Korsakov is the southern gateway of Sakhalin, a port town of about thirty-five thousand people on the shore of Aniva Bay, where the island narrows toward its southern tip. It began in the 1860s as a Russian military post named after a governor, and after the Russo-Japanese War in 1905 it passed to Japan, who called it Odomari and held it until the end of the Second World War. The old stone and wooden buildings of that period have mostly vanished, but the harbour layout and the terraced streets above it still have an unmistakable Japanese-era shape.
The writer Anton Chekhov crossed Sakhalin in 1890 and wrote a famous book about its penal colony, and he left the island by ship from this bay. If you like to place a story in a landscape, the harbour at Korsakov is a good spot to do so. The water is grey and cold, ferries and fishing boats move in and out, and the hills behind the town are covered with spruce and bamboo. It is not a pretty place in the postcard sense, but it is full of atmosphere, particularly in the long light of an autumn afternoon.
The road along Aniva Bay is gentle riding, with easy curves, light traffic and views over the water to distant headlands. The surface varies from good to patchy, and the weather can change fast, with fog common in summer and strong winds in autumn. Winters are snowy and the road can ice up in shaded corners, so late spring to early autumn is the best period. Beware of potholes after the thaw.
Services in the town are comprehensive: petrol stations, shops, cafes, a market and hotels, and Aniva, about twenty kilometres away, is the next place to turn to for supplies. Fresh fish and crab are the local speciality, and the market stalls are the best place to try them. Walk along the shore before you move on, when the horn of a ship carries over the bay and the smell of salt and seaweed fills the air. It is an end-of-the-road town with a story much bigger than its size.