In the Wake of Bering – In Search of the Spoon-billed Sandpiper

This expedition is as unique as the First Kamchatka Expedition of 1725 – 1730 which was led by Danish explorer Commander Vitus Bering on orders of Peter the Great. His orders were to travel overland to the Kamchatka Peninsula (from St Petersburg) and there build two ships and sail “north by northeast…… chart the coast and collect information”. It was an ambitious journey and a remarkable expedition. Bering set sail from Nizhnekamchatsk on the lower Kamchatka River, our expedition will depart from Petropavlovsk-Kamchatskiy a city named in honour of Bering’s two ships which sailed from here for the second Kamchatka or Great Northern Expedition which he also led.

From here we will sail ‘north by north east’ to discover wildlife and a wilderness that few people have seen or experienced because of the region’s remoteness and the fact that it was a ‘closed area’ until the early 1990’s. It is a land of extremes and myriad environments including snow-capped active volcanoes, geothermal regions, vast forests, extensive tundra, uninhabited islands and rich oceans.

Every day we will search for the best wildlife experience, and there will be many, but we want to find one bird in particular – the extremely rare Spoon-billed Sandpiper (Eurynorhynchus pygmeus).This bird is classified as ‘critically endangered’ and its only known breeding ground is in northern Kamchatka and Chukotka – the area that we will be visiting. Recent field studies suggest that the global population is much lower than previously thought, possibly fewer than 320 breeding pairs and declining.

For ifnormation on how to book, please contact:

Sea Travel Ltd
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	UK
Phone	+44 (0) 203 371 9484
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