Land of volcanoes and bears
Kamchatka
Land of volcanoes and bears
The Kamchatka Peninsula is one of the most remote and beautiful regions of Russia. Cold northern seas and volcanoes have formed a unique ecosystem here. While traveling through Kamchatka, I hoped to get to some hard-to-reach places. To volcanoes with Martian scenery, to the shores of the Pacific Ocean and the Sea of Okhotsk, and to Lake Kuril, where the largest group of brown bears in the world is located.
Tolbachik volcano is one of the most active volcanoes on the peninsula. When I got there, I found myself on another planet. Frequent eruptions burned the trees, creating a desert of black cinder fields, volcanic cones, and fossilized lava flows.
The main attractions of the peninsula are off the public roads. Along the coast, I drove to the south of the peninsula, where the Sea of Okhotsk joins the Pacific Ocean. Here is the unique Kuril Lake, where more than a million salmon enter for spawning each year. This attracts a huge number of brown bears. To get to Kuril Lake on a motorcycle, I had to drive across the sand along the sea and cross the rivers in an inflatable boat.
Sometimes during violent storms whales are thrown on the shore of the Sea of Okhotsk, which bears are very happy about. I had to drive by a dead whale that was being eaten by many bears. I had never seen so many of these wild animals. Upon reaching Lake Kuril, I met more than a dozen of these large animals, who alternate their diet of fish and plenty of berries in the forests and tundra of the peninsula. There are so many bears here that people have to live in close proximity to them. Neither bears nor people are surprised to meet each other in the wild. Every year there are accidents of bears attacking people, but in most encounters bears prefer to avoid people, because they have more than enough food in this fish land.
