Cape Grin

Cape Grin is a rocky cape on the coast of Aniva Bay in the Korsakovsky municipal district of Sakhalin Oblast, in the south of the island, not far from the village of Muravyovo. The cape juts out toward the open sea, and its high cliffs drop straight into the water: in places the rock faces reach 85 meters.

Nature and geology

The cape's rock mass is made up of Late Cretaceous rocks about 90 million years old — tuff siltstones, tuff sandstones, tuffs and sandstones. The cape lies within the zone of a major fault that runs through the Novikovskaya depression and emerges on the peninsula's western coast. Layered rocks of different colors alternate up the height of the cliff, and the open waters of Aniva Bay lap at the foot of the rocks.

Grasses and low shrubs typical of southern Sakhalin's coast grow on the cape's sloping sides. Large numbers of seabirds nest on the cliffs and ledges — the noise of the bird colonies can be heard well before you reach the cape. Harbor seals live in the coastal waters, and locals say their calls sometimes sound like the roar of sea lions. Bears are occasionally encountered near the cape, so walking to the cliffs alone is not advisable.

History of the name

The cape is named after the writer Alexander Grin, author of "Scarlet Sails" and "Running on the Waves". The romantic literary name has stuck to this wild, hard-to-reach stretch of the Sakhalin coast that few casual tourists ever reach.

Legends

Several local legends are tied to Cape Grin. People tell of mysterious lights sometimes seen on the cliffs at night. According to one story, a fisherman once followed the glow of a strange light and found a spring of clean water in a crevice in the rocks.

Getting there

The route to the cape starts in Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk and heads toward the village of Muravyovo. Past Muravyovo the paved road ends, and the route continues along a sandy track running along the coast of Aniva Bay. You need to reach the Igrivaya salmon spawning river, and from there switch to water transport, since no road for vehicles continues further. After rain the sand turns to mud, so a capable off-road vehicle is needed for the trip.