Unusual landscapes, unique geological monuments, thermal springs And most interesting museums- all this can be seen and visited on Sakhalin! The sights of the island attract not only Russian tourists, but also travelers from other countries (primarily from Japan and China). We will tell you about the most interesting tourist sites in Sakhalin in our article. We wish you pleasant reading!
Sights of Sakhalin and general description of the island
Sakhalin (Japanese name - Karafuto) - large island off the eastern coast of mainland Asia. It is separated from the continent by the Strait of Tartary, and from neighboring island Hokkaido - La Perouse Strait. Administratively, the island is part Sakhalin region, which also includes a chain of sparsely populated Kuril Islands. The total area of Sakhalin is 76.6 thousand square meters. km. The largest city is Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk (190 thousand inhabitants).
Sakhalin Island is one of the most unusual regions in Russia. He stands out noticeably for his unique nature, and the distance from " big land"gives it even more color and mystery. Locals We have long been accustomed to the amazing landscapes here, to the monsoon climate, and to regular tremors. But for residents of other regions and countries, all this is a novelty.
The main natural attractions of Sakhalin include hot springs, numerous lakes, relict yew groves, and unusual rocks created by lava layers. In large cities there are a number of museums with very interesting thematic exhibitions. And on Sakhalin, a unique and working narrow-gauge branch has been preserved railway, which has no analogues in the whole world!
We have compiled for you a list of the ten most interesting attractions of Sakhalin (we will describe some of them in more detail below):
- Museum of the History of the Sakhalin Railway;
- Moneron Island;
- Kholmsky pass;
- Tikhaya Bay;
- rocks "Three Brothers";
- lighthouse at Cape Jonquiere;
- monument to the “Dead Fishermen” in Nevelsk;
- local history museum in Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk;
- Devil's Bridge in Kholmsk;
- Nature reserve "Poronaysky".
Moneron Island
In the waters of the Tatar Strait, 50 km from the coast of Sakhalin, there is the island of Moneron. Its area is only 30 square kilometers. But this small territory “fits” two rivers, a chain of hills and basalt rocks, as well as a dozen waterfalls. However, the main highlight of the island is the rookeries of spotted seals, sea lions and other mammals.
Quiet Bay
In Terpeniya Bay, within the Makarovsky district of the island, there is an extremely cozy and picturesque place - Tikhaya Bay. On three sides it is protected by the spurs of the most beautiful mountain range Zhdanko. The famous navigator Ivan Kruzenshtern nicknamed this bay “Quiet”. In that beautiful place You can relax and fish perfectly. The ideal peace and quiet in the bay is occasionally disturbed only by seagulls, who happily spend time on the nearby rocks and islands.
Rocks "Three Brothers"
This group of three pointed rocks protrudes from the sea water near Aleksandrovsk-Sakhalinsky. By the way, their silhouettes are depicted on the coat of arms of this city. The Three Brothers rocks have long become one of the symbols of the entire Sakhalin region. Together with the lighthouse on the neighboring Cape Jonquiere, they form a single tourist complex. The rocks look especially impressive at sunset.
A.P. Chekhov and Sakhalin
The Chekhov Historical and Literary Museum, located in Aleksandrovsk-Sakhalinsky, tells in detail about the Sakhalin hard labor, as well as the stay of the famous Russian writer on the island. In 1890, Chekhov went to long journey to the East. The main goal of the expedition was to visit Sakhalin. On the island, he conducted a census and talked with many convicts, including political ones.
A certain result of Chekhov’s journey to the east was a book with the simple title “Sakhalin Island”. True, reading it is quite boring, because, in addition to the writer’s personal travel impressions, it is full of detailed statistical data.
The first thing to start this report with is a statement that forces you to return to earth - NO ONE IS WAITING FOR YOU HERE!
No, Sakhalin needs tourists and the Island has something to show (and there is a lot of it). But, paradoxically, of course, there is no need for tourists. The development of tourism is necessary, but tourists are not. Otherwise, how else can one interpret that neither at the airport nor at the Kholmsk sea station (where the ferry arrives from the mainland) there is NOT ONE stand with tourist information and handouts (booklets, guides, etc.). I walked around the entire airport - there was nothing. There are stalls with souvenirs at exorbitant prices, but there are no counters of the Tourism Agency (a state institution, by the way). And the agency itself is hidden in such a way that not everyone will find it. When we finally found the office, we were amazed by the icy indifference of the employee. Apart from “hello,” we never heard a single word from him. On the island, a phrase from an employee of one of the Sakhalin recreation centers constantly came to mind: “I really like working here! If it weren’t for these tourists!”
