KAMCHATKA LAND OF MYSTERY AND MISTS - Page 7

On Wednesday morning we had an earlier-than-usual start on the longest day of the trip, during which we drove to Esso in a valley of the central volcanic range that, together with the eastern range and a much less imposing western range, runs the length of the Kamchatka Peninsular. It was the activity if these three north-south lines of volcanoes that formed Kamchatka. After stops at a small grocery store {Pic. #16} and the post office in Petropavlovsk, we headed west over the eastern volcanic range, turned north along the Bystraya River to the headwaters, crossed over to the Kamchatka River watershed and drove parallel to that river to Mil'kovo, near the southern end of the central valley. Once we left Petropavlovsk, there were very few people and the main highway became a lightly traveled, two lane, dirt road laid over a built-up roadbed. Most of the vehicles we met were logging trucks.

Mil'kovo {Pic. #17} was the only sizable town we drove through. It seemed to have the only restaurant between Petropavlovsk and Esso able to serve lunchto our group . There was a stage at one end of the main dining room and enough space for dancing, so it may have been a night club also. After lunch, we visited the Aboriginal Ethnographic Museum. It had a reconstructed log church containing several displays and a gift shop, the reconstructed façade of a wooden fort and a collection of petroglyphs {Pic. #18} and totem poles. Even though the day was a bit chilly and mosquitoeswere vicious, boys were swimming in the pond in front of the log church.

Esso is a town of about 2,500 in the central volcanic range west of the Kamchatka River on a tributary, the Bystraya River. {Pic. #19} [Yes, the name is the same as that of the river mentioned earlier.] Most people live in 1, 1 ½ or 2 floor single family or double houses. There are few of the apartment buildings so common in most of Russia. The streets are unpaved, without sidewalks. In many places views were reminiscent of streets in the small towns built during the late 19th century in the eastern Virginia rural area where I lived as a child. {Pic. #20}

Nearly everyone uses most of his yard for a large vegetable garden for fast growing or cold tolerant crops like potatoes, cabbages, onions, etc. and has a greenhouse for grapes, tomatoes and cucumbers. The growing season is only 90 days outdoors but is 8 months in the greenhouses. There it is limited only by insufficient sunlight during the short winter days. Many people keep chickens, rabbits, goats or cows. The buildings and greenhouses are heated with hot water piped from volcanic springs. There are no hotels but a number of guest houses, which provide meals as well as rooms. These are popular with people from Petropavlovsk for vacations. The Betchard group took all the rooms in one, the Alyona Guest House {Pics. #21 & 22} [reputed to be the best in town], for 4 nights.

This was the most Spartan accommodation of the whole trip. It was run by a young couple who lived nearby and came in during the day, with a couple of girls, to cook and clean. Some rooms, including mine, were furnished with chairs which converted into single beds, one table and a couple of straight chairs or stools. The 3 rooms on the 2nd floor, under the roof, were reached by an outside stair. I'm not sure, but I think the 6 people in those rooms shared either a full or a ½ bath upstairs and could come downstairs when necessary. The 11 staying in the 5 downstairs rooms shared one full bath with a huge tiled tub and the guest house washer and dryer, 2 toilet/lavatory rooms and 2 showers in large closets. The two men who usually had single rooms had to room together. Olga, who used some of her vacation time to go to Esso with us, and the bus driver had to stay elsewhere. The dining room/kitchen was in the cellar. A chest-high partition separated the 2 areas. There was barely enough space for the 2 tables, with benches for seats, where we ate. However, the food was as good as we had anywhere, definitely freshly cooked [Often we saw part of it being cooked.] and came to the table hot off the stove! The breakfasts here were especially good.