SMH: Wild on the peninsula

By boat ... Zodiac cruising near Bukhta Russkaya. Photo: Louise Southerden

Among the oversized bears and birds of Kamchatka, Louise Southerden hears stories of war and adventure.

It's a blue-sky day as we file down the gangway of the ship and onto waiting Zodiacs. Bukhta Russkaya (Russia Bay) has everything that makes the Russian Far East inviting: snow-flecked volcanoes (there are more than 300 on the Kamchatka Peninsula, 29 of them still active), marine creatures (seals and sea otters swim around us as we motor slowly towards the black-sand beach) and a broad valley, carpeted in yellow flowers, promising a close encounter with a bear.

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