Therefore, our advice will be very useful to you. We will help and answer basic questions: where to live, how to move around the Island, where to eat, what to see, etc.
Begin…
Transport
You can get to Sakhalin either by sea (ferry from Vanino) or by plane (from Moscow, Khabarovsk, Vladivostok, etc.).
The ferry is very dependent on the weather and takes 14-18 hours. A double cabin on the upper deck costs about 4,000 rubles. Most cheap ticket(sedentary) – just over 700 rubles. Advance booking is paid and included in the total price. If you want to reduce the cost of your trip by 300 rubles, then try to do without a reservation. But, in the “high” season (from May to September) you may be stuck for 3-10 days, because... at this time a lot of seasonal workers come to the Island. Toilet and shower are shared. Free but modest lunch included. Food prices the rest of the time are not very high, but passengers prefer to eat on their own. The ferry arrives in Kholmsk.
A plane from Khabarovsk costs from 4,600 rubles to 7,000 for an economy class seat. The flight to Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk is a little over an hour. If you want to save money, try buying a ticket 1-2 days before departure . We thus saved 2,000 rubles each. There is local air service within the region. Planes fly to Okha and Nogliki, but tickets are expensive, because... air transportation is designed mainly for gas and oil workers.
Public transport on Sakhalin is very developed. Prices are not high. Buses and minibuses run both between cities and within the regions themselves. You can get to the north of the region, to Nogliki, by train. He goes twice a day (though with a difference of a couple of hours). Minibuses run from Nogliki to Okha. Car rental is 30-50% more expensive than on the mainland, and there are not so many companies. I don’t recommend hitchhiking around the Island (despite the assurances of some girls about the simplicity of this method).
Firstly, the further you go to the north of the island, the fewer cars moving in the direction you need. Sometimes no more than two cars pass per hour and most likely they will not stop, because... The road in those parts is not very good. Secondly, if you are not a young and pretty girl, your chances of hitchhiking are generally close to zero, because... Drivers are afraid to stop strangers in uncrowded places. This is due to the fact that not so long ago drivers were robbed and killed under the guise of hitchhiking. Time has passed, but concerns remain. Services like “bla-bla car” practically don’t work on the Island. Our advice: to the south of the island by buses and minibuses, to the north by train and further on the same minibuses.
Housing
This is the main problem of Sakhalin tourism. Hotel prices are simply prohibitive. A room for which you would pay 2,000 rubles in Moscow or Vladivostok, on Sakhalin will cost you at least 3,500. But... with such high prices, summer time All hotels are filled to capacity and a free room can be booked at least two weeks in advance.
In the north of the region, hotels are even more expensive. Paradox: private owners who rent apartments by the day focus on hotels and the cost of these apartments (usually one-room apartments) is at least 1800-2500 rubles per day. Advice: in Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk there are a couple of hostels with private, double rooms, no more than 1,500 rubles. In Poronaisk, Nogliki and Okha there are wonderful home hotels, where a three-room apartment for six people will cost you no more than 3500, and a two-room apartment 2000-2300. You need to book accommodation on Sakhalin in advance. The average cost is 3,000 rubles.
By the way, I don’t recommend counting on spending the night in a tent in the north of the region. Along the roads there are continuous mari and swamps and finding a place for a bivouac is very problematic.
Nutrition
Food on the Island is expensive. To the question: “Why is it so expensive?” they start telling you about the difficulties of importing food from the mainland, while forgetting to explain why, in this situation, cigarettes and alcohol cost the same as on the mainland (the Island does not have its own distillery), and a salad made from local burdock costs 550(!) rubles per kilo. Kimchi (spicy Korean cabbage) and pickled fern aren't cheap either. Sausage and cheese are prohibitively expensive. I had to see sausage for 900-1000 per kg. There is a regional program “affordable fish”. This program sells frozen flounder, etc. at discounted prices. But the price of bread at 50-70 rubles per loaf offsets these advantages.
Red caviar and other seafood delicacies on Sakhalin are 1.5-2 times more expensive than in Moscow or Vladivostok. Poached boiled crab in the Dolinsky region and Okhotsk costs from 1,000 to 3,000 rubles per piece.
