From Houston to Sydney 2013

Russian Far East - 2014

After yesterday’s fairly arduous workout, it was something of a relief to have a slightly more sedentary itinerary organized for today.  I woke and looked out my window to see… wet ground and grey, overcast skies yet again.  Scarcely surprised, I enjoyed a hand-held hot shower in my new room.

Breakfasts are a set menu at this hotel (actually the hotel next door), with no choice.  Today’s breakfast was a little more substantial than yesterday’s offering, comprising a chocolate bar, two boiled eggs with canned peas, two crepes with honey, and a cup of instant coffee.  Thus fuelled for the day, I met Maro and the driver as arranged at 7:30am.

The main destination for the day was a boat trip on Avacha Bay, with sightseeing and some fishing, before arriving at Starichkov Island, a nature reserve in the bay which with abundant numbers of puffins, loons and other forms of water bird.  This was to be followed up with some city sightseeing in Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky, the largest city in Kamchatka.

The drive to the boat wharf, which was located at the southern end of Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky, took just over an hour.  I had to wait for a group of Russian tourists to arrive, as it was their tour that I was apparently joining.  They arrived at about 9:00am, and we pushed off shortly afterwards.

It is a bitingly cold morning on the waters of the bay.  Although the temperature was supposed to be about 8° Celsius, the strong wind created a substantial chill factor, and despite wearing two jackets (one on top of the other) and my warmest hat, I was still close to shivering.

Nonetheless, the rain held off, and although the air was somewhat hazy, I was able to make out the steep sides of the bay quite clearly, together with several interesting landforms (mainly stacks) with quaint names like the Devil’s Finger, the Three Brothers, and Grandmother Stone.  The bay was teeming with birdlife, and I lost count of the number of seagulls, terns, puffins, geese and other birds I was unable to identify.

After an hour’s cruising to the southern end (the mouth) of Avacha Bay and back a little on the opposite side of the bay, we dropped anchor in a small bay to do some fishing.  The bay seemed to be teeming with fish – I managed to catch a flatfish without really trying, and the Russians quickly filled an entire bucket with the same type of fish.  This success did have a downside – the Russian tourists were enjoyed their fishing so much that they negotiated (without my knowing) to continue fishing for three hours, thus dropping Starichkov Island from the itinerary – a pity, I thought.

While everyone was fishing, small groups took turns to have a ride in a small rubber inflatable dinghy to examine the cliffs and caves at close hand.  It was also while we were anchored that a two-course lunch was served.  First course was sea urchin caviar on bread with soy and wasabi sauce, while second course was a traditional thin fish soup, based on salmon with potatoes, carrots and onions added.

I was somewhat relieved when we began heading back to the harbor at Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky; three hours of standing on a boat holding a fishing rod in a biting, cold wind is about my pleasure-limit.  A special surprise awaited me half-way across the bay when I caught sight of a leopard seal; he saw me too, and dived for cover in the blink of an eye.

We arrived back on shore at 2:00pm, bid farewell to the Russian tourists, and headed into Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky to do some sightseeing.  Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky has a fairly bad reputation as being run-down and ugly, but I quite liked what I saw.  We started at a lookout above the city, where high tension power lines had been carefully placed to obscure as much of the view as possible.  Nonetheless, the general layout of Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky could be seen clearly, comprising a long, linear settlement lining the coastline, and extending only a small way up the sides of the steep hills that front Avacha Bay.

Our second stop was at the Kamchatka Regional Unified Museum, housed in Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky’s oldest building, a lovely timber structure constructed in 1911.  The museum’s exhibition covered two floors of the building, and featured Kamchatka’s physical environment and early exploration on the lower floor, while the upper floor covered Kamchatka’s period of socialism and the now-extinct lifestyle of Kamchatka’s indigenous peoples.

Our third stop was in Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky’s historic centre, which is now marked by the Theatre, the regional government building, and of course, a huge statue of Lenin.  The Lenin statue was interesting in that it is now backed by a large office block occupied by Gazprom, one of Russia’s oligarchic corporations.  Depending on the angle of the camera, it was possible to make Lenin appear as though he looking towards Gazprom for a rosy future, or alternatively, that he was turning his back on the huge capitalist institution.  We did a little more walking in the area, focussing on two other large statues (though not a large as Lenin) – one of Saint Peter and Saint Paul (after whom Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky is named), and one of Saint Nicholas (the real one, not Santa Claus).

Our fourth stop was at a hill to the north of Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky’s centre where a new Russian Orthodox cathedral has been built.  To be more precise, construction is still continuing, and although the main worship hall was being worked on when we visited, we were able to enter a smaller below-floor level chapel where many worshippers were praying.

Our final stop was at an impressively modern shopping centre, as Maro wanted to show me a souvenir store and I wanted to purchase a map.  Then it was back to my hotel and a delicious dinner comprising a hot dog and three grilled chicken wings, topped off by the chocolate bar that I had saved from breakfast.

And the good news is that the weather finally seems to be clearing.  Although many of the surrounding mountains are still covered in low clouds, we had almost an hour with 50% of the sky being blue this afternoon (between 5:00 and 6:00pm).  Furthermore, temperatures in the afternoon were actually quite warm (perhaps rising to about 16°C).  Together with the positive weather forecast for the new few days (as reported to me by Maro), I think this augurs well for better weather in the time ahead.

Day 17 - Avacha Bay

Thursday

17 July 2014