7. Made it an rewarded with sleeping on a boat!
"Kamchatka Peninsula" by Bike and Kayak
Thu 23 Aug 2012 05:30
I woke to the 'normal' fog, but the slight drizzle had continued through the night, so I'd be doing one of the things I least like when bicycle touring: Packing up camp in the rain! Last day (hopefully!) a new town awaits and that feeling of satisfaction of successfully completing an adventure all provide excitement and motivation that overcome the downsides... I feel that invincibility is back, and that 'I can do anything' feeling... It's good!
After a heart breakfast cooked in the vestibule, I'm soon back on the road dealing with a more slushy surface, made worse by thee overnight rain. It's even more hill, interesting, but some of the steeper uphills require me to dismount and push, only because the back wheel can't get traction in thee mud as I push the power on.
After about 4 kilometres I come to what is clearly, another unbridged, unassisted river crossing. There is a sizeable fishing camp / operation on the far river bank, and a solitary guy looking over the river to me with the usual disbelief. I ask where I cross, and he comes down to river level to show me the best route. No stripping down this time, I'm wet already and on a mission. Water get to mid thigh level, I'm soon across and my, river crossing 'guide' welcomes with a warm hand shake, and an offer of a cup of coffee. I can't refuse, and we head off to his camp kitchen. He is the boss and owner of the operation and he points to about 7 or 8 guys out on the river attended to the seine nets, who work for him. He speaks virtually zero English, but he is one of those guys where we can connect and communicate beyond our limited vocabulary overlap. I get a really good understanding of the salmon fishing business, the logistics, risks, profits, and way of life. He soon tells me we should go outside, as the guys will be pulling in the overnight catch.
In a very procedural, disciplined way two teams draw two nets completely across the river mouth, the progressively walk towards the shore gradually tightening the prison around the fish. There is a small whole in the net, and I watch with delight inside as to salmon wiggle and squeeze their bodies through thee hole, making a last tail kick to freedom, narrowly having escaped a premature end to their journey to spawning grounds. A third one is 2/3rds out of the hole, with freedom in sight when one of the netmen, having seen the hole moved in and pushed 'her' back into the death prison. How close she came...! I was amazed to see that about 5% of the salmon had serious gashes on the bodies, and was told that this is from poachers nets further downstream, right at the river mouth... Hmmm, it's a tough life being a salmon in Kamchatka!
It takes about an hour before all net sides meet at our river bank and the catch, of what he tells me is an average catch, of 3-4 tons lies still ready for the crane lift into his truck, and then the 15.5km (he precisely tells me!) trip to the fish packing factory at Ozernovsky. Next day they'll be on a ship destined for Japan! I'm glad I've seen the extent and diversity of the fishing operations on this coastline, but each time I'm left with this feeling that this level of seemingly rape and pillage of natural resources is unsustainable, and what role can I play to get it onto a sustainable track? Maybe it is, but the volume of fish leaving the rivers and the attitude of the fishermen doesn't leave me feeling that this is a strategically, well managed industry. I hope I'm wrong!
It was time for me to head on, but the owner offered me a lift in his van as he was heading to Ozernovsky! He insisted not seeing the point of the 'hardship' in the drizzle that lay ahead. I literally had to get quite forceful in insisting I wanted to cycle on to Ozernovsky. We are all different hey!
The terrain got even more hilly, the landscape more interesting, and after climbing a bit, I was on a plateau above the Sea of Oshkosh, looking down at the foggy coastline, with its black sand beaches, and for the first time there were bays and capes making for varied landscapes.. It all looked quite eerie. On the opposite side I made out what appeared to be a bear silhouette on the ridge horizon, but as I got closer it turned out to be an unlikely, solitary human, strolling the tundra in search of berries and mushrooms. I soon passed his 'vintage' motorcycle sidecar, parked off the main pathway... "Great, if he got here in that machine, the road from here on out must be pretty OK!" They were, and long downhills... With the scent of the goal now strong, I flew down these hills, with a growing level of excitement. Even before I expected it the sign for, 'Zaporachee', the town on the other side of the Ozernaya River from Ozernovsky came up, I'd made it, and what a great way to finish, and I'm still on track for my non-negotiable 10am, tomorrow, meeting with the Ranger from Kurilskoye Park. Most of the adventure risk in meeting this time goal is now behind me, and it's time for celebration. I cycle across the impressive Ozernaya river that flows from Kurilskoye lake decide to go back to the main road, and find the 'perfect' magazyn for my celebratory ingredients, and complete with a tractor tyre outside for a relaxing road side seat. I get a litre of bitterly cold Kamchatka draft beer, straight off tap, and believe it or not, just a packet of salt and vinegar chips. I apologise for muddying the shop floor, proudly explain what I've just done, and what the beer is for, but am met with a blank, "why would you do that? So what look". These are the times when it feels so good within, because I realise I don't care what she thinks or not, this was about doing it for me, and it feels good I achieved my goal, which was a total unknown 10 days ago, and now with the 'Mission accomplished', with all three, Challenging, Rewarding and Fun, 'journey boxes' also ticked!
I'm savoring my beer and the moment, when these two guys pull up in a 4X4 van, the driver, an adventurous looking mid 40 year old guy, looks with interest at me and my bike. He gets out to do his shopping, I give him the double thumbs up, he comes back with his purchase and rattles off questions in Russian. I recoognise the standard ones, and give him my standard, bastardised Russian answers. He seems impressed Then using sign language I ask him if he knows of a place where I can sleep overnight. He perks, up nods his head "Da, paragot" and points to Ozernovsky, and I hear "laguna" and "marina" mixed in. Well 'pragot', I know by now is a boat, and the rest all fits together for me, I light up, at the thought of sleeping on a boat tonight! I'm savoring my huge 1 litre beer but I can see he wants to take me there 'now'! Being a boy himself he sees my dilemma, and rattles off in Russian stuff that I think means he has to drop his friend off and will then return shortly to pick me up and take me back across the river to Ozernovsky and 'the boat'! Perfect!