Local berries (lingonberries, blueberries, etc.) also bite. On the mainland, the same, but frozen berry costs half as much.
Advice: it is better to buy fish and vegetables from fishermen, as well as private traders and small markets in cities and towns. You can save up to 70%.
Two kilos of the freshest smelt cost us only 250 rubles. The Semeiny supermarket chain has a wonderful promotion - after 20:00 and before closing, they sell their own home-produced culinary products with discounts of up to 50%, although grilled chicken costs 950 rubles per kilo. Ask truck drivers and police officers where you can eat deliciously and cheaply - both of them know better than anyone where the portions are large and the prices are small.
Sights, nature and climate
That's what it is, but there are not just a lot of attractions, both natural and man-made, on the Island, but a great variety. Want a (very) short list? Here he is:
Kholmsk – sea gate Sakhalin
O. Moneron
"Devil's Bridge"
Sakhalin mud volcano
Cape Giant
Tikhaya Bay
Cheremshansky waterfall
Cape and Lighthouse Aniva
Lake Tunaicha
Bird Lake
Cape Crillon
SC "Mountain Air"
Chekhov Peak
Botanical Garden
City Mall (Bear Museum)
Asahikawa Square
Mount Vaida
Cape Svobodny
Schmidt Peninsula
Poronaisky Reserve
Klokovsky waterfall
Cape Slepikovsky
Placer of agates of the Cape and the Black River
This is not a complete list of attractions, and we will tell you about some of them, as well as many others, in our next story.
This area is the only region entirely located on large and small islands. It includes Sakhalin itself, with the small islands of Moneron and Tyuleniy located in the Tatar Strait, and, of course, the Kuril Islands. On all sides the region is washed by the waters of the Okhotsk and Japanese seas, as well as the Pacific Ocean.
Perhaps the main feature of Sakhalin and the Kuril Islands is their extremely high seismic and volcanic activity. This is constantly reminded by posters installed along the entire coast with the inscriptions “Tsunami danger zone” and “In case of a tsunami, run to higher ground” (I was especially pleased with this advice in Poronaysk, where the distance to the nearest hill is 20-30 kilometers).
During our stay on Sakhalin, two earthquakes occurred (one of magnitude 4), which we did not even notice. The most troubled place in the region is the Kuril Islands. There are 9 active volcanoes here.
There are a lot of rivers, lakes and swamps on the Island. The main rivers of the island are Tym and Poronai.
The vegetation of the island is very diverse.
From bamboo, aralia, eleutherococcus and giant burdock in the south, to larches and cloudberries in the north. One of the characteristic features of the Island is the gigantism of herbaceous plants. Sakhalin buckwheat, butterbur and angelica grow up to three (sometimes up to 4) meters in height. In Nevelsk, right within the city, there is a rookery for sea lions, who live here from November to March. Sometimes they are also called the maritime symbol of Sakhalin - the only island region in Russia.
There are a lot of bears on Sakhalin, but we were never able to meet even one, although on the radio they constantly talked about those coming out onto the roads, and in settlements, bears. During our month on the Island, we met only two foxes, who also go out to the roads, hoping to get something tasty from passing motorists.
Tip: if you want to get nice photos For foxes venturing out onto roadsides, keep regular dry dog food (which is what foxes are, after all) on hand. But... under no circumstances throw away leftover food and do not leave food open overnight (for those who like a hiking lifestyle) - this will attract stray bears looking for food.
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Local rivers and lakes, as well as the seas around the island, are unusually rich in fish. In past years, these places were rich in salmon fish, but this year the fish did not come. The spawning was so weak that it raises serious concerns for the further fishing of “red” fish. On the island, in its north, Sakhalin sturgeon is found, and the largest freshwater fish is kaluga. It is said to reach a length of up to 5 meters and weigh up to 1 ton.
The climate on the Island is so unstable that it changes several times a day. It's a good idea to keep a raincoat handy at all times. average temperature in winter from −6 to −24, and in summer +19 to +10.
We will tell you about what is worth seeing on the Island in the next part of our story...
What could be more exciting than a new journey? This time we invite you to travel around Sakhalin. Island with interesting story impresses both with its nature and architectural heritage.
