Indonesia: Visit to Village Puppeteer

Jun22

It was very pleasant, if hot, to wander in this small west Javan village… with several more nature photographs to share with you all.

Rain lily (Zephyranthes rosea).

unknown.

St Joseph’s spider

Gelatinous fungus.

White bracket fungus

Goatweed, (Ageratum conyzoides) is an introduced weed from South America.

In this same village we made a visit to the home of a puppeteer.

The man of the house carved and painted the puppet’s heads.

Careful work.

Part-finished puppet head.

Other members of his family made the puppet’s costumes.

The workroom was a bit of a jumble.

Hundreds of puppets were ‘in storage’ awaiting their next public performance.

And here are some close ups of some of the puppet faces he has made. Some were gruesome, others were frightening and others were happy individuals.

Can you imagine the nightmares some young children may have after attending a show?

Some of them not so pretty!

a supercilious fellow

I wonder what the joke was?

The man who carved the heads was also the main performer.

Up to 13 other family members make up an orchestra of drums, gongs…

… and wooden xylophones.

It had been a fascinating visit to this place of unusual craft and local cultural entertainment. And we had a rather special farewell from a shy little boy… ta ta!

David

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Russia : Kamchatka : #20 Kozyrevsk to Petropavlovsk

Oct11

We had a long nine hour drive ahead of us today from Kozyrevsk back to Petropavlovsk. But as there were no tents to pack up, some of us decided to get up early and go for a walk around the town before breakfast. It seemed a good idea to stretch the legs before such a long drive. And we hadn’t really had a chance to explore one of these small frontier villages before.

The area around Kozyrevsk is in decline, as, indeed, are many of the places we’ve stayed in or passed through on the Kamchatkan Peninsula. There was once a collective farm here growing vegetables on the rich volcanic soil, but that has gone. There was also a small airport on the outskirts but it was closed in 1995 because of low flight volumes and growing maintenance costs. All that remains for the economy seems to be a helicopter base and the surrounding volcanoes that bring groups such as ours to the area.

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It was another clear day and we had a good view of the volcano that we had seen spurting out molten lava the evening before. Now, in the daylight, all we could see was the steam belching forth from the top.

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It was obvious from the state of many of the houses, that people are leaving this small town to try their luck elsewhere. There is certainly not much to keep them here. I know, I wouldn’t like to live here . This house was having some work carried out on it – and not before time. Perhaps these owners do have a job.

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This is the traditional log method of construction – there’s a plentiful supply of logs in the forests. Some of the caulking used between the logs to keep the place weather proof is coming loose on this building.

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Maybe this house is beyond repair, but it gives an idea of layering construction.

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Doors are often made a feature of a building.

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A general view down the street.

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Not all houses were derelict. Some were obviously the pride and joy of their owners.

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On the better maintained houses, intricate carved wooden decorations have been used.

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This one added a trophy of antlers.

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With a long, very cold winter ahead, many houses had stockpiles of firewood.

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As usual, I found a plant to photograph; this one a delicate clematis sp.

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The glorious colours of this clematis stood out against a brilliant blue sky.

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And I couldn’t help myself… there was yet another mushroom photo for my collection!

But this was to be the last one…

Our adventure in Kamchatka was coming to an end.

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Back at the resort, I noticed their well stocked vegie garden.

The good volcanic soil here helps people to be at least somewhat self sufficient.

After breakfast, we hit the road… with a final salute from the volcano!

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Within an hour of being on the road, we stopped. The driver’s side of the split windscreen had been shattered by a stone. To our amazement, Toly climbed onto the roof and took out a spare one!

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Windscreen in hand, the job was all but done. The whole operation took just forty-five minutes and we were under way again.

It stands to reason that a spare should be carried since there is no possibility of getting one repaired on the road. I can’t begin to imagine what it would be like to drive in the wintertime when temperatures drop to below -30°C – definitely brass monkey weather!

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Although not a lot of vehicles travel these roads, each one poses a stone-throwing threat.

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With clearer weather, this time we did see some of the volcanoes that lined our route.

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There doesn’t seem to be anywhere too far from a volcano on this peninsula.