Gee, I can't believe my luck already... Well, I hope I've read it all right...Hmm, assumptions, were they right!
With 250ml of Kamchatka draft left, my chips finished, 'my man' arrives back, and immediately want to load my very muddy bike into the back of his carpeted 4X4! He looks at my beer and says I must bring that with... Hah, he is a 'real boy'! I take the panniers off, he singularly fits my bike into the back, the panniers follow, and soon we are driving back across the river, me with beer in hand, to my overnight 'paragot' accommodation! What service, I couldn't have done better with a professional tour operator!
We go right into the commercial fishing boat harbour, where there is a line of maybe 15, almost identical 20m fishing trawlers moored bow to jetty, rafted together. He parks opposite boat '151', and says this is it! A rusted, but very sturdy, purpose built boat, I'm bloody ecstatic! We take my pannier bags onboard and he shows me around and eventually to my cabin. A cabin that sleeps 4 but he tells me I'm alone there tonight. He is warm by shy in his mannerisms, so I take the initiative and ask him his name? "Vadim". As usual I have to spend time helping him get his pronunciation around my name, but he gets it, and amazingly it stuck and he was one of the few who got it first time, and no more prompts required.
I really thanked him for all this and tried to tell him that I'm also a 'matroos' (sailor) and how special the boat is for me. He took me to the bridge made me a coffee, said I must make myself at home, as he had to head back to work and would see me later in the afternoon.
Gee, paradise, and as I thought back to what I'd just done, the amazing set of rich experiences since leaving Petropavlosk Kamchatka many days back, I thought this is really what 'Simply Adventure' life is about! And....
Tomorrow, with a bit of luck I'll be immersed in one of thee best grizzly bear viewing spots in the world.. Four days of passive, no risk, 'Simply Adventure' awaits and I'll relish that change!
I cycled back into the centre of Ozernovsky and found the only 'cafe' that serves a meal, and sat down as on of only two customers to sample their standard 'three courser', the one course being bread! The other guy, a late twenties guy, seemed to be struggling through his romantic lunch for one, and as he finished and tried to settle his bill, it became clear he was also a foreign, touriste... I couldn't help myself, introduced myself, and it turns out he is Norwegian, working 3 months in the fish packing factory, and this was his lunch break.. Well, the boy had clearly had enough of life in Ozernovsky, and didn't have one good thing to say about the place, Russians, or the job. He told me how difficult it is not speaking Russian, and how the parochialism has driven him nuts. In his misery I could relate too much of what he said, and while his experience was much more prison shaped, I felt quite good how I had dealt with my similar prison issues of the last, almost two, months. In his far advanced, negative state of mind, I quickly determined he was best left alone, and could play no more, short term role in my life....
It was back to 'my ship', and I just took a few hours off to watch the intense harbour activities, as the logistics I'd been told about were now happening infront of my eyes. There were the huge, modern fish packing factories. There were the familiar kamag trucks, complete with empty fish bins in their load bays, having offloaded their salmon, they were now getting ready to goo back along the same remote road I'd come, to collect more fish from their operation somewhere along the coast. Coming out the other side of the packing factory were hysters carrying wooden pallets stacked high with white boxed fish, and covered with green tarpaulins for protection from the sun and rain. The pallets were loaded onto long narrow barges, and once full, the barge tow was picked up by a pilot boat, sized tow boat, that took the barge out through the narrow harbour entrance, over the sandbar which had sets of gently breaking waves rolling in, and then out to the large cargo vessel, lying anchored about a mile offshore. These salmon were going back to sea, their journey to fresh water lake, spawning, tragically cut short, and the whole journey now in reverse. As I sat there and had now been witness to the whole cycle, as I had done in Alaska a few years back, I had this mixed feeling of human ingenuity, nature's wonder cycle, and the destiny for humans' increasing level of greed, disrespect, and destruction of sacred, natural resources. I had to ask myself if I was just another of those 'typical' humans or was I going about things differently, or trying to make a difference. Ashamedly, I concluded, at best I was a passive, observer, but more likely also a participant, but one in false denial! So what can I do, became my focus for the future....
I hung my tent and sleeping bag out from the rigging of the boat, lay down in the sun on the wooden aft deck, and continued enjoying the simple thoughts, and the moment.
Vladim returned, as did other crew members arrive, and socialising rose to new highs. Michail the captain arrived, and with a delightful 50 year old crew member Sergey, we occupied the bridge, chatting with our limited overlap vocabulary, their GPS navigator plotter, my maps, their cameras / videos, and pen and paper! Much was discussed, and the same mutual adventurer respect grew, as I learned about their lives, the fishing stories, and they delved into my history.
Eventually it was dinner time, and to my surprise, Vladim was the chef, serving up a special meal in the galley. We had smoked salmon and crab starter, a deep sea game fish main course, done in the oven in a special source. I think it was Halibut, the fish they catch, but didn't recognise the Russian name. I sense Michail came just for the occasion of me being there, and left soon after the meal. Vodka flowed, but in a very traditional, civilised way, and very special evening ended with perfect timing, and being 'allowed' to retire to my cabin at a very respectable hour!
I wasn't sure of the exact distance, or location for meeting the Kurilskoye park ranger the next day, but all the input from the local crew, left me feeling best I leave at 7am.
A VERY special day...