From 1855 to 1875, Sakhalin was under mixed Russian-Japanese rule. The northern part of the island belonged to Russia, and the southern part belonged to Japan. In Japan, the island was named Karafuto. From 1875 to 1905, the entire island belonged to Russia, and at the end of the Russo-Japanese War until 1945 South part Sakhalin again passed to Japan. Only in 1945 the island was completely included in the USSR.
The Japanese administration of the island inherited an extensive network of railways, as well as several architectural monuments. From the USSR - traces of its former industrial greatness. Against the backdrop of these landscapes and natural beauties of the island, the world's most popular frame pickup truck, the new, eighth generation Toyota Hilux, and the legendary Toyota Land Cruiser Prado SUV, updated in 2015, were tested.
The journey began in Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk, the center and the big city islands with a population of 200 thousand people. Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk Airport is the main air gateway of the island, through which communication is carried out with both Russian and Asian cities. In addition, a modern liquefied natural gas plant is located near Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk, in Korsakov.
Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk is actively developing. Among the main attractions we can note cable car, starting in the city center and leading to ski resort"Mountain air".
Another impressive feature of life on Sakhalin is the abundance of right-hand drive cars. Due to the proximity of Japan, the predominant car brand on the island is Toyota. And for Sakhalin roads, especially dirt roads, an all-terrain vehicle is best suited, for example the new Toyota Hilux pickup truck, which has exceptional off-road capabilities, or the updated Toyota Land Cruiser Prado, which is ready for any challenge at any time.
Sights of Sakhalin
When traveling from Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk to the port of Kholmsk, stop at observation deck. It is located near the village of Pyatirechye at an altitude of 326 m above sea level. Next you can go to the port of Kholmsk, where there is a ferry crossing on Vanino. It is the main way of connecting the island with the mainland.
Afterwards you can drive to the “Devil’s Bridge” and the abandoned railway. The road was designed by the Japanese and built by Korean prisoners of war back in 1928. Without major repairs, it served until 1994, after which it was abandoned.
The village of Chekhov, which in the 1980s was a major center for pulp and paper products, is reminiscent of the island's former industrial heyday. In the 1990s, the plant could not resist the crisis, the center was empty and is now in decline.
When talking about the island's Japanese heritage, we can't forget about the ruins of a Shinto shrine in Tomari. Built in 1922, the temple has been abandoned since 1945 and serves as one of the main attractions of the island. Tourists are also attracted by the lighthouse built by the Japanese and working properly at Cape Lamanon.
Where to relax with a tent on Sakhalin?
The best way to end your trip around Sakhalin is in Tikhaya Bay. Located on the shore Sea of Okhotsk, this bay is one of the most picturesque places on the island. You can pitch a tent in the lowland, and then walk through the surrounding hills and enjoy the scenery. The Toyota team took Alexika Victoria 5 Luxe tents with them and pitched a comfortable camping on the seashore. Nearby there was a parking lot, a recreation area, a shower and toilet, as well as storage rooms. The camp itself consisted of 17 comfortable tents for each of the Toyota crews. Places of stunning beauty are best visited in summer, when the slopes are covered with green grass, and sand beach contrasts with the azure blue of the Sea of Okhotsk.
Tikhaya Bay can be reached by east coast islands through the village of Starodubskoye (by the way, there is also an excellent beach there). The most convenient way to get around the island is by SUV, as the roads are in poor condition. You can spend the night on the shore in a spacious camping tent, taking with you sleeping bags and rugs for all campers, a first aid kit, a set of dishes and a burner, as well as a change of clothes and shoes for easy trekking around the surrounding area.
Thanks to rigidly connected all-wheel drive, high ground clearance, increased approach and departure angles, active traction control (A-TRC) and rear differential lock, designed for active rest in nature, the Toyota Hilux is ideal for driving on muddy dirt roads with steep descents, climbs and dangerous turns. Impressive off-road performance high level safety and unsurpassed reliability of the updated iconic Land Cruiser Prado SUV allow you to overcome off-road difficulties with special comfort worthy of a modern premium car.
We wish you pleasant travels around Sakhalin Island!
You can find out more about our equipment in the Articles section of our website.
If you are ready to choose a tent, go to the section
The fact that half of Sakhalin from 1905 to 1945 was Japanese territory is a fairly well-known fact. The question is, which mainland residents remember this? So, when I first came to Sakhalin, I only saw a typical Russian city a couple of hours drive from the sea. But it turned out that “without leaving the cash register” you can plunge into another country...