Here, we were just coming back towards civilisation and Petropavlovsk.

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An orthodox church amongst a group of small houses.

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Finally, at 18h30, we arrived back at the Geyser Hotel and that view of PK Harbour.

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The fishing fleet was in. I looked forward to enjoying some of their catch for our dinner.

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After a much needed shower, we walked up the street on our way to dinner.

The sky over the bay was particularly attractive.

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And there, in view as always, were volcanoes!

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This most certainly is the land of fire and ice.

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Our walk took us to rather nice restaurant which did indeed serve lots of seafood dishes. We enjoyed our meal, which apart from breakfast the next morning, was our last meal together as a group.

Dessert was a rather fitting, local concoction – ice-cream with ‘bear berries’, a blend of lingonberries and crowberries. This dish encapsulated the tour for me; the red of molton lava, the ice capped volcanoes and, of course, bears and berries. And I’m sure there was a mushroom or two in our main meal as well.

David

Some of our other travel stories and photos can be found on:

www.jtdytravels.com

and

www.jtlifesgood.wordpress.com

Russia : Kamchatka : # 19 Tolbachik to Kozyrevsk

Oct9

The was the last day of our Tolbachik Volcano Region excursion. We were up early for breakfast at 08h00 as it had been decided to break camp a day early. The weather had been so inclement and, with almost everyone still suffering from the effects of the head cold, we would drive back down off the high country onto the plain below to the small village of Kozyrevsk. There we could at least sleep the night in a bed rather than a tent. And, hopefully, there would be some warm water for a good wash which, by now, was desperately needed.

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Much to our pleasure and surprise, the day had dawned very crisp and frosty with an absolutely clear sky. And what a sight met our eyes! There, beyond the hill that sheltered our camp, was the dormant Ostry Tolbachik Volcano in all her magnificent glory. For the previous two days, she had been obscured by fog, mist and cloud. She did exist after all.

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After breakfast, we decided to climb the hill behind the campsite.

That would give time for our tents to thaw and dry out before packing.

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As I walked I noticed a footprint in the frosty cinders. This reminded me that the way to help this place stay so special is for visitors to take only photos and leave only footprints. We also need to be careful not to walk on vulnerable colonising plants.

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Although it was a very enjoyable walk in the sunshine, we couldn’t stay there all day, so headed back to the camp to pack up ready to move off for the last time.

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We left camp at 10h40 and headed back to the two cinder cones where we had stopped a couple of days earlier on our way up to the Tolbachik camp site. For those who had decided not to climb one of them before, now was their opportunity. I think that the cauldron experience of the previous day was enough to spur them on, although the rewards here would be nothing compared with that. However, the views would be better than on the first day now that the weather was quite clear. I’d been up the cinder cone before, so I decided not to climb up there for a second time. Instead, I walked back along the track we had come on to photograph the Tolbachik volcanoes from a different point of view. And that was well worth the walk!

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I zoomed in for a closer look. She was picture postcard perfect!

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How fickle is the weather! What a difference a day makes. This was just Magic.

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It was hard to leave Tolbachik now that the weather was so superb. But the decision had been made and we had broken camp. The drive back down along that very rough bush track on our way to the main north/south road would be my last chance to find any new specimens for my collections of flowers and fungi. And I was not disappointed from a mushroom and toadstool point of view. There were hundreds and hundreds of them, more than I’ve ever seen before. Thankfully, the crew stopped to collect some varieties of mushrooms for our meals. That gave me the chance to find and photograph some different specimens. Again, I don’t know their names (yet) but I’ll add the photos here for you to enjoy them, too.

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Looking up, it was obvious that this tree had its fair share of caterpillars!

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We moved on and stopped once more at the braided river for a rest and a cuppa.

Vika again helped in the preparation and clean-up.

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This time, we could actually see the surrounding ice capped volcanoes

This was our lucky last chance to see them!

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The volcano on the left was belching smoke, just one of those 29 active volcanoes on the peninsula. It’s views like this that makes Kamchatka a very special place for an adventure holiday. It’s a long way from anywhere, but well worth the journey.

