Adventure
Weather, terrain and wildlife make the far north of Russia an interesting place to ride a motorcycle. Which surely means all the more reason to go…
Kamchatka is the land of volcanoes and bears. In the far north-east of Russia, it’s washed on three sides by major bodies of water: the Pacific Ocean to the south; the Sea of Okhotsk to the west; and the Bering Sea separating it from Alaska to the east.
This region is home to the Kamchatka brown bear, Russia’s largest bear species. My plan is to ride to Kurile Lake, a major salmon spawning ground, where abundant food and the absence of human interference has provided bears an ideal habitat. Their population has risen to 20-30,000 – roughly one bear per ten humans of Kamchatka.
I had to freight my motorcycle about two months in advance. Disassembled and packed in a wooden crate with all my travelling gear, the Honda XR travelled to Vladivostok along the Trans-Siberian Railway, then to the city of Petropavlovsk ‐Kamchatsky on a cargo ship. The flight from my home in western Russia to the fire ‐breathing mountains of Kamchatka takes eight hours and crosses eight time zones. Chains of mountain ranges and individual snow-capped peaks are visible from the aircraft window – the Pacific Ring of Fire. There are dozens of active and hundreds of extinct volcanoes in Kamchatka.
Four seasons in one day
The climate is heavily influenced by marine weather. Cyclones bring rain and strong winds. In one day, summer warmth can be replaced by cold drizzly rain reminiscent of late autumn, or fog with a piercing wind, only for heat to replace them again. To the west, by the Sea of Okhotsk, bad weather is especially pronounced.
My goal is to get to Kurile Lake along the Sea of Okhotsk coastline, a treacherous route due to the lack of a good road, the weather conditions, and the rivers that must be crossed. In this region there are no bridges, and many rivers are too deep to ride through.
So, I needed an inflatable boat. One able to support the 300kg of me and the Honda, weigh no more than 5kg, that can fold into a small dry bag and be strong enough to avoid damage. But options on the market were too large and heavy, so it was necessary to design one from scratch. All credit to Birdypackraft for making my idea a reality. The boat is named the Great Heron.
The toughest part of the journey starts in the village of Oktyabrsky, located on a narrow, sandy spit between the Sea of Okhotsk and the Bol’shaya (Bi
