Day #1: Tokarevsky Lighthouse & Land of the Leopard National Park
After some really epic adventuring in Kamchatka for a month and a half, we met again the Russian mainland in Vladivostok. We had to get back to Europe soon, and we found a cheap flight from Khabarovsk in order to do so. We had about a week to spare before heading there. During my previous visit to Vladivostok, local friends had made me aware of the many beautiful places surrounding their city. So we thought that a road trip around Primorsky Krai would be a much better way to spend this time than staying in the city. We were in need of a vehicle…
We searched the internet thoroughly for car rental agencies in Vladivostok. Out of the many providers we found, few would rent to holders of foreign driving licenses; and the options given by those few were somewhat upscale. We, after all, called that one bloke we bumped into deep down on the Google result page. He was apparently just starting out and our inquiry made him sound super excited. He had for us a Honda Fit for some €15 per day. We agreed on passing by the following morning to pick it up.
There we were at his garage by late next morning. We checked the car, did all the paperwork, and were given the keys. “Where are you guys going to drive to?” he asked to know. “Just around the city” we gave him the answer he wished to hear. The road infrastructure of Primorsky Krai is not so… small-car-friendly, to put it so. He wouldn’t be very happy to know our real intentions. But I placed confidence in the Japanese engineers and was positive that we’ll not destroy their work…
Before we leave the city for good, there was that one place we’d heard of and wanted to visit. Down south from Vladivostok, at the tip of Muravyov-Amursky Peninsula, there lies Tokarevsky Lighthouse: one of the oldest operating lighthouses in the Russian Far East, built in 1876.
It was Friday; and it was a brilliantly sunny one. Lots of Vladivostokians had already come there since early morning to chill on the beach and lunch at the crab restaurants. The closer we approached, the more saturated the narrow road was getting with cars and girls in bikinis moseying down to the beach (of course, with guys, too; but when you are a guy, you notice the girls more – especially when they are in bikinis).
Eventually, we managed to park the car and started walking down to the tip of the promontory as well. There started a half-km-long land corridor leading to a tiny – possibly artificial – islet hosting a massive power mast. On either side of the corridor were beaches where most of the bikini-girls settled. After the islet, there started a narrow pebblespit leading to an even tinier islet where the lighthouse stood. At low tide, one supposedly can cross without getting their feet wet. When we were there the water level was at ankle height. We took our shoes off and started wading along the spit while gentle waves coming from either side were crashing against each other right underneath our feet.
We took a seat on the shaded side of the lighthouse and remained for some time gazing at the beautiful environs. Like small green patches appeared the hills and the islands in between the sea-and-sky blue immensity. Vladivostok and its towering cable-stayed bridges were faintly visible amid the dazzling sunshine.
We got back to the car by early afternoon and drove straight back to Vladivostok. We made two stops for buying cooking gas and some food to cook with it, and left the city. The heat by then was inexorable. We thought of having a dip before, by the lighthouse, but judged it better to wait and make it earlier to some beach or another where we’d camp for the night. Sweating like a pig in the air-condition-less car, by now, I had regretted it. It would be much longer than I expected to reach the ocean again.
We drove north on the highway for a good distance along the swampy delta of Razdolnaya River. We finally crossed the river at the point where Razdolnaye town is situated and headed down south again. After a couple of hours altogether, we reached a town named Barabash, at about the same latitude with Vladivostok, on the opposite side of the bay. About 15 km separated us from the coast from there. It was getting late and we decided to make for it.
That was the longest 15-km drive I ever did – if not for a traffic jam. I was expecting the road to be bad, but not so bad. It was more of a succession of potholes than a road, basically. We were slowly proceeding from one pothole to the next, hoping that the chassis will not break apart every time it forcefully bumped on the ground. At some points, we even had to cross straight through streams interceding with the road, praying that the water is shallow enough to allow the poor Honda to the other side, and not carry it downstream together with it instead. Every time we encountered some big jeep or pickup along the way, their drivers would throw a contemptuous, where-the-hell-are-you-guys-going-to-with-this-car kind of glance at us. I would smile at them and immediately close the windows so as to keep the dust they raised out of the Honda’s interior.
