Siberia and Beyond: Russia's Eastern Eagle

The Inspiration and Evolution of Our Journey to Far East Russia Why you may ask, did we decide to travel to Far Eastern Russia? After all, most travellers visit Russia's western or European side, visiting the far east only after they transverse the nation via the Trans Siberian Railway, finding themselves at the end of the line in the city of Vladivostok. But we have never been known to take a straightforward journey. Anywhere... Our initial inspiration was quite simply Svetlana... In 2015, we travelled for our first time to Russia, visiting the grand iconic western cities of Moscow and St Petersburg. From the moment we landed in Russia, we were magnetised by what we thought would surely be a foreign, strange or even hostile nation; a country formerly known as the Soviet Block with whom the Western allied nations had "fought" the Cold War during a time frame which formed so much of our younger adult lives. We had learnt and read widely about Russia's rich, vivid and tragic history, its wonderful architecture, famed arts and literature. But sadly ingrained in us was the thought: "Surely Russian people could not be close friends? And they wouldn't be just like us; would they?". It was during our visit to Moscow that we met Svetlana Sidelyova, a wonderfully passionate guide and our inspiration to travel to Kamchatka in Far Eastern Russia. Svetlana, who was originally from Kamchatka, simply said to us - and what sounded like the bleeding obvious - "If you want to travel to a really interesting and exotic location, then you must visit Kamchatka". A strange, wild and remote volcanic peninsular hovering above the secluded Japanese islands of the Bering Straits, whose only access was by air or sea - and very few roads? Now that did sound like our sort of adventure.... And from then on, we knew that one of our next overseas trips would be to Far Eastern Russia. What we didn't know at that early stage was just how far into the remote parts of north and far eastern Russia our travels would take us. Our journey took on a life of its own, evolving to include the cities of Vladivostok, Magadan, Yakutsk and Khabarovsk. We were visiting some of the more distant places in the far north and east of the nation: "Russia's Eastern Eagle". It is a sad fact that Western nations (and indeed our home country of Australia), still regard Russia with such suspicion and distrust. To a certain extent both sides are still engaged in that cold war state of political hostility with obscure threats, sanctions and propaganda. Far too often, we are given just one angle of a story - what we guess is still the situation from both sides. And as we were to find out during the organisation of our trip, current Australian and overseas sanctions mean that from an organisational view, Russia is certainly not an easy destination for travellers. And that is to say nothing of the difficulties in obtaining a Russian visa! Our 2017 journey to the Russian Federation was an invaluable learning curve for us. We realised, much to our surprise, that the Russian people were of course quite like all of us; a proud people wanting peace, stability and a future for themselves and coming generations. We saw just a glimpse into the every day life of the Russian people; their culture, beliefs, political views, their hopes and aspirations. And we also saw a "Siberia and Beyond" that was quite unlike our expectations. It was not our simple preconception of just a vast, desolate and cruel land - but an entire eastern continent, home to a wealth of environments of monumental diversity; from lush, luxuriant cool forests, extensive marshy river braided swamps to sparsely vegetated tundra. Our Far Eastern Russia experience was breathtaking.

Planned Dates

2017-07-12 to 2017-08-16

Countries

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