Phil Hawley Photography

When we got to the rafting start point near to Malki Village there was another group almost ready to go and we had to go through the usual badly organised badly communicated rabble method of getting onto the water.  We were told that our main bags could stay on the 6WD and just carry what we needed for a couple of days on the water, this changed suddenly and was not really communicated until soon before we departed – the excuse was that suddenly the 6WD was needed elsewhere.  So I have touched on the problems I had with the bad organisation and more importantly the very bad communication by the company, this wasn’t the end of this, but it was typical, and I reiterate, if anybody is thinking of going to Kamchatka, do it, but please do not use Vision of Kamchatka for you trip.

So, on the 3 rafts, we had 21 people, and ALL our gear for the 2 week trip, and all the kitchen and dining setup, so consequently the boats were pretty heavily loaded. Our boat had 8 people on it and we were only doing a couple of hours that evening to get to our camping spot so we could live with a badly packed boat that had us squashed up.  On this first afternoon/evening paddle I stowed my camera because I thought there was no real point it being out as the weather looked pretty miserable and we would have to paddle.  So I was right and wrong, the weather was miserable and overcast, but we didn’t paddle, so this was like no rafting I had every done before.  We arrived at the area we were going to camp at and did the usual, but this time we all did our own thing to cope with the large amount of biting mozzies.  Lou and I coated ourselves in very strong DEET and did the same with the door of the tent, one of our companions, Barbara had an interesting home-made net to go over her head as did her friend Laura, except that Barbara was smoking through hers as you can see below.

The next day was long and often tedious, and although I had my camera out the river was running reasonably fast, the light wasn’t great, it was often raining, so I didn’t get to take many good pictures, and definitely no bears.  The people on the other boats did get to try their hand at fishing for our dinner as we were told we were going to, but our ‘captain’ seemed to only bring one rod that seem to be some kind of pro rod that he wasn’t letting us touch.  The day seemed to go on for ever when we had nothing to do but let our bums go numb, and that night was pretty much like the previous night (and most other nights), more vodka, more juice, therefore more screwdrivers or variations on that when the orange juice ran out.

The next day was glorious weather, and a shorter day of sitting on the boat, I did manage to get some good photos from the boat as the water was reflecting the blue of the sky amazing well in places giving the photos a surreal look.  When we did finish around lunchtime, we had our lunch by the riverside and made the 180km trip to the hotel, what we didn’t know was it was back to our friends at the Helios Hotel.  This time we did have to share one of these connected rooms, and not with people in our group, I pointed out to Irina, our Interpreter/Guide (still wasn’t sure which she was supposed to be as by the middle of the holiday she spent the majority of the time with one of the Russian travellers she had become ‘close’ to) that this wasn’t acceptable, she just shrugged and said we were stuck with it.  We lived with it in the end, but although this was kind of a backpacking holiday, when we got to hotels I hadn’t expected to share a bathroom and a door with strangers.  The next day we didn’t really know what we were going to be doing and unsurprisingly Irina wouldn’t tell us as she didn’t know, we were due to get a flight at 4.45pm, but some of the others we leaving earlier, some were carrying on the tour, and some had a few days in the city at the end.  It turned out in the end we just hung around until the hotel was at checking out time, then a new guide came, and then something strange happened, at the end of the holiday they expected us to pay, not at the beginning as you would have thought.  The itemised bill we requested did not arrive as requested, but they did expect the money.  So, we had been carrying this money around with us for 2 weeks now, it could have easier been lost or stolen but the company really don’t care about these issues, so be careful if you book with a company who expect you to pay in cash.  We ended up having to top it up by going to an Bankomat (ATM/Cashpoint), but then we had a great time picking out some smoked salmon and caviar to take back to Moscow with us, and had a great Chinese meal with this new guide, Alexander (the guy Irina had been ‘close’ to) and one of the company owners.  The flight back was great, the airport is small and disorganized, and if you fancy a cigarette after you had gone through security you went out of the security gate into an area that had been roped off, this is what many people had done.

All in all I loved Kamchatka, and hope to return one day, but maybe with a bigger budget to be able to use the helicopters more instead of travelling from place to place in the 6WD.

As always with the gallery below, click on the thumbnails to see the full image.