#ARCTIC. #SIBERIA. THIS IS TAIMYR. This summer has become a breakthrough for Hatanga tourism: for the first time, a group of tourists from different Russian cities made an air trip on a Mi-8 helicopter of KrasAvia JSC along the route Hatanga – Severnaya Zemlya.
The long-standing idea of local residents – to show guests the beauty of the Arctic – was brought to life by the Taimyr tour operator Anabar-Tour.
The group consisted of 14 people, according to the Hatanga’s official website. In the Taimyr village, the travelers visited the center of folk art, where they were introduced to the survey exhibition Traditional Life of Dolgans and Nganasans. The guests took part in a master class on making deer antler key rings. A visit to the unique Museum of Cold with mammoth remains stored there left a lot of impressions.
After a sightseeing tour of Hatanga, the tourists visited the Holy Epiphany Church, had in the refectory. The next day, by helicopter, they went to the shore of lake Taimyr, which the local population perceives as the sea because of its size and purest water. The lake gave its name to the entire peninsula.
The guests were lucky to see the original inhabitants of the tundra: arctic foxes, deer and even musk oxen, who returned here, to their historical homeland, half a century ago: in 1974, the Canadian government allocated ten calves for breeding in Taimyr.
The gloomy mountains of Byrranga, unlike any other, also impressed the guests. Locals have long believed that this is the realm of spirits, where there is only stone and ice – and nothing else. Therefore, they never go to the other side of the mountains.
Overnight at cape Chelyuskin, the northernmost point of Eurasia and Russia, is another exciting event. Here, tourists found a border post, a monument to pioneers, saw a bird market, where hundreds and even thousands of gulls, geese, geese. Incredibly, the birds let people close to them, allowing to be stroked.
The final destination of the trip was cape Baranov on the island of Bolshevik, where the scientific site of the Russian Academy of Sciences is located. There the guests learned how the study and survey of sea salt ice is carried out and how it differs from work with fresh continental ice.
The underwater world lovers, who dived into the icy water, were surprised to see that the variety of marine life there is much richer than off the coast of cape Chelyuskin. Divers saw sea anemones, sea urchins, and snails. And other tourists saw seals, gigantic icebergs and on land – the domes of perennial island glaciers, which at this time give life to many rivers and streams.
On the way back, the group visited the famous Middendorf cave, in which the scientist took refuge during his expedition, being sick, waiting for help. True, it was not possible to visit the cave, because it was flooded.
Tourists, according to their confession, returned to Hatanga in complete delight. Flat mountains, fjord bays, blue waves, white ice and bottomless sky – Severnaya Zemlya impressed everyone. Some regretted: they did not manage to meet the owner of the Arctic latitudes – the polar bear, although huge footprints indicated his presence. However, this means that it’s necessary to return to Severnaya Zemlya once again.
Earlier, the Cape Chelyuskin – Cape Piai international expedition’s Arctic stage team reached the northernmost point of Eurasia in just one car. Experts on the route Hatanga – Severnaya Zemlya studied the tourist opportunities of polar weather stations and interesting natural objects in the Arctic.
Follow us on Telegram, VKontakte.
Text: Elena Popova, Photo: Alyona Ivanova and Vitaly Gorshkov / Norilsk Development Agency
