A motorbike journey to the Edge of the World, part 2. Kunashir

Sakhalin, the Kurile Islands

The Korsakov seaport, where ships depart from for the Kurile Islands, is located 40 km from Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk. Yandex taxi will take you there in 40 minutes and it will cost you 1100 roubles.

You have to arrive at the port two hours before the departure. Then you pass a small clean waiting room, a ticket checkpoint, a quick check-in and after half an hour the bus takes passengers to the pier, where a new beautiful ferry Admiral Nevelskoy is docked.

We were met by the crew dressed in brand new uniforms. They handed us over the keys to our cabin and pointed to the right direction. This time I was accommodated on the upper deck in a double room with a large porthole in it, a TV-set, large beds and a pretty bathroom with a shower. In comparison with the Sakhalin-8 ferry, by which we went from Vanino to Kholmsk, Admiral Nevelskoy is a 5-star hotel.

There is a cafe and a bar on board (but without alcohol beverages). Also you can walk on the upper deck despite the fact there is not much space for a promenade.

A couple of hours later, two beautiful tug boats approached, pulled the ferry away from the wall and Admiral Nevelskoy headed southeast to the Kurile Islands.

Of course, it's not the restaurant service, but you can order something here.

This is a captain's bridge.

The ferry covered the distance of four hundred kilometers from Sakhalin to Kunashir in less than a day and docked at the port of Yuzhno-Kurilsk at 9 a.m., having been accompanied by a flock of dolphins. Two hours later my motorbike was lifted out of the bilge with a crane and placed on the concrete platform of the pier.

I borrowed a claw hammer from the boatswain and disassembled the packing crate. A half an hour later I rode along the streets of the capital of Kunashir Island.

The motorbike was delivered safe and sound.

Kunashir Island. Yuzhno-Kurilsk

The capital of Kunashir and the largest settlement of the Kurile islands (the population is about 8 thousand inhabitants) is located around the bay on the high shore of a cape protruding into the ocean. The village is very compact so it took me only 30 minutes to ride along all its streets and alleys.

I went to the edge of the cape and saw an old abandoned lighthouse and an enchanting view of the ocean. Then I spent two hours looking for accommodation. The thing is that there are only three or four small hotels in the village and they are all completely packed.

August-September in Kunashir are the "dog days" and people book the hotel rooms several months before. Prices during this season are quite high (an average room would cost you 4-5 thousand roubles). I stayed at a modest hostel for 1500 roubles per day. At least, it's better than in a tent.

Old residential buildings and barracks are still preserved in some places. But there are only few of them.
After solving all the problems about accommodation, I went to get acquainted with the village. Actually, I could have just walked, it would not have taken much longer.

In the village there is a monument to Lenin, the Administration establishment, a school, a hospital, a traffic police and the Ministry of Emergency Situations, a sports complex, several shops, hotels, cafes and even an airport, which is located 20 km from the city in the village of Mendeleevo at the foot of the volcano of the same name. The only beautiful paved highway in the island leads to it. The roads on Kunashir are mostly unpaved or rolled up in grader. In the northern part it's better to move around in a Jeep.
And what are the people's occupations?

Well, they go fishing, do port services. There are several military units that also give work to local residents. Apart from them there are state employees and the staff in service. The level of employment is high, so are the salaries. Sometimes there appear the visitors who work in shifts. Many of them move here for permanent residence after having worked for a year or two.

This one was spoken about as the best cafe in the town. But today they have a day off.

There are a lot of such kinda shops in the town.

And this BeerLoga must have been opened not long ago.

The population of the village has been growing in recent years, so the old houses are being demolished and the new ones are being built.

I was told that these were the television antennas. :)

And that's how the outskirts of the port look like. Old ships are waiting for their fate.
The climate here is mild, seems warmer than in central Russia. The air is clean and the nature is incredible: just look at the ocean and the mountains! And the people are so friendly! What else does one need for a happy life?

The airport is small, but clean and pretty decent.

This is one of the central streets of Yuzhno-Kurilsk.

Kunashir. Travelling around the island.

What immediately made a pleasant impression on us in Kunashir was the attitude of the people.

At the entrance to the village I saw a helicopter. Rode up. I got acquainted with the crew at once. They turned out to be great guys.

Port workers, security guards, hotel administrators or just strangers in the street helped me solve various major and minor problems multiple times.

It took to collect 198 shells to make this inscription on the sand.

On the shore you can find a lot of things from fishing nets and floats to household items (even a fridge was there).

The ocean washed ashore some "gifts" from Japan.

Everyone was very surprised that I was travelling by a motorbike and reached their island with it. A man from the mainland, who is going by motorbike looks exotic in Kunashir.

The very first day I met the most courageous endurist of Kunashir Nikolai Belov. He promised to show me the island the next day.

Can you imagine riding along the ocean, catching a wave with a wheel on one side and touching a huge wall with waterfalls on the other?

And that was really a fantastic day!

Together with Nikolai's friend Vadim, who had got a BMW too (but a small one of the 650 model), we decided to explore the section of the island from Yuzhno-Kurilsk to the Oar cape. It is the southernmost point from where you can see Japan with the naked eye.