The road we were driving on was passing right in between the Kedrovaya Pad Nature Reserve and the Land of the Leopard Natural Park. The latter is named so for obvious reasons. The rare Amur Leopards that inhabit the region numbered an estimated 30 individuals when the national park was established in 2012. Now they exceed 100. Nevertheless, we didn’t see any. I’m quite sure those cats are smart enough to meticulously avoid humans; so that it must be extremely difficult to spot them.
We drove past a tiny settlement named Primorsky and, a little before dusk, finally met the ocean once again at Perevoznoye Bay. A neat, quiet, narrow pebble beach occupied the entire length of the bay. We soon spotted a little clearing on the littoral vegetation and – with due effort – drove and parked the car on the beach. We had found a home for the night.
A swim in the refreshing waters of the Pacific was what I mostly craved for throughout the day; thus it was the first thing I did. We then pitched the tent, made tea, prepared dinner, and remained attending the night’s advancement.
It was a magical night. Vladivostok’s lights and flashing bridges were visible across the bay, but still too far and unaided to interfere with the countless glowing worlds of the Milky Way overheads. It was a new moon. Both the firmament and the sea remained pitch-black throughout the entire night. The placid undulation kept splashing mellowly against the pebbles of the shore with nothing to render it visible.
Day #2: Bezverhovo, Lotus Lake, North Korean Border & Andreevka
After a long, delightful sleep we got up early the next morning. The sky was by then leaden with a thick layer of clouds which was to remain in place for all the rest of the day. Though, strangely, not a single drop fell. And even more strangely, a torrid heat – even worse than yesterday’s one – kept torturing us until late in the evening.
We packed everything up quickly and drove away. Our first destination for the day was clearly defined. But before that, there was an imminent urgency that needed to be taken care of. We were almost out of fuel. According to the map, there was a petrol station in the nearby Bezverhovo village. But if it for any reason didn’t work, we’d be in rather big trouble. When we made it to the place, we found out there was indeed such a reason: there was a blackout in the village… Fortunately, it didn’t take long before the power was back. We fueled the Honda full and were ready for the day’s long tour.
We drove a little around this picturesque village and took another bumpy track leading back to the main road. My back and the car experienced a great relief upon the instant we met the asphalt again. We headed straight south. Our destination was the North Korean border.
It was a long way. The sceneries we beheld along it were splendid. Lofty forested hills were interchanged with wide, vacant, green plains again and again; while the Sea of Japan appeared in all its vastness and greatness every time the road approached the coast. We then drove through a village called Kraskino which was the last and only hub of civilization we encountered along the way. After that village, almost every remainder of being situated in a 21st-century civilized country, together with the asphalt, gave out. There was only endless wilderness and desolation. The landscapes were even more splendid than before. We only encountered finger-countable other vehicles using the road, which still made me wonder where the hell they drive to.
The North Korean mountains finally became visible in the distance, and they were gradually bulging in our view as we were approaching the Tumen River which defines the border between the two countries. It was only then it suddenly flashed on me that, theoretically, as a foreigner, I should have special permission to come too close to the border. I had heard about this special regulation prohibiting non-Russian nationals from accessing areas within a certain, few-km-long range from the country’s borders. I had, though, never put this regulation to the test, and I now had good faith that there would be nothing like a checkpoint amid such a remote wilderness… But I had only faith and no permit.
Sure enough, there was a checkpoint. Just about 2 km before the riverbank, right by the entrance of Khasan settlement, where the only bridge allowing commuting between the two countries is located, a fat, bored, uniformed authority-dude, standing by the side of a half-ruined hovel, extended his arm for us to pull up. No Russian National and no permit – not to proceed any further.
We had to turn back. It was quite disappointing we made it all this way without being able to reach our desired destination. At least, we got to stop and have a walk by the shore of Lotus Lake which is located there. This lake is so named for obvious reasons. I never remember having seen so many lily pads clustered together. More than half of the lake’s surface was occupied by these noble flowers. It was a very picturesque spectacle to behold.
