Meeting the walruses and bears of Alaska with Antonin Charbouillot

Antonin Charbouillot is a photographer and author. This committed observer explores the relationship between Man and nature. He captures inspiring stories about the territories of the far North, with a particular fascination for Alaska.

Antonin Charbouillot is the author of a first work And the wolf continues to run in the forests of Alaskaself-published in February 2020.

His travelogue takes place in the Eastern Aleutians district of Alaska, in the ancestral territory of the Unangax. It is the last piece of land before the Aleutian Islands begin to reach Russia. A territory of volcanoes, blocked between the Pacific Ocean and the Bering Sea.

“I came here to try to observe and photograph brown bears.says Antonin Charbouillot. I wanted to finish a book that I have been working on for three years. They are a bit like the bears of the ‘end of the world’, the westernmost point of the continent. I was accompanied by a friend: Steve Odoï, 60 years old, former sailor and boat captain. After 3 days of sailing, we were dropped off at Cold Bay, a small community of about sixty inhabitants. From there, we left for 16 days in autonomy, of which the first 10 days were complicated with constant wind and storms. Animal encounters are rare.

One day, we decide to cross a huge lagoon to go see a piece of land blocked between the Bering Sea and this famous lagoon. A sort of isthmus. We have an inflatable canoe with us, the crossing is about ten kilometers. We have to study the current, the tide, and above all not have any wind at all, something that is extremely rare in this area: that day, we know that we have 6 hours of dead calm.

Here we go. After 1h30, we are not very far. Suddenly a shape emerges 1 km from the boat: a walrus! Then 10… then 100! And finally, there are hundreds, maybe a thousand.

We decide to land on a strip of black sand so as not to scare them and take pictures of them. The images are fabulous, we lose track of time.

Another surprise, wolf tracks dot the ground! I can already imagine the photos of a wolf in the volcanic sand dunes. We follow the tracks and suddenly come across a magnificent fox.

He has probably never seen a man and is particularly curious. He comes to pull our pants, climbs into the canoe, sniffs our things. I take pictures of the fox in the black sand. A waking dream. He stays with us for about thirty minutes, then disappears.

At this point we realize that the 6 hours are up. We have lost track of time. We quickly get back into the canoe to go back, 10 minutes, 20 minutes, always calm. Then the wind picks up, stronger and stronger. The waves form. We have no choice but to continue.

Steve gives me directions, we enter the trough of the waves with our inflatable canoe. My brain goes into automatic mode, so as not to lose my cool. We are a nutshell in the middle of a moving expanse of water.

After 3 hours of battle, we arrive at our starting point. It is pitch black, we are soaked, but alive. The last days will be just as exceptional thanks to incredible encounters with bears.

Antonin Charbouillot’s website