An old longboat. The ocean quickly destroys abandoned ships.

Devil's finger is an amazing single rock on the beach.

To cut a long story short, you had better watch the videos and photos of my second day in Kunashir here. I hope I managed to convey a small part of the fantastic beauty of its landscape and nature.

Golovnin Volcano

Kunashir. Travelling around the island. Golovnin.

There are four active volcanoes in Kunashir. One of them named Tyata is the largest and most beautiful and it is located in the northern part, which is not so easy to get to. It is also one of the three most admirable volcanoes in the world.

The road to the caldera of Golovnin volcano.

The Mendeleev volcano is smaller and closer to civilization, so you can conquer it easily by going 4 km to the top.

But today we have a route to Golovnin volcano. This is an outstanding and fascinating place in Kunashir.

Many thousands of years ago there was an eruption and the volcano exploded, leaving a huge caldera instead of its vent, in which two lakes were formed. They were called Boiling and Hot.

(43.863316, 145.501843)
I've never gone inside a volcano by motorbike before!

The motorbikes were left on the line 700 m away from the lake. But the security guards gave us buggies, which was also not bad.

The road was not difficult, but if it had rained, I could not have got out by my heavy BMW on a steep muddy climb. But we were lucky: the weather was fine and the sight was fantastically beautiful!

The lake Boiling is bubbling and bringing a powerful smell of sulfur. It is surrounded by bright multicoloured rocks, which are like a frame for the neck of the volcano. That looks stunning!

But the lake Hot, in fact, isn't even warm. It's quite an ordinary blue lake 62 m deep. Well, hardly anywhere could you swim in a lake located in a volcano!
But in Kunashir it is possible!

The Column cape

Kunashir. Travelling around the island. The Column cape.
There are many unique and interesting places in Kunashir besides the volcanoes. One of them is the Column cape, which is located on the west coast not far from Yuzhno-Kurilsk. (44.025971, 145.675985)
It is difficult to get to, but possible. And it is better to go on foot for the latest few kilometres. Two ways lead to the cape. The first one is longer, goes along a tourist trail and the other one is shorter, about 3 km long, and goes by the seashore. I chose the second option. And such a pretty leisure promenade along the sandy beach and then swimming in the cool Sea of Okhotsk was a great pleasure to me!

The cape is interesting for its unique rocks, which look similar to columns or pillars, assembled together and hammered into the bottom of the sea. That is actually volcanic lava, which had squeezed out of the ground and frozen in such an unusual form. The high wall is called "Pipe Organ" and truly resembles this musical instrument, but about 50 m high. The other one looks like a turtle shell or a paving stone.
Here you can relax for a long time, sitting on a ledge of a rock and meditating while watching seagulls and listening to the quiet rustle of waves.

Kunashir. A trip across the island to Tyatya volcano

"I would not recommend you going by your motorbike to the north", said Nikolai.

Apparently, he can be trusted, as he might be the only local resident who has travelled around the whole Kunashir by all means of transport.

"Why? What's the problem?", I asked, just in case.
"The thing is that you will have to ride several dozen kilometres along the water line during low tide. And since the road takes several hours, you may not have time to return back".

And during the high tide some sections near the rocks become impassable even for prepared off-road vehicles.

Here the tide reaches the rock and rises up to a height of more than 1 m.

And there are also areas where you need to overcome large stones, cross the rivers and go along the muddy puddled road to the volcano. Ask Vadim if he could lend you his motorbike for a day. He has another 450 Husqvarna model". Vadim and I rode together to the south yesterday. I doubted that Vadim would have supported the idea, but in the evening he himself suggested me using his "moped". Superb!

Our mood is great! We have been walking 15 km.

In the morning my friend and I left Yuzhno-Kurilsk for the north of the island. The asphalt road ended right out the village and we rode down to a sandbank that stretched for a dozen km along the ocean. Riding a light enduro along sand, water and rocks was rather speeeeeeeecific and fun experience in comparison with riding a heavy BMW!

All you have to do is turn off the gas, jump over the sand waves and fly over the rivers. We reached a place called "Chaika" (these are the hot springs, where you can bathe in mineral waters). But we have no time! The volcano Tyatya is waiting for us!

We turned into the depth of the island, rode a couple of kilometres and suddenly my motorbike stopped. It didn't react to the starter, didn't turn the engine and generally showed no sign of life.
We have tried out everything to fix the situation! We even disassembled half of the motorbike but it seemed to be completely broken. There was no cell phone reception. Only mountains, forest, rocks and bears were around us.

A man in a Jeep appeared out of nowhere. He tried to help us, lending the tools and giving us advice. But as it made no success, he drove on.

We need to solve this problem somehow.

Nikolai rode to the shore and found there a rope (from which we made a tow rope then) and dragged me back through the mud, sand and stones.

Have you ever tried towing a motorbike by another motorbike over sand and rocks? For at least 300 m?

And we had to go more than 30 km!!! (And we needed to finish our way before the tide, which was already about to start). When we were passing by the clamps at the rocks, I had to push the motorbike ahead while being knee-deep in water.

We reached Yuzhno-Kurilsk in the late evening.

Well, the day was fine!
But Tyatya volcano has still remained unconquered….

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