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Rules aren’t always convenient or logical for every situation. Sarah and I want to kayak to Japan from Russia across La Perouse Strait but we aren’t allowed to leave from the closest point on Sakhalin because we can’t be stamped out of the country there. So… we spent 2 days kayaking from the end of the road to the SW tip, Cape Krillion which was a lovely approx 80km paddle along a wild coast. Despite being no road, at almost every river outlet were some wooden shacks, or occasionally more permanent looking buildings, occupied by fisherman who drove there along the beach in a big jeep, or on some pretty dodgy roads inland. We expected to see no-one but were invited in for tea by one settlement, looked at with bewilderment by a few others, and finally invited to stay inside a house for a night by an elderly man who was living alone in an extensive set of buildings with a wonderful view of the sea. He gave us eggs from his hens, milk from his cow and otherwise pretty much ignored us as we got on with cooking in his cabin. He did try to talk to us sometimes and we tried to talk to him but with limited success. It would have been great to ask him more questions and find out if he lived there by himself all year, or what his story was.

Yesterday we and our kayaks got a ride back to civilization on 2 jeeps which was quite exciting on a beautiful and sometimes dubious ‘road’. Today we get stamped out of Russia and then go by yacht back to Cape Krillion where we will be lowered over the side in our kayaks to start paddling to Japan. A further complication is that we aren’t allowed to be dropped off within 12 miles of Krilion because once we have ‘left’ Russia we have to stay out of Russian waters which extend to 12 miles. So to allow for this, yesterday (before our jeep ride) we kayaked offshore from the Cape for a few hours to get as far away possible, but not so far that we couldn’t get back again. Tomorrow we will try to intersect that line so that we effectively kayak from Russia to Japan… even if we did it in 2 stages. Our 24 nautical mile crossing will be a bit longer than that because of the way we have to do it.

I’m excitedly nervous about the crossing. The forecast is good (thanks to Karel at kayakweather.com for sorting that out), although the strong current and tides in the area are a cause of some worry, especially as information about them is not verrified. What I expected to happen with the tides at the Cape yesterday didn’t happen so we will to some extent have to react to whatever we find. However, I’m looking forward to the challenge.

We now have 30mins to get packed and leave the hotel… lemon drizzle cake is in the oven, kit is all over the floor… better go.

Sarah leaving Yuzhno today in the snow! Cycling to the sea where we will start kayaking south tomorrow. We will kayak to Cape krillion, the SW tip of Sakhalin – taking 2 or 3 days to paddle about 40 nautical miles. We will probably have to come back to Korsakov, a town where we must sign out of the country for customs (by 4wheel drive ) then go by boat back to the Cape to kayak to Japan. Check Sarahs’ website for updates. www.sarahouten.com

After years of crawling under log jams and scouring every square inch of beaches in the Pacific NorthWest, I have finally found my very own ‘Japanese glass fishing float!’ Well, make that ‘floats’! Perhaps I shouldn’t be so excited since these particular balls bobbed their way only a few hundred miles up the Sea of Japan to land on the outstretched arm of Tyk sandspit, which projects from the west coast of Sakhalin at a jaunty angle – perfectly placed to collect these spherical wonders.  Sarah looked at me in surprise as I yelped for joy at discovering a small glass float within 5 metres of my tent. We had just completed a 26 nautical mile paddle from mainland Russia & she was no doubt wondering whether the 8 hours paddling had affected my brain. Why was I was so excited about a small glass ball!? Well, apart from the fact that they are pretty…. I suppose I think finding a glass float is like a ‘rite of passage’. If you seakayak enough in certain wild places then you are bound to find one, one day. It sounds a bit silly when I write it down, but I was very pleased none the less! I soon convinced Sarah that it was special to discover one of these traditional balls that kept many nets afloat before the invention of plastic. We both disappeared in opposite directions along the beach and didn’t have to go far before discovering another one, and another one, and oh my goodness, another one! At the risk of going on about this far too much, I was particularly pleased to find a couple with the original rope netting on them…