You can start diving in the very center of Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk. An ordinary city with a population of 180 thousand people. Five-story buildings, narrow streets, in the center is Gagarin Park with a children's railway and a set of carousels. You can start with this park. It was built back in the 30s - a city park, a place for relaxation and contemplation of nature. It was precisely contemplation - a mountain river was decorated with waterfalls and rapids, a lake was organized, on the banks of which “sea” trees were formed - flag trees, as if they had grown on the seashore.
And on the island in this pond there still lies a slab with the hieroglyphs “Oji Pond.” In the 80s, the hieroglyphs were simply filled with concrete so as not to confuse visitors. They had already been cleaned in the early 90s, but still, you can only see the stove by accident.
It must be said that there are many signs of the former Japanese city themselves, starting from the layout of the city, preserved from those times. There are several surviving houses (however, no more than 10), “humpbacked” bridges that can withstand the current traffic, and a lot of protruding concrete pipes several floors high, which are visible almost everywhere.
About the houses. The pre-war (meaning before the 1905 war) house was not much different from its neighbors - except for the sloping top of the roof and small narrow windows. The Russian log house was completed by the Japanese - with a roof and utility rooms, and in our time - with a veranda. They still live in the house).
But the surviving buildings of local history museums differed significantly from the neighboring ones. The newer building – now there is also a museum here – if I call it the most beautiful building in the city, I would not be wrong.
Around the museum real park– there’s a fountain in front of the entrance, flowers everywhere (even roses), a rock garden – we had a lot of fun walking around!
The second building is in the same style - a sloping roof with tiles, a patterned porch in front of the entrance, narrow high windows. But the falling plaster somehow did not decorate it. Now the building belongs to the military, so I don’t think it will face any restoration in the near future.
Judging by old photos of the city, the largest buildings of the former Toyohara were two Shinto shrines - the central temple of the capital and the central temple of the Karafuto governorate. Honestly, it would be strange if they survived. All that was left of one was the foundation. From the other - the temple alley, that is, the current Communist Avenue, and stone " korean dogs", guarding the entrance to the temple. I am next to one of them - male. Their gender is determined in an original way - by an open mouth (with an open mouth - a man, with a closed one - a woman, and not vice versa, which is strange).
West Coast
Actually, we didn’t have a goal - to travel 1660 km (this is a total of 3 coasts - western, eastern and southern). We were deployed with the most interesting idea - a run from Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk to Okha. But they invited me on a trip along the west coast, and there, in the process, I had an idea - to see all the surviving Japanese (Shinto) temples. Why them? It was simply interesting to see what was here before the Russians settled, and most often only the remains of temples were preserved from the buildings of the villages. I had a book with photographs of these temples in our time and in the past. The book was quite interesting (after I started to get my bearings a little in geography), without it, I probably wouldn’t have had such an impression of the trips.
Plus the search process itself. Most often, from a photo in a book, which you could show to one of the locals and ask. It was worse when they peered at the area in the photo and looked for something similar on the spot. Well, it’s a total disaster when there was one mention of “there was such and such in this city”...
There were many temples on Sakhalin - more than 200, but noticeable traces remained of a maximum of 15. There were only 6 large ones of imperial rank, something intelligible has been preserved from 2 of them. The buildings themselves were wooden; naturally, they were all dismantled long ago. Now only some concrete or granite elements of the temple complexes (such as gates and lanterns) remain.
Temples were erected in every village and simply beautiful place. As I understand it, in Shinto any object can be deified, and the soul can be near any mountain or river (in fact, it’s really beautiful there, and it’s easy to perceive the world impossible).
Ride around West coast took 750 km and 4 days. We drove a UAZ “loaf” made in 1980, and Sakhalin roads are not always passable (well, that’s why the UAZ was chosen).
We left Yuzhny at lunchtime and in the evening we went to the coast to Nevelsk. Upon entering the city, they did not believe that there had been an earthquake. The only damage noticed was the collapsed brick pipes. And then it began... Five-story buildings with cracks, plaster falling off, exposed windows (plastic windows were put up for sale in neighboring towns). The house, on the second floor of which there was a working excavator, broke walls, huge piles of rubbish and fragments of houses (two floors high), trailers at the railway station for people to live in, a tent city.
However, almost all coastal cities left a similar impression with the exception of Kholmsk. Empty 5-story buildings, ruins of houses and dismantled rails.
