Chapoma and Pyalitsa Rivers. June 7, 2013.

Chapoma River

If you believe the guides, apparently we were the first westerners to visit this Chapoma River village.  We saw first hand how hard life is in these remote lands.  There is no wharf for large boats to land so we arrived in zodiacs.  The primary method of access to this village is via helicopter.

Chapoma River mouth.  Beautiful day with a
blitzering 4°C temperature.

Pomor House.

Caroline making friends with the locals.  The locals
were almost as interested in us as we were in them.

Life in this remote village.

Notice the firewood stacked for winter.

Caroline was on a photographic walking tour
and found this photogenic boat.

Stephen hiked up Chapoma River along
with the other long hikers.

Pyalitsa River

We sailed 60 miles North East to Pyalitsa River mouth and another very similar Pomor village.  This village was even more remote than Chapoma River and boasts around 50 people who winter over.

Pomor House

Evening Sailing North

We started heading north above the Arctic Circle again.  The following photo was taken just past midnight.

The Final Sunset.  As we head north we will no
longer see the sun set.

Zayatsky and Anzer Islands. June 6, 2013.

Zayatsky Island

This was our first 'real' expedition outing as we got into the zodiacs for the first time this trip to join the Expedition team and local guides for a walk to view a chapel and old labyrinths, the purpose of which is unclear, on Zayatski Island.

Inside Church.

Stone buildings.

Labyrinth.

Anzer Island

In the afternoon the ship sailed the short distance to Anzer Island where we took zodiacs to Kopalskaya Bay. From there we hiked to Golgotha Crucifixion Skete, then via The Holy Trinity Skete onto the Western point of the island, where we waited for the ship to relocate and send out zodiacs to pick us up again. 

Golgotha Cruxifition Skete.

Holy Trinity Skete.

Western point of the Anzersky Island.

Solovetsky Island and Monastery. June 5, 2013.

We visited Solovetsky Island and Monastery on a cold summer's day.  This spiritual home to the Russian Orthodox Church was the greatest citadel of the church in the far north until it was turned into a Soviet prison and labour camp from 1923 to 1939, a prototype for the infamous "GULag" system of imprisonment.  The monastery is surrounded by an impressive fortress style wall with 8 watch towers that date back to the 1430s.  Now a UNESCO World Heritage site under some massive restoration by the Russian government.

Solovetsky Monastery

Entrance Gate.

Refectory

Looking out to the entrance gate.

Saviour Transfiguration Cathedral (1558-1566)
Filled with reproduced icons.

Pryadil'naya or Spinning Tower

Arkhangelsk. June 4, 2013.

Three hundred years ago Arkhangelsk was a major sea port for North-Western Russia - The White Sea region - and quite the city. The combination of a short day (due to arrival and departure times of the ship) and a tourism industry in its infancy resulted in us hardly seeing anything of the place. We were docked in the industrial port, some 20km out of the city proper; special permits were required to leave and re-enter the port area. So a self-guided tour was out of the question. Tour buses were arranged to drive us around.
In the morning we joined the 'highlights of the city' tour. Unfortunately we hardly stopped, and, when we did stop we only did so for short periods: the bus would drop us off and pick us up again 200, 300 or 400meters down the road. Once back on the bus we saw things at just about every corner that would have been worth at least a stop. Oh well, hopefully tours will improve. Our local guides were all very knowledgeable and had an amazing command of the English language.  In the afternoon we joined the bus to the Malye Korely Open Air museum. An impressive collection of wooden structures from the region, from the last couple of centuries has been relocated here to be restored and preserved.

Russian Orthodox Church of Saint Nicholas.

Inside the Church of Saint Nicholas.

Malye Korely.

Kirkenes, Norway to Arkhangelsk, Russia.

We left Kirkenes, Norway, at 6:30pm on June 2nd and arrived in Arkhangelsk, some 38 hours later on June 4th. Since this was The World's first port-of-call in Russia on this trip, it took some time to get cleared. We were told that, since TW is the first foreign ship to be allowed in The White Sea, it took a new Russian law to make this happen (!).

Map of our sea voyage.

Kirkenes. June 2, 2013

We docked for the day in the quiet town of Kirkenes.  Since there was not much going on here, being Sunday didn't help either, we decided to do a 15km / 10m bike trip to the Russian border. The weather was nice, the climbs gentle so a good day was had by all.

At the border.

Lunch at the lake.

Back at The World.  With a local who happily
volunteered to be our guide.

Northern most point in Europe. June 1, 2013.

June 1

Today we sailed past Hammerfest which claims to be the northern most city in the world.  This claim is in dispute with Honningsvåg which is further North but maybe is not a city.  Barrow in Alaska which is further North yet again but does not claim to be a city.

Later in the day we sailed past North Cape which claims to be the northern most point of mainland Europe.  An unusual claim since this point is on an island not connected to the mainland.

Hammerfest, Norway.  Claims to be the Northern
most city in Europe.

Caroline and Stephen at the Northern
most point of mainland Europe

June 16

Passed by the North Cape, this time heading south.  We toasted to the Cape with Champagne.

Beautiful Evening sail past North Cape.