From Houston to Sydney 2013

Russian Far East - 2014

Kamchatka is not a place that operates with finely-tuned efficiency.  Because I am still the only guest in the hotel, I need to arrange a time for my breakfast each morning.  So, I walked across to the neighbouring hotel for breakfast at 8:30 am this morning as arranged, only to find everything in darkness and the door locked.  However, it turned out to be only a temporary setback, and after about 10 minutes a lady arrived with the key and let me in.  Sixty seconds later I heard the ‘ding’ of a microwave, and my breakfast appeared – an omelette filled with strips of beef accompanied by cold canned peas, a crepe with strawberry jam, and an orange.

Today’s itinerary was regarded as the second best scenic highlight of Kamchatka – a trip to Kuril Lake in the far south of the peninsula.  I was due to be collected at 9:00am to go to the heliport, but when no-one appeared by 9:15am, I thought it was time to make yet another of ‘those’ phone calls.  With the help of the manager of the hotel, I eventually managed to connect with Maro, who informed me that the weather in Kuril Lake today was fine (which meant the helicopters would be flying), and that there might be some information about the car that would come and collect me available by about 10:15am.  I still don’t understand why she does not call with this type of information – she is not a brilliant initiator of communications.

And so I returned to my room to sit and wait for an update.  It came sooner than I expected.  At 9:50 I received a call asking me to be ready for a minibus that would come to collect me promptly at 10:35am.  At 10:35 on the dot, it arrived.

I was the last passenger to be collected, and so the bus drove straight to a small heliport just south of Yelizovo.  There was some paperwork to be completed, which in my case was simply recording my passport number, and by 11:15 I found myself walking (in awe!) up to a large, Soviet-era Mil Mi-8 helicopter that was to be my transport for the day.

Seating in the helicopter was on bench seats running parallel with the sides of the helicopter, although I was in one of the ‘extra’ seats that was probably designed for the cabin staff, facing backwards looking down the cabin.  The mighty twin turbine engines started up, and at 11:35 the distinctive thump-thump-thump sound began in earnest as we lifted off, all the passengers wearing ear muffs to dampen the sound.

The skies over Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky, Yelizovo and Paratunka were blue today, and although our journey southwards gradually brought us back to overcast conditions, the views of the dramatic Kamchatka landscape below us were fabulous.

The journey to Kuril Lake was 200 kilometres, and it took us an hour and ten minutes.  As we circled down through the clouds to make our landing, a wonderful vista opened up of a large lake backed dramatically by the cone of a large volcano.  The lake was formed by a volcanic eruption 9000 years ago, and several of the volcanoes around the lake remain active.  Kuril Lake and its surrounding area is a strictly protected state reserve, and we touched down on a small landing area beside one of the ranger’s stations.  Interestingly, there was a group of young school students camping in the ranger’s zone, a small area that is protected by a triple electric fence to keep the bears away.

There are thousands of bears around Kuril Lake, and everywhere we went, we were accompanied by a couple of bear shooters.  At one stage, a bear did approach the ranger station, and we were all on high alert for a while.

There were 22 people in the helicopter, and this number was split into four for the visit.  I was in one of the first two groups that went out in boat onto the lake, and despite a profound wind chill factor, this proved to be a highlight of the visit.

As we approached a northern shoreline, it was evident that about a dozen Kamchatka brown bears of various sizes were lining the narrow beach and wading in the water.  The reason was that it was their feeding time.  The bears eat almost nothing but salmon at this time of year, and there were so many salmon in the water that the surface of the water was turbulent and at times salmon would even jump out of the water.  Being in boats enabled us to have quite a close look at the bears in relative safety – it was a magic experience!

After the excitement of seeing so many bears in the wild, anything else would have been an anti-climax.  And so it was – while the other sub-groups went out in boats to look at the bears, our group was given a little over half an hour to look at a salmon management weir.  Not being critical, but watching salmon swim around is far less exciting that watching bears.

A very welcome lunch was served at 3:00pm, and an hour later, we took off for our second stop of the day.  A short 20 minute flight brought us to Ksudach caldera, a collapsed volcanic cone that is now filled by two lakes.  Apparently the magma is still quite close to the surface, and as evidence of this, the water in the lake and the sand under our feet were quite hot – hence the unofficial name, Hot Sand Beach.

We explored the caldera for about half an hour before taking off for our third stop, the Khodutka hot springs.  This was quite a large area of hot springs compared with the Verkhne-Paratunskie Hot Spring I had visited on Tuesday (which was just a small rock pool).  The water in the Khodutka hot springs didn’t look especially appealing, being green in colour with large quantities of green algae floating (which we were told adds to the health benefits).  Nonetheless, after the positive experience of a few days ago, I decided to take a dip, and I am delighted that I did.  The hot water was very relaxing and therapeutic, and the only downside was trying to get out using the wooden ladder that was extremely slippery because of the extensive colonization by green algae.

The final leg of the helicopter flight back to Yelizovo took just 30 minutes, and we landed at 6:50pm.  It had been an outstanding day – memorable in many ways for a range of great experiences.

Friday night seems to have livened up my hotel.  In stark contrast to the normal total silence, several Russian families are using the grounds for barbecues, filling the air with smoke and techno-rap music being played so loudly that the large speakers are bottoming out and distorting the sound (at least, I assume the music is being distorted – no-one would ever intentionally make sounds like that, could they?).

Day 18 - Kuril Lake

Friday

18 July 2014