Our new room is very quiet. We're not hearing thruster motors, chains, or windlaces. While we were still in dreamland at 6am the Maasdam quietly and without so much of a bump nestled up to its berth at the now familiar Vladivostok cruise terminal. However, missing were the 3 Russian frigates with their imposing missile launchers that stood guard close to us during our last visit exactly two weeks ago.
While I didn't watch them, Angela reported to me that there were Russian musicians who performed a short program just before 8am while I was eating breakfast. emEven though the daily program and the PA announcements said passport pickup time was to be 8:30, at 8am I gathered our passports from the distribution point in the ocean bar. There was no line basically because most people who were getting off the ship were on HAL tours. The rest of our group. We gathered up our day packs, travel voucher, walkers and key cards and met our group in the 6th floor atrium.
Dina, our guide from ExplorePrimore.Com was waiting for us and we walked a short distance to the two vehicles that would take our little group if 8 out to the Safari Park. Dina, who spoke perfect English drove our vehicle but the other driver spoke no English. For the return trip the couples switched cars so all would have the benefit of her commentary. It was about an hour and 15 minutes drive out to the park on both 4 lane and 2 lane roads.
The park is located in a wooded area and there are large open but fenced areas for the larger animals to wander around it. For the 3 Amur tigers and the leopards and bears, there was a nice elevated steel walkway from which we could easily view the animals. The park served as both a conservancy (providing a home to injured animals and a breeding facility where endangered species could be propagated. Deer and elk were in large fenced enclosures and we could enter those to pet and feed the animals.
There were two other sections to the Park. The first was a large open area where small predators were allowed to roam free among the visitors. This included a badger, two moon bear cubs, river otters, a raccoon dog, a small cat like an ocelot, & a black fox, It was pretty cool to be so close to the animals even though we couldn't touch them. The third enclosure was for the birds. Eagles, owls, various raptors, and a huge vulture made up the collection.
After visiting the park, we had a traditional Russian meal at the Forest Fairy restaurant. It was composed of bread, vegetable soup, spaghetti and a cabbage roll, tea, and a crepe like dessert. Back at the city 4 of us were dropped off near the U-56 submarine park, one couple went to one of the local museums and one couple went back to the ship. GARY and I toured the submarine while our wives visited the souvenir shop and afterwards we toured the train station and cruise terminal before reboarding the ship.
After a quick Lido dinner, once again there were a good number of people on the dock accompanied by Russian march music to wish us goodbye as we slowly slipped away from the pier, rotated 180° counterclockwise and sailed out of the harbor and under the Russky Bridge which is the longest suspension bridge in the world and 3rd tallest.
Our evening entertainment was Mark Winter, aka Mr. Sandman, from New Zealand who produced exquisite drawings using sand and others from acrylics.
Tomorrow is a sea day on our way to Korsakov where once again we'll tender.
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