An afternoon cruising Cape Kekyrnyi........................

Click pics to enlarge

This is Russian bear country - a beach to go fishing, hills to climb, small woods to rest or hide.

Some exciting bear viewing happened here, at the beach................this Zodiac 

ahead of us looks very close to that bear at the 

waterline, right of the boat, but they were actually some distance from the shore.

............these were the best pics I managed to get.  

We were a long way off from the beach.....

.........these creatures are huge and can move incredibly 

fast for their size.

He was soon bored with us clicking away and turned to climb over the log and made his way up the snowy cliff.

A little rest, one last look back and then he was gone from view.

There is an amazing Sea Lion colony here at Cape Kekyrnyi - 

this pic above shows a gigantic maned male with large teeth 

which I guess is why they call them Sea LIONS!

A male with his harem.

There was also a large pod of Orcas (Killer Whales)......

....a nesting pair of Steller's Sea Eagles, click HERE to see closeups of the largest eagles in the world......

......thousands of pairs of nesting seabirds.......

.......and surprise, surprise, just around a rocky headland......

.....our great chef, sitting in the back of a Zodiac, with a group of his galley staff, casting a line for fresh fish for the evening meal - lovely!

A really wonderful place for wildlife, a super day on the water, but soon it was time to return to the ship - and on this day a nice smooth boarding thankfully!

Next stop: Petropavlovsk (Peter and Paul), a city of volcanoes, mountains and earthquakes!