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Perfection plus!

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The cloud descended further, becoming saucer shaped and obscuring the top of the volcano. We had stopped here at just the right time to enjoy the full, glorious scene. Too soon, it was time to tear ourselves away from the beauty of this area and move on.

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When we hit the North/South road we turned north for a few kilometres until we came to the settlement of Kozyrevsk where we would spend the night. A stop at the mini market for a bottle or two of beer was, of course, a necessity.

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The small ‘resort’ we stayed in here consisted of 5 A-framed buildings each of which slept two people. There was some other accommodation but that had all been booked. I suppose we would have had to pitch our tents if this place had been full.

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No single rooms here either, so once again I shared, this time with Rosemary.

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The resort belonged to this house which had a banya – the Russian version of a sauna. This was fired up for us and it was absolutely delightful after the lack of warm water over the last 4-5 days. In fact it was a bit too hot. I began to realise that all this changing from hot to cold, whether it be from walking up volcanoes and getting sweaty, to standing by a fire, to warm sleeping bags, to the banya; none of this was helping us to shed the dreaded lurgy which all but one of the group, including the crew, had eventually caught.

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Now that we were cleaner and warmer, dinner was a time of good cheer after the enjoyment of our first sunny day for quite awhile. And there was another plus. By coming down to this town, the drive back to PK had been cut by four hours. Even so, the next day’s drive of some 500 kms from Kozyrevsk to PK would still take about nine hours. Not the most pleasant of thoughts. But then, it was worth it to have had the experience of being in this wild, wilderness area.

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Then, as the light faded from the sky and we began to think about bed and a good night’s sleep, we were treated to the sight of a spectacular ribbon of molten lava streaming down a distant volcano. Apparently the volcano had only begun erupting four days earlier. This spectacle was a bit far away for a good photograph but it was nonetheless impressive. It was a fitting end to a good day of sightseeing in the land of ice and fire.

David

More of our travels diaries and photos can be found on

www.jtdytravels.com

and

www.jtlifesgood.wordpress.com

Russia : Kamchatka : #17 Cinder Cones; Tolbachik Volcanic Region

Oct6

It was Saturday 31 Aug 2013 and we were camped at 1680 metres on the outfall of a couple of cinder cones which were the result of eruptions that lasted from July 1975 until December 1976. The temperature hadn’t fallen below freezing during the night but the stiff breeze added a considerable chill factor. Rain threatened and we would need warm, wet weather gear for our exploration of the cinder cones. There we would see for ourselves the types of basalt that had been thrown out during the eruptions and also the damage that had been caused to forested areas here in the Tolbachik Volcanic Region.

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A carpet of moss and lichen covered the cinders beside the track to the cones.

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It wasn’t just small cinders and scoria that had been blown out of the volcanoes.

Some very large rocks had made it to the valley floor.

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With wet weather gear on, we set off up a fairly steep track for the top. Some of the group only got half way before deciding they’d had enough. But a few us kept going; after all this is what we had come a long way to experience.

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We trudged on up to a saddle where two cinder cones met, only to see a fog roll in which obliterated any view we may have had from the top. We stood around for about 10 minutes to see if the fog would clear as fast as it had arrived. No such luck. So we decided it was futile to continue. We hadn’t gone 50 metres back down the track when the fog cleared – so back up we went. By now, I’d discarded three layers of clothing into my back pack and was happy in just a shirt and Gortex raincoat.

Looking down, we realised just how far we had climbed – quite a long way, really. No wonder we had warmed up. The view down to our vehicle and across the yellowy-grey lichen and moss covered plain below was pretty impressive. Wheel tracks leading off into the distance added to the effect.

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This mis-shapen rock was formed when the lava was still hot and pliable.

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As we approached the summit, we found that moss had taken hold in sheltered places.

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What was even more impressive though was the volcanic activity on the top.

Fumaroles emitted hot air and some of the rocks were warm to walk on.

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You didn’t stand still for too long in any one place in case your boots started to smoke and melt! Sasha had his boots burned on a previous expedition up here not so long ago. He demonstrated just how hot the gases escaping from the fumaroles are by placing a small piece of wood into a crevice. In no time at all, the wood was alight. This was a place demanding of respect!

