At the Edge of the World

Not far from Dalnye Zelentsy lies a string of natural reserve islands, which ordinary people rarely set foot on, due to a huge amount of different birds nesting there during a short Northern summer. People are prohibited from visiting the islands in order not to disturb the peace of the feathered inhabitants. The Gavrilov Islands are home to numerous bird colonies, where the night silence makes a contrast with the daytime deafening chatter of seagulls and urias. Here, at the end of the world, lives Nikolay Eliseev, the warden of Kandalaksha Nature Reserve, who has been working here for more than forty years. Nikolay’s family lives in town: he is divorced and his three children rarely visit him, preferring city life to the reclusive life of a coast-dweller. Nikolay seldom goes out to inspect the islands: the Northern Sea Route abyss where the big dry-cargo freighters pass is hard to withstand when you’re driving a small motor boat. This caretaker, going by the sonorous surname Eliseev, keeps tabs on the birds and animals inhabiting these nature reserve islands and prevents intruders from disturbing wildlife.
He has accumulated a lot of interesting stories over the many years he’s been doing this job he shares some of them with us.