Our usual China Eastern Airlines evening flight from Shanghai to Sydney is always very convenient, leaving around 8:20 pm China time and arriving in Kingsford Smith Airport at 9:00 am Sydney time; plenty of time for us to catch our connecting flight to Port Macquarie some 70 kilometers from our home village of Crowdy Head.  But for this trip we had to return home via Beijing and Nanjing, quite a detour from Shanghai; just a mere 2,200 kilometers or five hours additional flying time! It was of course necessary because we had Sydney-Beijing round tickets as we needed our inward flight to connect from Beijing to Khabarovsk, our first stop in Russia on our way to Chukotka. 

It was a tedious trip. Our Beijing flight was an hour late from Shanghai. And then we had to wait at Beijing International Airport for at least another hour before we could pick up our luggage from the carousel. It was very surprising and we wondered how we would have fared had we had our usual tight flight connections. We expected this sort of delay at regional Russian airports but certainly not at Beijing's PEK International Airport. Fortunately - and in this case unfortunately - we had plenty of time before our connecting flight to Sydney.

Our second unpleasant surprise was that for our ongoing flight via Nanjing to Sydney, there was no Business Lounge in the terminal from which it left. It is worth noting and also checking for other such flights from Beijing. There was of course no point in complaining - although we did.... It was infuriating. Even though we had paid for Business Class fares, we had to spend four hours on rock hard metal seats and just sit it out. There was nowhere to buy drinks or food either. A few other Business Class passengers in the same situation were equally as annoyed.

Our stop at Nanjing was tedious too. "You can enjoy the Business Class lounge in Nanjing" an exasperated Beijing China Eastern staff member had told us when we had complained.

By the time we had cleared Customs, we had about half an hour to find and sit down in the Business lounge. And when we finally found it, it was packed with passengers, there was nothing to drink and the food was virtually non-existent. The lounge was nothing short of woeful.

I guess my complaints sound that we are thoroughly spoilt but when you pay for Business Class fares you do expect to have some comforts..... In saying that, our flight home was fine and we arrived on time - and in plenty of time to catch our flight to Port Macquarie. 

Our Virgin Airlines flight to the coastal city of Port Macquarie on the Mid North Coast of New South Wales was very pleasant. Flying relatively low over the magnificent Sydney Harbour and surrounding waterways then following the sandy coastline along the shores of the Pacific Ocean to Port Macquarie, it is always a beautifully scenic flight.

On this occasion were were fortunate to fly almost directly over the coast then across the hinterland of our own village of Crowdy Head. Perched on a prominent headland, our splendid aerial views clearly showed that Crowdy Head was once an ancient island. It is now joined to the mainland by a narrow but permanent sandy spit spanned by two long beaches; north some twenty kilometers around Crowdy Bay to Diamond Head and to the south, some five kilometers to our nearest village of Harrington.

Looking out over the vast ocean coastline, I reflected on our trip. All our journeys have been special but this one was arguably one of the most extraordinary - and probably the most challenging, and possibly one of the more dangerous. Travelling to such a remote and severe Arctic environment and with such precariously timed flight connections, just the fact we had completed our journey was an absolute miracle. I pinched myself, wondering if Alan was having the same thoughts. 

Totally absorbed, I reflected on our mind boggling experiences. "Did we really reach the eastern-most coastline of the Russian Federation's Chukotka Okrug, just eighty kilometers from the coastline of Alaska? Did we really travel in an open five and a half meter aluminium whalers' boat through the perilous Bering Strait where the seas of the Arctic and Pacific Oceans converge, to the iconic Cape Dezhnev the most easterly point in all of Russia - and once charted by Captain Cook in the late 1700's?

Our Extraordinary Journey

Did we really live like locals in an apartment in the Chukotkan indigenous village Lorino, the whaling capital of all of the Russian Federation? Did we really live in a school in the beautiful but sadly alcoholic village of Yanrakynnot on the Bering coastline? Did we really return to Pevek, the northernmost town in all of Russia, hundreds of kilometers north of the Arctic Circle? And did we really stand alone inside the very silos which during the Cold War housed Russia's most secret nuclear missiles aimed at the US?". 

It had been a physically, emotionally tough and demanding journey; much of the time we were well and truly out of our comfort zone. In such remote locations a lot of the accommodation was less than basic and there were days and even weeks when we ate only bread, jam and cheese (we never ran out of vodka though!). We were often cold, hungry and downright uncomfortable. And in the raw reality of remote Chukotka, there were understandably some significant but short-lived tensions between us and members of our travel company.

