Wilderness ... the Mi-8 helicopter lands on the Zhupanova River.Credit: Louise Southerden
Louise Southerden skirts bubbling lakes and gushing geysers in a region once strictly out of bounds.
THE Cold War is over. But only just, in Kamchatka, a former Soviet military base in the Russian far east and part of Siberia. Off limits even to Russians until the 1990s, this peninsula is now an adventure travel destination for that very reason: being out of bounds has preserved Kamchatka's natural wonders.
Exploring those wonders - which include more than 300 volcanoes, 29 of them still active - can be tricky, however. There's little infrastructure in and around Kamchatka's main city, Petropavlovsk-Kamchatskiy, and roads are few and far between.
Most visitors join ship-based expeditions to cruise Kamchatka's rugged coastline but there are a growing number of reasons to add a day or two to any cruising itinerary, one of which is a day trip to the Valley of the Geysers, in the "Volcanoes of Kamchatka" World Heritage site (listed in 1996).
It's not a cheap day out at $US990 ($976) a person but it is a once-in-a-lifetime chance to see some of the world's most remote and active volcanoes up close, from inside a Russian classic: an Mi-8 helicopter.
The day begins with an early-morning weather check and phone call. The previous day, a summer snowstorm had prevented me from trekking to the top of Avachinsky Volcano, just outside Petropavlovsk. Today, however, the weather gods are all smiles and sunshine.
In the middle of a weedy paddock just outside Petropavlovsk, 20 of us, including our guide, Svetlana, climb aboard a bright-orange Mi-8 that's as roomy as a bus. Svetlana gives a safety briefing then passes around lollies and earmuffs (though there aren't enough for us all). There's no mention of seatbelts, so no one wears one. In any case, we need to be able to swivel around to look out the windows at our rear.
As we fly out of Petropavlovsk, apartment blocks and villages of dachas - Lego-like country shacks - soon give way to one of the world's last great wildernesses.
Svetlana walks around shouting above the drone of the rotors, telling us we'll fly over Karymsky (1486 metres), one of the most active volcanoes in Kamchatka. It erupted 24 times in the 20th century, she tells us, and the last eruption, which started in 2002, is still in progress. Then she holds up a sign - "Attention! Maly Semyachik Volcano 1561 metres" - and we see its acidic crater lake directly beneath us. The water's grey but it's often turquoise; every new eruption changes its chemistry, like a mood ring.
For the rest of the hour-long flight to our first stop, we fly over the gaping sulphurous mouths of still-active volcanoes, around snow-topped volcanic domes with lava-flow skirts, along fertile valleys as green as golf courses, with snowdrifts for bunkers.
Before we know it, we're landing inside a volcano: Uzon Caldera, in Kronotsky Nature Reserve, where we wander along boardwalks accompanied by a ranger armed with a rifle loaded with rubber bullets - in case we encounter a bear. There are about 10,000 brown bears in Kamchatka and many of them visit Uzon in late summer and autumn for the berries, their "dessert" after a summer of feasting on salmon, and to heal battle wounds by bathing in the pools.
Uzon erupted and collapsed into itself 250,000 years ago, creating the bowl-like crater we're standing in, which is 12 kilometres rim to rim. And still alarmingly active: we're surrounded by bubbling lakes, glumping mud volcanoes, spurting clay pots and gushing geysers.
Safely back in the chopper, we fly east for 15 minutes to the Valley of the Geysers, where we're met by another armed ranger.
This narrow canyon with a hot-water river, the Geysernaya, running through it, was discovered only in 1941, by geologist Tatiana Ustinova. It wasn't surveyed until the 1970s and tourists have only been allowed in since 1991.
Of the five main geyser fields in the world - in Yellowstone National Park in the US, Iceland, New Zealand's North Island, Chile and Kamchatka - the Valley of the Geysers has the second-largest concentration of geysers (after Yellowstone) and arguably the most natural viewing conditions: few fences and boardwalks perilously close to boiling pools. That's Russia, and the nature of this volatile landscape, a reminder of which came in 2007.
On June 3 that year, a massive mudslide rumbled into the valley. No one was injured but a group of tourists who were out hiking returned to find debris right up the edge of their cabin's verandah and within half a metre of the helipad (where our Mi-8 is parked). There were reports that the Valley of the Geysers was no more but although there was some damage - four large geysers and a waterfall were buried - it remains as spectacular as it was before the slide.
Our last stop is the Zhupanova River, for a soak in a hot-spring pool inside a log cabin and a late lunch: steamed salmon, smoked salmon and salmon caviar. Back in the chopper, we lift off and I hum the theme to Out of Africa, feeling spellbound by the wildness below until forests and craters give way to dachas and apartment blocks and, finally, our heli-paddock.
Kamchatka might be an awkward teenager beside more sophisticated adventure destinations but that's part of its charm. It's also a reason to go now, before its rough edges are made smooth and while flying over and into some of the world's most active volcanoes is still such a thrill.
The writer travelled courtesy of Heritage Expeditions.
Trip notes
Getting there
Korean Airlines flies to Vladivostok via Seoul from about $2060; Vladivostok Air flies from Vladivostok to Petropavlovsk-Kamchatskiy from about 18,000 roubles ($585). koreanair.com, vladivostokavia.ru/en. Australians require a visa for Russia. It costs $110. sydneyrussianconsulate.com.
Staying there
Hotel Petropavlovsk has rooms from 4600 roubles ($150) a night. +7 415 225 0374, petropavlovsk-hotel.ru/en.
Touring there
Valley of the Geysers helicopter tours run June-October, weather permitting, and cost $US990 ($976) a person, including transfers to and from your hotel, lunch and guides/interpreters. Bookings can be made through Heritage Expeditions based in Christchurch, New Zealand, which also runs small-ship expedition cruises in Kamchatka and can help with flights and visa applications. +64 3 365 3500, heritage-expeditions.com.
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