DAY 29: Passing New Siberian Islands

Today we sailed on the south coast of the New Siberian Islands. On the first written statement on landing to these islands in 1775, the Russian surveyor Chvoinoff described those in a very interesting way. When he set his feet to the beach of the Kotelnyy island he saw a huge amount of animal bones. Among these where mammoth tusks mixed with skulls and bones of ancient ox and rhinoceros horns - telling the story of species extinct thousands of years ago. Later in 1881, the crew and captain of sailing ship Jeanette made a similar statement. Today this is a safe haven for polar bears and home for reindeers, polar foxes, lemmings, snowy owls and migratory birds. One can find many walruses laying at the shoals among with gulls divers and guillemots. Dark winters and light summers with an almost complete absence of humans sounds like the perfect place for us Finns. The distance to the nearest shopping mall is also adequate for an average Finnish guy.