It was somewhat of a long shot, carrying sea kayaks all the way from Sapporo to eastern Hokkaido. The drift ice might not be there. The wind might be too strong. It might be too cold. It might be better to just commit to skiing.
We had skis with us to hedge our bets, but we did put two sea kayaks on the roof of the van, hoping that we might get a window of opportunity to paddle among sea drift ice.
To our amazement, a window of opportunity of perfect conditions appeared just as we were due to arrive on the Rausu side of the Shiretoko Peninsula.
Sure enough, when we arrived at the very end of the road in Aidomari, the sky was blue, temperature was almost spring-like, and there was hardly a breath of wind.
The sea ice was also not hard up against the coast. In places around these parts, the ice can be so dense against the coast that it can be impossible to put a kayak in the water.
As we were unloading our gear, a curious local wandered over to us.
“You’re lucky,” he said. “Yesterday, the sea was totally inaccessible as far as the eye could see.”
We’d really hit the jackpot it seemed.
Getting the kayaks down to the beach was straight forward. The snow was only about knee deep, and it was easy to haul the kayaks across the slippery surface and down to the beach.
Far in the distance to the northeast we could see the towering bulk of Tyatya, the 1822m volcano at the northern end of Kunashir Island.
Soon after setting off, we were able to start weaving our way between small floes of drift ice.
We paddled about 1.5km northeast along the coast before realizing we had a stiff tailwind breeze. We realized that not only would this make the return paddle cold and more work, it could also possibly cause ice to drift into the small bay we’d set off from, making taking out more difficult.
So, we turned around and made our way back to the put-in bay.