We drove back the same way in search of a new home by the coast. We picked out in random a village called Andreevka. Upon getting there, we expected to see a place very similar to the one of yesterday: an empty, quiet beach. But driving down the bumpy road to the coast, we figured out that there must be considerable human activity taking place down there. The traffic was getting denser and denser the closer we approached. It turned out to be a popular holiday destination for Vladivostokians. There were restaurants, souvenir shops, beach bars, bungalows, and all sorts of stuff you normally expect to see at some beach in the Mediterranean or in Southeast Asia, but not in Primorsky Krai.
We slowly managed to get the car moving among the rest of the cars, people, and potholes found on the narrow, coastal dirt road of the village. We drove past a number of too crowded beaches and eventually settled on a relatively uncrowded one by the south verge of the village. We spent a leisurely beach evening, and then we were sound asleep amidst the profundity of the dark night.
Day #3: Russky Island
All the rain that was supposed to fall but didn’t on the previous day fell throughout the entire night. By early morning, it kept falling strongly; so that it made us remain in the tent for the while, snoozing sweetly under its soothing harmony. The tone of the falling raindrops changed from constant to discontinuous, giving out a clue that they only fell from the foliage of the tree above and not from the sky anymore. A brief spell of sunshine was soon diffused over the soaked sandy beach. We took advantage of it for the last dip in that sea and packed everything up.
The road out of Andreevka was now muddy and filthy and slippery. It was a little tricky but the tenacious Honda brought us triumphantly out of there and back to the main road. The rain kept falling on and off for the rest of day. Apart from a few brief stops for ingesting and smoking, we drove straight back to Vladivostok non-stop. By late afternoon, we were crossing the world’s largest cable-stayed bridge onto Russky Island.
It was a gorgeous island; much more scenic than I would have guessed. I became kind of regretful that we hadn’t come here earlier. We could have spent a good number of days exploring the place with our interest not fading out the least. The whole island was full of hiking trails leading to numerous isolated beaches, cliffs, hilltops, old forts, and lighthouses. But now we only had a few hours.
We ended up at a beautiful, remote beach on the southeastern coast of the island and camped. We needed to drive through some more ridiculously rough tracks and walk quite some distance in order to get there. It was dusk by then. The rainfall was having a brief break at the moment. We took advantage of it for a refreshing swim under the gagged twilight. Darkness befell, the rainfall started once again, and we nested in the tent.
Day #4: Back to Vladivostok
The rain was still falling forcefully and incessantly out of the black sky in the morning. There was absolutely no hint given that it may fall in any lesser intensity for all the rest of the day. Sure enough, it didn’t.
We put our raincoats on and packed everything up hurriedly. Then we scurried back to the car as fast as we could and drove to the city. We needed to return the car by noon; but, poor thing, it was in a mess: it was silver, now it was brown with all the dirt it’d accumulated during the hard, off-road use it’d been through these last days. Its owner wouldn’t be happy to see it in such a condition. We had to look for a car wash.
The car got back its shiny silver color, but there was yet another thing which was in a mess: we and our backpacks. We drove to a petrol station which, besides fueling up, we also needed to get some cover from the rain. We parked right in front of the store’s entrance – the only roofed part we could stop at without hindering the traffic – and got to change clothes, wring the water out of the wet ones, tidy up the backpacks, have breakfast… and all sorts of stuff you normally don’t expect to see someone doing outside of petrol station – especially when you are a casual guy going to work on Tuesday morning. I understand why all those people were casting such perplexed glances at us while entering and exiting the service store.
We were back to the garage right on time to return the car. The bloke was satisfied to see it clean. Unlike what I expected, he did not check the odometer. So I didn’t have to explain to him that ‘yes, we drove a loooot around the city’ as I thought I’d need to. That was it. We’d soon bid farewell to Vladivostok and Primorsky Krai. We got on the bus and headed to the railway station. We had a train to Khabarovsk to catch.
Stays and Activities in Primorsky Krai
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