Russian Far East 2014 23

Kamchatka is said to be famous for its changeable weather. And so it has been this morning. Gone are the clear blue skies, replaced by low, grey clouds. Gone is the warm summer weather with gentle sea breezes, replaced by cold, damp, maritime air. Gone are the spectacular views of snow-capped volcanoes across Avacha Bay, replaced by grey water, grey hills and low grey clouds completely obscuring the volcanoes – just like it was on the day I went on a boat across the bay in an attempt to admire the spectacular scenery.

The bleak weather was not nearly as bad as it was when I first arrived in Kamchatka – at least it is not raining – but it was bad enough to make leaving Kamchatka for my long trip home a little bit easier. My main objective today was to begin the long journey back home to Sydney.

Because of the Moscow-centric pattern of air routes in Russia, the cheapest way home was to fly to Moscow, and then connect to China Southern Airlines flights to Guangzhou, and then change planes again for my flight to Sydney. With fairly long connections en route (8 hours 45 minutes in Moscow and 9 hours 50 minutes), the total travel time from Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky to Sydney was scheduled to be 46 hours. My consolation was that the connections through alternative shorter routes (by distance) such as Irkutsk, Vladivostok, Anchorage, Beijing or Seoul would have made the journey even more time consuming as well as more expensive.

With sub-optimal weather outside, there was little incentive to engage in one of my morning walks, so I enjoyed a leisurely breakfast, took the time to introduce myself to the leading manager of the travel company I had been working with to organize my travels (whose office happened to be upstairs in the Hotel Avacha) and then waited patiently for the car to take me to the airport. It was scheduled to come at 10:30am, so I had plenty of time to think pessimistic thoughts about the poor views I would undoubtedly have on take-off compared with the spectacular views I would have had if I had flown out yesterday.

I should not have worried. The weather did improve a little, although it never managed to rise to yesterday’s impeccable quality. Nonetheless, there were some fine views of Koryaksky and Avachinsky as we took-off, and after completing a circuit of cloud-covered Avacha Bay, some great views of Kamchatka’s glacially-shaped mountains that form the peninsula’s central spine.

The flight to Moscow took 8 hours and 5 minutes, and for most of the trip, thick cloud cover obscured the landscape below. The flight, in an Aeroflot Boeing 777-300, was smooth and comfortable; Aeroflot is certainly a very different – and vastly improved – airline now compared with the days when I had my first flight with them back in 1987. It would be hard to imagine the old Soviet Aeroflot having planes with in-seat power for laptops or tender salmon for in-flight food, for example.

I landed in Moscow half and hour early at 1:05pm, the time difference between Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky being eight hours. The rest of the (long) day was fairly placid, as I settled down for the next nine hours to wait for my connecting flight to Guangzhou, using the excellent free high-speed wi-fi at Sheremetyevo Airport to catch up on news, the internet and e-mail for the first time after the drought of the past week and a half.