We drove along the sea south to Shebunino, there was no further road. The place is gorgeous - on one side there are green hills, on the other there is a strip of beach a few meters away and the sea. We spent the night in tents on a railway embankment. Surprisingly, it was very warm (they told me, like, what do you want, there is a warm current here, the vegetation here is richer than in the east, there were even apple orchards). And the plants, yes, were impressive. The grass there is strong. Lopushki are also nothing... In the evening we admired Moneron - an island 40 km away, but in the morning it was cloudy and not a hint of the island.
About traveling with Anna. The UAZ is absolutely not a suitable car for traveling with a 2-year-old child, but stops on the coast compensated for everything. We moved in a large group, the process of opening and closing the camp was long, the child had time to play in the sand and walk along the shore. It didn’t even occur to her that she could swim in the sea - the usual clothes for the beach in August were a jumpsuit, a sweater, a jacket and a woolen hat.
Kholmsk. What I managed to notice from the wheels was a huge port, an abundance of new shops. The city lives. We haven’t seen anything like this anywhere else on the coast. The city is large by local standards - 40 thousand people.
I'm in front of the school pavilion. What is this - once upon a time, for the purposes of patriotic education, such booths stood at every Japanese school. A portrait of the emperor was kept in the booth and a guard of honor stood near it. In 1945, on Japanese territory, all of them (in fact, every single one) were destroyed by the Americans - they fought against the cult of the emperor. On Soviet Sakhalin they were not destroyed, but converted into warehouses. But still, only 3 of them have survived to this day.
10 km along the sand - and we are at Cape Slepikovsky. The lighthouse is operational, there are keepers' houses nearby. They drove us through the forest, saying that we could only take photographs with the permission of the lighthouse chief.
Most of the cities we passed through could be called cities only from old memory. That is, 20 years ago they might have been. Tomari is the center of an administrative district with a population of 5 thousand people (the same number on our campus at NSU). Half of it is visible in the photograph. Another half of the photo is occupied by a former paper mill - also, by the way, an attribute of many southern cities.
War monument at the entrance to the temple. Here he is half hanging over the cliff, it was scary to take pictures. The top of the monument is made in the form of an artillery shell - at the beginning of the 20th century it was customary to use either the guns themselves or imitation shells in such buildings (later on our trip we became convinced of this).
This is us against the backdrop of the “torii” - the temple gate. Torii are considered the national symbol of Japan and are placed only on Japanese territory. Therefore, they can be seen extremely rarely outside of it. And one of these exceptional places is Sakhalin. These torii are made of concrete and are already crumbling a little, and the second ones further away are made of granite. There are hieroglyphs engraved on the pillars, so clearly and accurately that it was simply hard to believe that granite could be processed in such a way.
And at night the weather was clear and we saw a total lunar eclipse! And how many stars are visible on the coast; even Anna was impressed by the sky!
The next morning we passed the narrowest point of the island. There is a healthy bay here, once expeditions only reached this bay, big ships stopped. To the north they sent people on boats to explore, and when they returned, they said that the sea was narrowing and the water was becoming fresher. Therefore, for a long time, Sakhalin was designated as a peninsula on maps. We took a photo in front of a stone with the inscription “La Perouse was here” and moved on.
Krasnogorsk. We stopped near a private house to go to the grocery store. And then they noticed that in the courtyard between the greenhouse and the barn there was a healthy temple lantern. Exactly like the photo in the book. They didn’t believe it, they tried to go around the yard to get a better look - it was dull, the lantern was clearly on private territory. Fortunately, the hostess noticed us and invited us to come in. She said that we are far from the first tourists here, but foreigners come more often. She showed a pedestal from another lantern - granite, she said they wanted to remove it to expand the greenhouse - but it didn’t work out. They couldn't break it with anything, they couldn't even chip it. Such lanterns were placed on the temple stairs of rich large temples. We were on the stairs later, but from the lanterns, at best, we only saw the bases.
Then the road departed from the coast, we drove along the valley to Uglegorsk. Difficult area - dust, repairs. I was surprised to see... herds of cows. Before this, there was a feeling that something was missing - it seemed like you were driving through the countryside, but there were no living creatures. In the photo, by the way, the sky turned out to be typical of Sakhalin - it seems that now the clouds will just run over your head. In Novosibirsk it is different.
