the third major migration from Siberia. They spread eastwards across the Arctic.
Photographing landscapes. With good visibility - observation of the Diomede Islands: Ratmanova (Russia) and Kruzenshtern (USA).
Return to Uelen by dog sleds.
Meals: breakfast, lunch, dinner
Accommodation: hotel or boarding school in Uelen
Days 6. April 24, 2022 (Saturday). UELEN – INCHOUN
Breakfast and visit to the bone carving workroom in Uelen.
Back way by dog sledges to Inchoun (about 30 km).
Picnic along the way.
Dinner in Inchoun, accommodation in the mushers' apartments. Exchange of impressions.
Discussion on the topic "Truth and Fiction in the film" The Chief of Chukotka ".
Hunting for the Northern Lights if the weather allows.
Meals: breakfast, lunch, dinner
Accommodation: apartment
Days 7. April 25, 2022 (Sunday). INCHOUN – REINDEER HERDERS' CAMP
Breakfast and farewell to mushers and dogs.
Transfer by TRECOL to the reindeer herding brigade (travel time is depending on where the reindeer herders' camp will be located, presumably 4 - 6 hours).
The Chukchi are an indigenous people inhabiting the Chukotka Peninsula and the shores of the Chukchi Sea and the Bering Sea region of the Arctic Ocean within Russia. They speak the Chukchi language. Chukchi originated from the people living around the Okhotsk Sea. According to most recent genomic research, Chukchi people are the closest cousins of the First Americans in Asia. Chukchi are traditionally divided into the Maritime Chukchi, who had settled homes on the coast and lived primarily from sea mammal hunting, and the Reindeer Chukchi, who lived as nomads in the inland tundra region, migrating seasonally with their herds of reindeer. The Russian name "Chukchi" is derived from the Chukchi word Chauchu ("rich in reindeer"), which was used by the Reindeer Chukchi to distinguish themselves from the Maritime Chukchi, called Anqallyt ("the sea people").
Lunch of reindeer herders' food.
Reindeer cooking master class
Communication with reindeer herders, campfire stories about life in the tundra.
Overnight in yaranga in the reindeer herders' camp.
Meals: breakfast, lunch, dinner
Accommodation: yaranga (traditional Chukchi dwelling) or fur tent.
Day 8. April 26, 2022 (Tuesday). REINDEER HERDERS' CAMP - LORINO
Breakfast. Drive to the herd.
A master class in throwing a lasso..
Reindeer ritual slaughtering.
Farewell to hospitable reindeer herders and departure in the direction of Lorino - the capital of the whalers.
Walking tour around the village. Visit to the bone carving workroom, a workshop on bone carving art, ordering souvenirs.
Accommodation in the apartments of sea mammals hunters.
Dinner. Ethnographer's lecture on the history of whaling
Meals: breakfast, lunch, dinner
Accommodation: apartment
Day 9. April 27, 2022 (Wednesday). LORINO – LAURENTIUS – ANADYR
Flight Laurentius – Anadyr.
Crossing the estuary to the city.
Accommodation at the Hotel Anadyr.
Russian banya (steam bath).
Dinner and lectures of the ethnologist on the history of the settlement in Chukotka
Meals included: breakfast, lunch, dinner
Accommodation: Hotel Anadyr
Day 10. April 28, 2022 (Thursday). ANADYR
Reserve day in case of bad weather and flight change.
Buying of souvenirs.
Visit to the Chukotka Heritage Museum and performance of a folklore group - throat singing or dancing, possibly on this day
Farewell dinner, exchange of impressions.
Meals included: breakfast, lunch, dinner
Accommodation: Hotel Anadyr
Day 11. April 29, 2022 (Friday). ANADYR - GUDYM - RETURN FLIGHT
Breakfast. Crossing the estuary.
Excursion to the abandoned military base Gudym. Gudym, built in late 1950th, served as a nuclear weapon base during the Cold War period and was completely hidden underground. Picnic at the military base with packed army lunchbox.
Transfer to the airport and flight Anadyr - Moscow by UTair airline, departure at 15:15 pm (flight UT534).
Meals included: breakfast, lunch
Accommodation: no
* The operator reserves the right to change the order of execution of the program subject to keeping of all activities.
** The program depends on the local flights schedule and availability of flying weather.
*** In case the nomadic reindeer herders of the Chukotka region are out of reach (more than 7 hours on an all-terrain vehicle), days 7-11 will be completed in accordance with the following alternative program (for the same cost):
7. April 25, 2022 (Sunday). INCHOUN – LORINO
Breakfast and farewell to mushers and dogs.
Transfer by TRECOL to the Lorino - the capital of the whalers.
Walking tour around the village. Visit to the bone carving workroom, a workshop on bone carving art, ordering souvenirs.
Accommodation in the apartments of sea mammals hunters.
Meals: breakfast, lunch, dinner
Accommodation: apartment
Day 8. April 26, 2022 (Tuesday). LORINO
Breakfast. Walking tour around the village. Visit to the bone carving workroom, a workshop on bone carving art, ordering souvenirs.
Drive to Lorino hot springs. Picnic, bathing in the springs, returning to the village.
Meals: breakfast, lunch, dinner
Accommodation: apartment
Day 9. April 27, 2022 (Wednesday). LORINO – LAURENTIUS – ANADYR - REINDEER HERDERS' CAMP
Breakfast. Farewell to sea mammals hunters and moving to Laurentius to the airport.
Flight Laurentius – Anadyr.
Meeting at the airport
Lunch.
Transfer by TRECOL to the reindeer herding brigade (travel time is depending on where the reindeer herders' camp will be located, presumably 4 - 6 hours).
The Chukchi are an indigenous people inhabiting the Chukotka Peninsula and the shores of the Chukchi Sea and the Bering Sea region of the Arctic Ocean within Russia. They speak the Chukchi language. Chukchi originated from the people living around the Okhotsk Sea. According to most recent genomic research, Chukchi people are the closest cousins of the First Americans in Asia. Chukchi are traditionally divided into the Maritime Chukchi, who had settled homes on the coast and lived primarily from sea mammal hunting, and the Reindeer Chukchi, who lived as nomads in the inland tundra region, migrating seasonally with their herds of reindeer. The Russian name "Chukchi" is derived from the Chukchi word Chauchu ("rich in reindeer"), which was used by the Reindeer Chukchi to distinguish themselves from the Maritime Chukchi, called Anqallyt ("the sea people").
Meals: breakfast, lunch, dinner
Accommodation: yaranga (traditional Chukchi dwelling) or fur tent.
Day 10. April 28, 2022 (Thursday). REINDEER HERDERS' CAMP - KANCHALAN
Breakfast. Drive to the herd.
A master class in throwing a lasso..
Reindeer ritual slaughtering.
Farewell to hospitable reindeer herders and departure in the direction of Kanchalan (around 50 km, 2-3 hours).
Accommodation in the apartments or boarding school.
Dinner.
Russian banya (steam bath).
Meals: breakfast, lunch, dinner
Accommodation: hotel or boarding school
Day 11. April 29, 2022 (Friday). KANCHALAN - ANADYR AIRPORT - RETURN DEPARTURE
Early breakfast.
Moving by all-terrain vehicle from Kanchalan to Anadyr airport (Coal Mines), 70 km, 2 - 3 hours.
Flight Anadyr - Moscow by UTair (departure at 15:15 by flight UT534).
Meals: breakfast, lunch
Accommodation: no