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This rock would have been very hot when expelled from the volcano.

It probably cracked on cooling down.

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There were patches of bright yellow sulphur mixed up

with the reds, oranges, and greys of the majority of the other rocks.

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The green of copper stood out against the red and greys.

The whole place was really fascinating and well worth the effort of the climb.

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On the way down, we stopped to admire the view once more and took a minute or two to reflect on the story of these cinder cones. An eruption that started July 6th,1975 and continued until December 10, 1976, provided all the cinder ash and scoria that we could see around us. There had been an earthquake in the area in June 1975 and that was a precursor for an explosion that proved to be the largest basalt eruption in recorded time across the Kamchatkan – Kuril belt of volcanoes. The eruption resulted in four new cinder cones. The eruption cloud sometimes reached 13km high and ended with a covering of ash across 40 square kms and up to 80 metres thick in places.

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Back down at the bottom and reunited with the rest of the group, we had some lunch under a wooden shelter which provided us with at least a bit of shelter from the weather. It was also home to a lovely little orange-brown coloured short-tailed mouse.

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The dear little thing scampered around the place looking for food but wouldn’t stay still long enough for a good photo to be taken. Not a very co-operative little mouse was he!

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A tiny dianthus plant made a brave show of survival on the ash.

The last of its summer flowers were not in good shape.

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After lunch, we drove on to explore a forest of dead trees. This forest of larch had died over a period of two or three years after the explosions because their roots were covered by thick ash and starved of oxygen.

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The green pine trees and the autumn-tinted Willow herb had established in the new ash.

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Willow herb is a great coloniser in a variety of harsh and disturbed conditions. In summers to come, there’ll be a great show of their bright pink flowers in this desolate place.

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I climbed a small hill to see if I could gauge the extent of this dead forest.

As far as the eye could see, trees had been reduced to sticks;

stark reminders of the force of nature.

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It was still raining so I took the opportunity to photograph a reflection in a raindrop.

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A few very strange little fungi grew amongst the scoria. This one belongs to the coral fungus group.

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They were damp and hard to focus on, but the coral-like structure needed a closer look.

A delightful piece of natural sculpture.

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Nearby was another unusual green fungus growing amongst some pioneer moss.

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This fungi could have come straight from the corals of the sea… delicate and beautiful.

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And this, believe it or not, is Moose poo!

We did not see the animal but it had obviously been around fairly recently.

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I know I said that I hadn’t taken any photos of a bird except for a lbb…

but I had forgotten this one; a black crow in a black tree.

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The short drive through the forest back to the camp was through the rain. It continued for the rest of the afternoon; not that I saw it because I climbed into my sleeping bag for an hour’s nap. I fired up my laptop around 17h30 with the intention of doing some diary writing but no sooner had I poured a whisky and entered the password than “dinner” was called. That posed a problem for me. I suppose I was hungry but I could only think of the whisky, and the battery power that I had just used to fire up the computer; I knew there would be no power for days to come so would have to carefully budget my computer usage. But on the other hand, there would be plenty of time to write after dinner; time to fill in before I could again check out the inside of my sleeping bag. We’d all gone to bed by 20h30 the previous evening. There had been nothing to do as there was no fire and nowhere to shelter except the mess tent. And that hour was far too early for me to get to sleep. So dinner it was.

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As it turned out a fire was lit under a temporary covering so we could stand around it and perhaps think we were warmer than we really were. There were flames and smoke but the wet birch and larch wood gave little warmth. The rain continued to tumble down. There was some talk of leaving this camp site a day early if the weather stayed bad. We could head back down to the main north-south road. This would have effect of getting out of the cold and fog and hopefully also the rain. It would also cut the very long 13 hour drive from here back to PK into two more manageable parts. The weather in the morning would determine that decision. In the meantime, there was nothing for it but to get back into that sleeping bag and try to sleep.

