The first thing you think of when you
take a look at Asia on a world-map, is that Asia seems
to be the largest land-mass on earth. From Europe far to the west,
and all the way towards
the Pacific Ocean to the east. Way out there, on the other side of
the Sea of Okhotsk,
before you come to the Bering Sea and Alaska, a peninsula drops down
southwards from
the last bit of Asia. That is the Kamchatka Peninsula. And so what?
Just in case you didn't know - you have come to one of the worlds
last wilderness, with wild
mountains, living and dead volcanoes, geysirs, waterfalls, lakes,
glaciers, trees, bushes, bears,
birds and just a few people.
Kamchatka stretches out 1.200 kilometers
from north to south, and it does not have the
mildest climate on earth. During winter I'd prefer to go somewhere
further south....
But of course, if you hit one of the 28 active volcanoes there, you
might find a warm
place to stay.....
During summer-time the area is visited
by numerous of tourist, by canoes, helicopters
and 4-wheel-vehicles, and noone will ever forget that experience.
It is not easy to
get to Kamchatka, and once there it is not easy to get ashore either,
with mountain-
cliffs all around, often occupied by fur-seals and sea lions. And
down through the peninsula
is a huge mountain-range. That's where all the volcanoes are.
Just as Alaska has its Valley of 10.000
smokes, Kamchatka has its Valley of Geysirs. And often
the temperature of those geysirs lies just below the boiling-point,
that is between 96 and 99°C.
Russian explorers reached Siberia's Pacific coast in 1637, and the
Kamchatka Peninsula by
1697. Heavy colonization of Kamchatka began early in the 19th century,
and in 1904 the
Trans-Siberian Railroad opened, linking Europe to Vladivostok (and
China).
And the people of Kamchatka? Just like
people anywhere else....:
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