 Goreley Volcano |
 |
Day 22 (August 11):Mutnovsky Volcano plateau – Goreley Volcano – Paratunka Valley
I was warmed up in my tent by the glowing sun. At 7:30am, I had my first full sight of the mighty Mutnovsky Volcano with its rugged top and the Goreley with steam clouds in a distance against a clear blue sky. After a big breakfast with liver, sausages, cheese, pancake and bread, I sadly left the campsite. The 6WD bus took us to the base of the Goreley Volcano.
 |
 |
Goreley (or Burnt) Volcano is very active with 10 eruptions in the last 175 years. It consists of two big structures: an ancient shield volcano the top of which is crowned with a 13-km caldera, and a modern stratovolcano. The modern structure occupies 150 square kilometres and is situated in the caldera’s crater.A string of 11 craters (including 5 active ones) line its extended summit and its slopes have about 30 hornitos.
We began our ascent at 10:15am at an altitude of 1,000m. Previous lava flows cover its eastern and southern slopes. The walk is over a mixture of grassy tundra and bare stripes of basaltic lava. We followed a 5-km single trail to the rocky top.Most part of the trail is flat but certain sections are slippery and steep. Without a walking pole, I struggled but still managed to reach the rim at 1,750m at 12:15pm.
 |
 |
 |
It was a beautiful day with excellent visibility. I had full views of several ranges of mountains 200-300 kilometres away with thedormant Vilyuchinsky Volcano (2173m) and the Avachinsky Volcano (2751m) looming in front. I enjoyed this fantastic view while having my packed lunch.
After lunch, we walked with the local guide around the far rim of the main crater complex to take a closer look. The walls of all the craters expose profiles through thick sequences of lava flows with a limited component of inter-bedded pyroclastics. The first crater contains a cold lake about 100m below. There are even some ice floes from a small glacier. The next crater is the large old central crater about 100m deep with many fumaroles. The present eruption began two years ago and the volcano now intermittently ejects steam-gas columns up to three kilometres. The temperature is estimated to be as high as 700°C. The jet-hissing sound is powerful and constant.
 |
 |
 |
I find the curved rim and the whole crater a piece of art work. Spectacular vista of multi-coloured streams of lava, fanciful pyroplastic outliers, rocky steps of craters are also most impressive.I stayed at the top for two hours and took an hour and a half to descend to the car park. Two and a half hours later, we arrived at our hotel in the Paratunka Valley.
Day 23 (August 12):Paratunka Valley – PKC
It was sometimes nice to do nothing. Mikhail picked us up at noon and we were back in PKC for lunch at 1pm.
 |
 |
 |
At 5pm, we set off for a 6-hour boat excursion in Avacha Bay,one of the world’s best protected deep ice-free water bays. We passed the famous Three Brothers (3 tall finger-like sea stacks at the mouth of the bay) before arriving at an island and a group of rocks with numerous colonies of seabirds.
 Three Brrothers |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
There were plenty of puffins which I love for their cute and comic look. A diver also got us some 50 sea-urchins and I had the biggest feast of fresh sea urchins in my life. Some members were scared and refused to try it.
 |
 |
The sunset was gorgeous and the best I had seen during my stay in Kamchatka. The Koryaksky Volcano (3456m), Avachinsky Volcano (2751m) Kamchatka’s most climbed volcano which erupted at least 14 times in the last 250 years, and the dormant Kozelsky Volcano (2189m)all glowed behind the orange clouds. What a fantastic day!
When I got back to the hotel at 11:30pm, I was delighted to see my suitcase brought back from the Kuril Lake. Mikhail and his boss Andrey have done a great job in getting it back in time.
Day 24 (August 13, Monday): PKC – Novosibirsk
Mikhail took us to Yelizovo in the morning. I brought 500g of salmon caviar for 450 rubles. After lunch, I departed for the airport. The S7 flight took off on schedule and I arrived in Novosibirsk at 10pm after a brief stop in Khabarovsk.
Remarks
Kamchatka is a remote and fairly expensive destination. I am lucky to be one of the 20,000 odd foreign visitors who can make his/her way to Kamchatka and to set foot on PKC, the oldest port city in the Russian Far East. Though bad weather had robbed me of the chance of ascending the Bezymyanny Volcano and delayed the helicopter flight to Kuril Lake by one day, I am thankful for the generally good weather during my 22-day stay in Kamchatka.
Memories of the bears, the volcanoes and the extraordinary volcanic phenomenon of Kamchatka will stay with me forever.
First,I have seen dozens of polar, kola and black bears but have never seen as many as 150 brown bears in three days in the Kuril Lake. Some were less than five metres away from me!
Second, volcanoes have life and are beautiful and dynamic. They have their own character and a distinguished face with their own profile! Some are active behaving like angry and temperamental youth while others behave like the seasoned and sedentary elderly resting in peace.
Third, though I have seen some volcanic geothermal activities before, nothing can compare with those at the Mutnovsky Volcano and Goreley Volcano. People have told me that the Kronostsky Nature Reserve is a crown jewel and the Valley of Geysers and the caldera of the Ozon Volcano is a must-see.
I might have seen more than an average tourist. But, there is still so much to do. I plan to return one day to trek in the Kronostsky Nature Reserve and to experience white Kamchatka in winter when I can find Stellar eagles in the Kuril Lake.