I thought of the funny times. And then I realised the funny times could well be described as really terrible times.... Sharing a basic log cabin room* with five people in the freezing surrounds of the Bering Strait, and sleeping on a smelly dead bear's skin coat wasn't a lot of fun.... And neither was standing in the bitter cold, rain and mud eating a lump of cold, fatty rancid walrus meat and having nothing else to eat. And being locked in the Yanrakynnot school walk in refrigerator was funny in hindsight but certainly not at the time. And so was losing my balance and falling head first onto Lorino beach with a mouthful of gravel on our return from Cape Dezhnev. Come to think of it, neither was nearly being stranded in Pevek and only getting out by the skin of our teeth on a military helicopter just days before our visas expired....

* Otherwise known as Rumilet Bay Resort, the derelict camp brought a new meaning to the word "Resort".  As my friend Jo laughed at one of my photos I posted on Face Book "That ain't no resort dude...!"

But the highs, especially that of our long sought after voyage to Cape Dezhnev - a trip fraught because of local conditions and logistics, and which nearly did not eventuate - were worth every second. As was the wonderful long term relationship with established with our guide Alex and also our friends Valentina and Misha in Magadan.

My musings on our adventures even astounded me.... And I knew it would be almost impossible to recount our experiences or explain the emotional roller coaster of our journey even to family and friends back home. But at the end of the day, we had seen and experienced what very few other people in the world would have the fortune or opportunity to witness. And as mentioned, it was to quote the tired cliche "A Life Changing Experience". We knew that from here on we could never undertake a "normal tourist trip", no matter how beautiful, luxurious and relaxing it may be. Nothing could compare with the raw reality of what we had seen and experienced.

And so what drives us to keep "beating our bodies"; always stressed out of our comfort zone when we travel? And especially when we are now aged in our mid sixties and early eighties? We used to say we were not addicted to danger and I think this assertion still holds true. After all, I am the world's most proficient worrier. And with all the local warnings before our epic journey to Cape Dezhnev, I was quite nervous about our undertaking. What's more, I was terrified during the journey...

But we have to admit we are addicted to the more off beat destinations: places completely different to that in which we live where we can learn about the history, the environment and the culture and way of life of the local communities. By definition, these places will always have an element (or more than) of danger. 

There is no going back. For us there will never be any luxury cruises on the Rhine, wine tours of Tuscany or island resort holidays. Yes, as our friends keep reminding us. We are probably frigg'n mad.....

We would like to express our appreciation of the efforts of Kutkh Travel, Anadyr for the organisation and conduct of our Chukotka trip. It was a trip fraught with logistical difficulty and one that carried a significant and onerous responsibility for ensuring the safety of our guide Alex and us.

We are also deeply appreciative for Kutkh's efforts in organising Lorino's chief whaler Alexei Ottoi in taking us on his hunter's boat to Cape Dezhnev, the highlight of our Chukotkan tour. Without the experience and knowledge of this extraordinary man who took us through some of the most perilous ocean conditions we could ever imagine, the outcome of this journey may have been a very different story.  

Kutkh Travel was the only company that would agree even to taking us on this tour and also our "winter" tour of March 2018. They warned us it would be tough and they were right. But our trip was exactly what we wanted; and more.

We would also like to express our deep appreciation to our Chukotka guide and close friend Alex. We acknowledge that it would not have been easy for him. After all, we are older people "with attitude" and have a very well defined appreciation of our own needs and desires. And on this trip the going was undeniably tough. 

And of course, it should almost go without saying how much we enjoyed the company of our travel agent and great friends Valentina and Misha, and our interpreter and friend Alexei in Magadan. Their ongoing friendship and generosity is very much appreciated.

And special thanks to travel manager David Hu from China Travel Service, Sydney who has provided such valuable assistance with our China travel and visas for many years now. It is fabulous to pick up the phone to David, ask his advice and know he will help us in any way. David has a huge responsibility for many large Chinese travel groups and the amount of help he has given over the years to two Australian travellers who only need air bookings or visas - and not even tours - has been fantastic. 

Amazingly, we are in close contact with nearly all our travel agents/guides/drivers who have assisted us with our travels throughout the world during the last fifteen or so years. They have been a great inspiration and a wonderful privilege to know.