Kamchatka
Review of the travel resources

There are many lakes in the mountains, enclosed within the craters of ancient volcanoes. If you have the lucky star of the traveller you may witness a volcanic eruption of the birth of a new crater. Our land is renowned for the richness of its thermal waters. At present there are over 200 locations with thermal springs or geysers differing from one another in temperature, mineral composition and medical characteristics.

Forests cover about a third of the pinensula, mainly stone-birch and alder as wellas larch and other coniferous trees. In the north of Kamchatka lies the tundra. On your journey you may well come across reindeer, the great Kamchatkan bear, snow-sheep, wolverine, lynx, sable, sea mammals and a great variety of birds.

As a novelty for the traveller one has the opportunity to see salmon spawning. There are no barriers or dams preventing them from attaining their goal! Six species of salmon, from the King Salmon to the small golet, spawn in the rivers of Kamchatka and the fishing season lasts from the beginning of May until the end of October.

Being away from the historical trails this land has preserved its indigenous people - the Koryak, the Chukchi, the Itelmen and the Even. Many of them retained their traditional way of life and as a result have superb applied arts, dances and songs.

In 1740 the famous navigator Vitus Bering founded the town of Petropavlovsk naming it after his two ships St.Peter and St.paul and used the port as a base from which to sail forth on his two voyages of discovery. After establishing the existence of the channel between Asia and America (The Bering Strait) and landing, albeit briefly, on the Alaskan island of Kayak, he and most of his men became ill with scurvy and the Danish captain died on what is now known as the Bering Island to the east of Kamchatka.

Last century, the arduous overland journey from Moscow to Petropavlovsk lasted three years (now it is a 9 hour non-stop flight from the Russian capital). This remoteness accounts for the frontier spirit of the people here - a mix of people from all over Russia - fishermen and sailors, teachers, doctors and scientists, artists and musicians, adaptable, independant and welcoming. The outdoor life is everything in Kamchatka walking and climbing, skiing and sailing. Just outside the city, townsfolks go berry and mashroom picking, and bears wander nearby.

Esso is the centre of the Bystrinskiy district, populated in the main by the Even people. A good climate, thermal springs, forests of larch («esso» is the Even word for larch), and reindeer herds are its main attractions. The local houses are heated by the thermal waters of the area. Within reach of these two centres is Kamchatka’s highest and most active volcanoe - Klyuchevskaya (4750 m) as well as the amazing dead forest and black volcanic deserts around Tolbachik, a result of the enormous eruptions of 1975/76.

The volcanoes Avacha (2738 m), Vilyuchinsky (2180 m) and Koryak (3456 m) are close neighbours of Petropavlovsk, an essential part of its landscape. The clouds of steam above Avacha are witness to the «unceasing work in the boiler-room of the planet».

To the north, beyond the watershed of the Kamchatka and Avacha rivers, lie the great volcanoes of Karym and Maly Semyachik and further still, the awesome Klyuchevskaya group. Young and volatile (only 7000 years old), Klyuchevskaya (4750 m) frequently shows its vigour with vivid eruptions, as if trying to revitalise its extinct neibour Kamen (4617 m) with a flamboyant courtship display.

The most massive of recent eruptions, however, was that of Tolbachik which in 1975 showed how volcanoes evolve - during one and a half years of intense activity, it constructed four new volcanic cones. South of Petropavlovsk and with relatively easy access, are Mutnovsky and Gorely. Both are periodically very active and can be visited safely with guides.

The northern face of Mutnovsky is split by a geological fault giving rise to a spectacular waterfall where the river Mutnaya hurtles over a cliff and into the gorge below.