Uglegorsk - only Shakhtersk is 10 km further north; there is no road for us along this coast to the north. In Uglegorsk (formerly Esutoru) is located 1 of 2 surviving large temple complexes. It was built in 1940 in honor of the 2600th anniversary of the Empire. Unfortunately, in our time there is a sand quarry on the site of the alley and stairs, but still. We climbed the hill to the temple along a small valley - with each step up an increasingly interesting view opened up, and our hand itself reached out to the camera.
Like most other places in the east of our country, Sakhalin is more remarkable for its nature than for its man-made objects. I spent a week on Sakhalin and bring to your attention my practical overview of how to make the most of your time on the island. I hope it will be useful to everyone who comes here for the first time.
Ride around ski slope"Mountain Air". Along with cross-country skiing, big bets are also placed on alpine skiing. Even though I don't love skiing, but I couldn’t help but mention it. This base is located within the city and offers stunning views of Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk and the surrounding area. The Russian national team sometimes trains here, and the base, operating since the 1960s, is among the best in Russia. It seemed to me that the largest number of tourists in Sakhalin come precisely to ride this ski slope.
Go fishing. Of course, the largest island of Russia has a huge number of animal and flora. It's like a fisherman's paradise. From December to April - winter fishing. Active biting of almost all fish during the first ice period. These are taimen, kunja, char, rudd, smelt, navaga, flounder, pike, burbot. From May to June there is active fishing for kunja and salmon. From July to November is the beginning of the entry of Pacific salmon into rivers. They rise for spawning and wintering, some of them roll back into the sea during the fall. Fishing on Sakhalin is unique in its own way. After all, in addition to fishing, you can enjoy picturesque views of hills and valleys, watch brown bears, preferably from afar :), catch shrimp, crab and collect scallops.
Visit the local history museum of Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk. The museum is located in a building built in the traditional national Japanese style; it is the only building of its kind on the territory of both Sakhalin and all of Russia. It is there that you can a short time learn all about the amazing island on the edge of the country. The museum is very interesting and quite modern.
Try Sakhalin cuisine, which has long become a brand. It was formed due to historical circumstances at the intersection of several cultures - Russian, Japanese and Korean. The peculiarity of Sakhalin cuisine is, first of all, a kind of mix of Russian and Korean gastronomy. Korean cuisine was brought here at the beginning of the last century by settlers who arrived on the island during the Japanese mobilization.
See the Japanese railway. This railway was built when the island was under Japanese sovereignty and was called Karafuto. The track width is 1067 millimeters, but it is now being expanded to Russian standards of 1520 millimeters. The Japanese period of control of the railways of Sakhalin is quietly coming to an end and there is little time left to see and ride it. Part of the unprofitable railway on the island has been abandoned. These places contain interesting historical sites. One of the most interesting is the "Devil's" bridge on the section near Nikolaychuk station. Even according to today's experts, a unique engineering solution was adopted during its design - the railway line was made in the form of a loop. Coming out of the lower tunnel, the train makes a sharp turn, leaving almost at the top of the hill, enters the next tunnel and then travels along the bridge.
Go to Nevelsk to see the Steller sea lions. There are only three places in the world where sea lions set up a seasonal rookery within the city - these are Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky, Seattle in the USA and Nevelsk on Sakhalin. Every year in January - February, during off-season migrations, about 300 seals swim to the old breakwater (breakwater) of the Nevelsk port and remain there until the end of June.
Visit Moneron Island, it is now considered a natural park. Moneron in good weather visible near Nevelsk. It is difficult to get there - it is a border zone, and special permission is required to land on the island, and sailing there is not a cheap pleasure. It is best to do this in the summer; excursions are organized there.
Active tourism and trekking. The island is well thought out walking routes. While trekking along the coast of the Sea of Okhotsk and the Sea of Japan, you can see lagoons, grottoes and gorges, stone arches and columns, you can climb hills, passes and from there admire the beauty of the island.
Swim in two seas: Japanese and Okhotsk. This can be done in one day, however, in winter only in Japan, Okhotsk freezes.
See a cyclone and find out what it’s like when there’s really a lot of snow! This weather phenomenon will not leave you indifferent, but, unfortunately, it is extremely difficult to predict such an event. We were very lucky:
Well... and definitely run, thanks to him, in fact, I visited this wonderful island on the edge of Russia.
And if you have already been to Sakhalin, would you add it to this list?
