The first time we drove down to Korsakov, it was the end of September, and a brilliant, sunny autumn day. Now, in the dead of winter, it is an entirely different picture.

New Years Day was Sue’s last day of holidays here, and we hadn’t been very far out of town.   With David home, we decided to drive down to Korsakov to give her an idea of the countryside, and at least show her the ship wrecks in the harbour there.

It was an gray day, and as we left home, there seemed to be a light fog.  As we drove farther south, however, we realized that it was snow…. and it was coming down in larger flakes and much heavier.  There was gravel on the highway however, so we enjoyed the drive.

By the time we arrived in Korsakov, the snow was falling pretty hard, but that didn’t stop us from walking out to the old harbour.  At the fall of the Soviet Union, all these boats were sunk in the harbour, as they were worth more for their insurance value than anything else.  That day, they looked like great ghosts .

Even in the snow, people are out walking in Lenin Square..

Here is the only Japanese building left – a bank building that has been unoccupied for many years. There was talk of turning it into a museum, but nothing was ever done.

And an Orthodox church near the highway.

We drove on to the LNG plant, which is just 10 km farther along the coast.

No one playing on the beach today, although someone is out looking over the water.

The sticks on the railing are to signal the edge of the road, in case of very deep snow when the roads are being plowed out. An eerie thought, as they are very tall.

When we got back to Korsakov, we stopped at a grocery store for a snack, and headed back to Yuzhno. the snow was getting pretty deep by then. We had a great dinner at Mishka Pub

and after David had found the car under the accumulated snow, we headed home, for a warm and relaxing evening.