Russia is amazing not only with world-famous beauties and monuments. The main asset of our country is its vast expanses, the ability to travel in places where there are no crowds of tourists. One of these remote corners is the Commander Islands. It is quite difficult to find them on the map right away, and you can get here only from Kamchatka, on a small plane flying once a week, and even then only in case of good weather, which happens infrequently here. And yet, despite all the difficulties, this region is worth seeing!
Commander Islands: geographic location
Commanders are located off the eastern coast of Kamchatka in the Bering Sea, in the geological sense they are a continuation of the Aleutian Islands. The archipelago formally consists of a large number of land areas surrounded by water, but only four of them can be fully called islands: Medny, Bering, Ariy Kamen and Toporkov. Otherwise, the Commander Islands are rocks sticking out of the water (they are also called stones), unsuitable for human life. There are ten such stones in total, but these are only those thathave their own names, because in the adjacent waters there are dozens of nameless cliffs. The relief of the Commanders is mostly mountainous, with insignificant flat zones and very sparse vegetation characteristic of tundra regions. But there are also small fresh rivers and lakes, berries and cereals grow here.
Climatic features
Because the archipelago is located in the cold Bering Sea, the weather here is very capricious and harsh. It is not for nothing that the Commander Islands are called the land of winds and fogs! The climate in the region is rainy and windy, while the weather can change several times a day and differ from island to island. Summers are usually cool, up to 15 degrees Celsius (for the entire observation period, the maximum temperature was 24 degrees), winters are cold, with temperatures down to -24 degrees, which, together with the piercing wind blowing from the Pacific Ocean, creates very difficult conditions for local residents.. Despite this weather, the ocean does not freeze in winter.
Commander Islands: attractions
Commanders is not at all the place where you can come to look at city life. There is only one settlement on the archipelago - the village of Nikolskoye, and the population of all the islands does not reach even a thousand people. But we can say with confidence that these places are a natural pantry. There are no large centers here, industry is not developed, and people coexist peacefully with nature. Back in 1993, a biosphere reserve was opened on the archipelago, and today ithas about four hundred species and forty subspecies of vascular plants. There are also unique endemic species of fish, birds and animals.
Ethnographic objects
The Commander Islands also have a number of historical sights. It was here, at Cape Commander, that the ship "Saint Peter" of the Kamchatka expedition, led by the famous associate of Emperor Peter the Great, Vitus Bering, anchored. As conceived by the ruler, he had to find an isthmus or strait, which is a natural border between two continents. The crew of the ship was forced to stay here for a long nine months and all this time to fight for survival. Vitus Bering himself could not stand the adversity - he was buried on one of the islands. Later, a subsequent expedition found the grave, a memorial cross was erected on it, and the land area was named after the famous traveler and captain. It is worth warning those who are going to come to the Commander Islands and want to personally see the grave of a Dane who served the Russian sovereign that the memorial can be easily confused with an ordinary commemorative cross erected nearby.
What else is interesting about the history of the Commander Islands? Vacationers are invited to view the houses that were built by American sailors at the beginning of the 20th century. They, like Russian sailors, came to these places for fish and marine animals, because every year the paths of sea otters, seals, whales pass here, so there is something to profit from.
Flora and fauna
Every year the Commander Islands become the object of ornithological expeditions. The fact is that dozens of species of sea birds nest on the archipelago, as well as arrange rookeries and raise offspring of certain species of marine mammals. A variety of representatives of birds flock to the islands, and their hubbub spreads over the surface of the ocean for hundreds of meters around. There are unique animals listed in the Red Book. This is the Commander Arctic Fox, Aleutian Tern, Pulmonary Lobaria, Canada Goose and others. The brightest (in every sense of the word) representatives of the local fauna are rightfully puffins, also called commander's parrots. Against the backdrop of dull, gray island landscapes, their colors are especially bright. In honor of these birds, one of the largest islands in the archipelago was named Toporkov.
Types of tourism
The village of Nikolskoye is the "capital" of the Commanders and, as already noted, the only settlement on the archipelago. This is a place where the Aleuts live compactly - a people who settled the Commander Islands even before the arrival of the Russians. Tourism here is aimed specifically at studying the native traditions and life of the indigenous people, although they have long since (at the beginning of the 19th century) adopted Russian culture and Orthodoxy. For visitors, performances are arranged in Nikolskoye: Aleuts dress in national clothes made of skins and play musical instruments made from animal body parts. Everyone can try on shell beads, look at hunting tools and household items of the islanders.
Disappearing culture
Modern commanders live in exactly the same way as their ancestors - fur and sea trade. But, unfortunately, a sad trend has been noticed recently: the number of native speakers of the Aleutian language decreases naturally every year, traditions are lost and replaced by modern ones, the local population ceases to pass on the folklore treasures of their people to the younger generations. Therefore, it is worth hurrying to visit the Commander Islands in order to still have time to catch the real native island culture.
Aleutian Museum of Local Lore
This is the main center of the scientific life of the archipelago. Here is one of the eleven remaining skeletons of the sea cow in the world, which lived on the Commanders before they became a fishing place: the animals were exterminated in just forty years. The sea cows did not have the means to fight for existence, and therefore could not survive. According to various expeditions, they weighed up to two hundred pounds, and their body length reached nine meters.
S. Paseniuk Art Museum
In Nikolsky there is a private museum of the famous traveler to the Pacific Islands and the Far East - Sergei Pasenyuk. Here are collected all kinds of exhibits from the places where he visited. On all souvenir and printed products dedicated to the Commanders, one can see sketches and photographs of Paseniuk, demonstrating either an index post with a seal skull at the top - a symbol of the islands; that statue "Running on the Waves", depicting an angel who brings lightships at sea.
Hard-to-reach Commanders
What else can you do while traveling through the archipelago, except for the contemplation of the bewitching beauty of the ocean and wildlife? It is difficult to find an answer to this question. There are no other vacation options on the Commander Islands. Here you can hardly get acquainted with exotic and colorful cuisine, because all products are imported from Kamchatka. The maximum that you can count on is to buy a few kilograms of red caviar or the meat of some pinniped animal at a relatively low price. There is also no elementary tourist infrastructure in the archipelago, so visitors do not stay here for more than one or two days. Travelers live either in self-brought tents or in dilapidated houses. The Commander Islands are a border zone, and this should not be forgotten. There is a fairly strict access control. In addition, this is for the most part a nature reserve, so boats and ships are not allowed to sail here without permission. So diving is out of the question. And the weather, I must say, is not conducive.
In closing
Commanders is a place for those who are attracted by really real wild nature without any civilization around. These are inhospitable and hard-to-reach islands, but still they are beautiful! The seething ocean, rolling on the rocks with its mighty waves; thousands of birds and sea animals - all this makes desperate wanderers feel like Robinsons, real pioneers. Undoubtedlya trip to the Commander Islands will remain in the memory of everyone who spent at least a few hours here.