OK, I should mention that I’ve spent 4 days kayaking in Far East Russia with Sarah Outen. We had originally planned to dash across to Sakhalin from mainland Russia across the narrowest gap, a distance of about 4 miles. But Sarah’s bike Hercules had other ideas. Or perhaps her kayak Nelson had a word with Hercules and said ‘It’s my turn’. Either way, Hercules bearings disintegrated just as he rolled up to the sea at De Kastri, 100km short of his final destination at Lasarev. This small town was not able to provide new bearings on a Sunday and so a cunning plan was devised to let Nelson feel the ripples of the sea a day early. We poured over maps and decided that we would kayak north from De Kastri &; if the weather allowed we’d cross to Sakhalin a bit further south than originally planned, at a wider point, a distance of about 23 nautical miles.  In my opinion, Nelson & Hercules’ conspiracy turned out to be a stroke of luck for us as the coastline north of De Kastri was incredibly beautiful with red cliffs rising 250 metres from the sea, ribbon waterfalls spilling down onto sandy beaches, and a few eagle sightings (the rare Stellar Sea eagles perhaps?). We had been warned that there were few (or no) places to land but the contours on the map suggested otherwise and we found a few possible camping options. We settled for a wide beach 3 miles short of our crossing point.Sarah had just paddled about 40km after not kayaking for almost 6 months.

The forecast for the crossing was good – winds partly behind us and decreasing through the day but the gusts were a little stronger than predicted, meaning a tricky quartering sea, and breaking waves in the shallow Sea of Tartar. Sarah wanted to give it a go. A mile out & the waves were already breaking, but she wanted to press on and looked pretty comfortable (despite confessing to being really nervous inside). In fact the wind and waves did drop after a couple of hours and we made good progress towards Sakhalin. We couldn’t see the low lying Tyk peninsula until we were a mile or two away. Although we had a GPS, it was still a relief to see we were in more or less the right place! Sarah amazes me with her tenacity and guts, paddling on a 7 and a half hour crossing in rough seas on her 2nd day in a kayak since April.

We kayaked south on Sakhalin for 2 out of the next 3 days. The coast started off low and sandy and gradually grew in relief with low cliffs getting slowly higher. Further south than we paddled they turn into mountains! On day3 the tail end of a typhoon by Japan whipped up the sea more to more than we wanted to paddle in & we stayed in bed. The last day was flat calm and we made 23 miles to a village and a road where Sarah was reunited with a fixed Hercules. On the way we saw hundreds of seals craning the necks curiously to get a look at these strange creatures passing by, and 5 or 6 rusty shipwrecks, beached on shore or on a sandbar – one giant wreck smashed in half. We didn’t see any brown bears although we did spy some rather large footprints on the beach, and the reflection of 2 bright eyes just before going to bed one night.
Now Sarah is cycling south down Sakhalin, due in the capital Yuzno on Thursday. After that we kayak down to the SW tip of Sakhalin & cross to Japan.

I also filmed and edited a video of Sarah cycling on the sometimes dubious ‘roads’ of Far Eastern Russia to get to the start of the kayaking.

I’ve spent a week travelling north from Kabarovsk in Far East Russia supporting and filming Sarah Outen on her bike as he heads to Lasarev, the closest point to Sakhalin island. We had planned to kayak 7km across to Sakhalin across the Tartar Strait where the tides reach 5 knots on spring tides. BUT then Sarah’s bike Hercules ground to a halt today -100km from Lasarev. which is a day’s cycle on these rough stony roads. His bearings had disintegrated 3km from the nearest town and our first glimpse of the sea – Dekastry (which is probably not spelt anything like that). Sarah walked 3km into town and we decided to kayak from here tomorrow – heading north towards Lasarev, but probably not kayaking all the way up to Lasarev before crossing to Sakhalin. We are quite late in the season for paddling here as it gets stormier and colder so we need to kayak to Alexandrov on Sakhalin as quickly as we safely can.

It’s now 10.30pm and we are mostly packed for kayaking tomorrow. We have food for 6 days (actually probably more than that as Sarah keeps sneaking more food into the drybags…. just in case!). Karel from kayakweather.com will be sending us forecasts every day which is great – thanks Karel. The biggest remaining question is what the coast looks like from here to the north. It’s Sunday in a small town so we haven’t been able to buy a map yet to see what we will expect, but we know the coast is fairly cliffy and we aren’t certain how many places we will be able to land. We will have a better idea in the morning before we head off.

we are in a hotel tonight, after camping by the road almost every night on the way up here. Batteries are on charge and someone has lent us his computer so we can get on the internet. No photos as it’s not my computer. The scenery up here is very pretty – a dirt road snakes up and down and around through quite thick forest, every now and again joining the wide Amur river as it forges north. It’s wet off the road, with many streams and boggy areas. we’ve met some really friendly russian people and were invited to stay at one family’s house on our first night. they cooked us an amazing feast of salmon, fish eggs, a raw fish dish, salads, and soup, and all washed down by numerous shots of home-made vodka (they said it was whisky, but it looked and tasted like vodka so i’m not sure if they were joking?). they also lit the ‘banya’ or russian sauna for us which was fantastic.

Time for bed…. up early tomorrow to go paddling.