Day 6 - Back to Kostamus

Day 6

We met up at 8.30 for breakfast in the restaurant. This was once again Rice pudding and butter, bread, cheese, sausage and tea.

Our baggage was taken from the accommodation down to the port while we walked the shortcut. One russian word I can translate.

The boat came in at 9.45, our luggage was moved to near the gangplank, then onto the stern area. The boat left at 10.10ish and we saw a large goosander flock at the mouth of the port. We saw a few Gulls and black guillemots with at least 3 sightings of Beluga on the way. There were not too many passengers as it was the early boat. There were a group of lads from Bella Russe who had probably been working on the island and were now going home – one of them calmly asked for some water, Sabrina emptied some out of a bottle and handed them what was left and there was a group of women accompanying a priest from the monsaztry, who spent some time feeding bread to the gulls, which meant they came quite close. Most people get the later one across and the boat can be very crowded. It was a great crossing with the sea like a millpond for most of the way until we neared Kem when it clouded over and we got a few spots of rain.

After disembarking with all our gear, Sabrina fetched the car, we loaded up and drove round to the restaurant for lunch which was fried chicken, rice with peppers, tomato and cucumber. We then walked round to a spot just outside where a disused railway track went between 2 arms of a tidal creek. It was alive with butterflies, mainly common and silver studded blue but also a black veined white with Jacob's ladder in a garden and a large copper flew through. A man and his son were collecting water from the pump opposite so the mains hasn't reached here yet.

We walked a little way in with flowers all along the track incl harebells in blue and white, buttercups galore and some heath spot orchids with sundews and a yellow clover with brown bracts in a little clearing among the trees. There was a Barnacle goose, arctic terns and common sand in one of the pools and a curlew calling from the seaward side. A few dragonflies patrolled the paths and reeds but wouldn't settle enough to identify easily.

We set off  back to Kostamus and our hotel for the night with a few stops along the roadside and a guel stop for us and the car. We had a marsh orchid, some common spotted orchids, clustered bellflower in blue and white, Small marbled frittilary, common and silver studded blue, white faced darter, and pale clouded  yellow along the verges and a stop at a lovely bridge to avoid following a very dusty lorry had common sand, lots of dragons and beautiful demoiselles.

The horseflies and other biting things were horrendous so we kept our breaks fairly short and we did have a long way to go.

We arrived at the hotel about 9.00, checked in and then walked round to a restaurant where we had a nice meal of pork steak and chips with a Balsamic sauce, although as the menu was completely in Russian how Sabrina managed is amazing, but the waitress did have enough english to say 'steak' and between them it worked. We left just as the place was beginning to fill up with locals and the disco lights got going. We then walked back to our rooms for a good night's sleep.