David

More stories and photos of our travels can be found on

www.jtdytravels.com

and

www.jtlifesgood.wordpress.com

Russia : Kamchatka : #16 Esso to Tolbachik Volcanic Region

Oct5

Our destination today was a volcano in the Tolbachik Volcano Region which last erupted in 2012 – only last year! To see where that is on the Kamchatkan Peninsula, let’s have another look at that map provided by our tour company, Silk Road Adventures. (www.silkroad.co.nz)

Map Courtesy of Silk Road Adventures

Leaving Esso, we headed back out to the main North/South Kamchatkan road. We then drove north on that road before turning off to the east onto another of those all too familiar rough bush tracks. This one was really only wide enough for a conventional 4WD, not our monster of a 6WD truck. With the combination of bushes and trees banging against the side of the vehicle and the continual lurching due to the very rough track, it was hard to stay seated in any comfort at all. Holding on tight, we knew that we were in for another adventure.

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When we came, thankfully, to a stop, it was in the middle of a braided river. Why here? Usually, there is a superb view of volcanoes from here. But today, clouds, unfortunately, blocked out any long distance view from this site.

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We were back into icy cold, melt water territory.

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This rather unlikely place was where we had our lunch!

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Our next stop was to collect some firewood for the evening fire. From here, we were told, we would turn onto the beginning of the bad road. So the other road was a good road, was it? We had arrived at the area of the 2012 Tolbachik Volcano eruption. The red blotch on the map represents the lava flow. The finger of lava to the left had completely cut off the road to our destination. Our track had been bulldozed through the bush below the lava. We were heading to make our camp site at the blue square marker to the left of the large deep pink blob.

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The new ‘track’ through the forest was nothing better than a goat track through the bush, something you could expect of a logging track back home.

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And there, right beside the track, was the end of the lava flow.

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Another photo of the end of the lava flow as seen through these multi-stemmed birch.

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I walked to the end of the lava flow to find it was actually a collection of small to large rocks – definitely not solid. I was scrambling onto the very loose pile for a better position to take a photo, when I noticed, above me, a very large rock which, had it started to roll, would have taken me to oblivion! I beat a hasty, but very careful, retreat.

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This was a perfect area to search for mushrooms and fungi to add to my collection of photos. And I was right. There were lots of new varieties we hadn’t seen before. Some of these were collected by our crew for inclusion in our meals. I sincerely hoped they knew what they were doing because they all looked poisonous to me. I don’t know their names; maybe some day I’ll find someone who can help me to identify them. Until then, let’s just enjoy the variety created by nature.

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A delightful little parasol.

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This one with a lovely frilly skirt seemed to dance like a ballerina!

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There were several fungi growing on the tree trunks, too.

Another case of looking up as well as looking down when plant hunting.

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Bracket fungus like these usually indicate the demise of the host.

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This one was definitely a little showpiece!

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All these mushrooms and fungi thrived on the decaying litter in the forest.

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I was certainly gathering more specimen photos for my Fungi of Kamchatka collection.

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This specimen was quite gelatinous.

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A delightful mushroom study in nature’s forest garden.

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Blow flies seemed to like the moist top of these mushrooms!

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More lurching from left and right and back to front saw us arrive at this flat ash area.

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Another good spot for a leg-stretch and a bit of an explore.

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All that yellow colour was, in fact, a carpet of moss. It seems to really like this area which is completely covered in a very deep layer of dark grey volcanic ash

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Right in the middle of the track, I found yet another mushroom! You know that song about ‘a lonely little petunia in the onion patch’, well this mushroom was much lonelier than that. Although there was a little bit of moss for company.

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Late in the day, we stopped at a site which just emerged out of the fog from seemingly nowhere. I’m glad Toly knew where he was going. Now, this was not just another comfort and stretch your legs stop. This was where we were to set up our tents for the night! Here, on this ash? OK. The ash and scoria looked dirty but in fact it brushed off your hands just like sand.

The trouble was that when we erected our tents, the flimsy pegs had to be anchored down with rocks – the pegs wouldn’t hold on their own in the loose scoria particularly if the wind came up. Note the beer filled water bottle in front of my tent! It would stay nice and cold out there by the tent flap. It was obviously going to be pretty cold here over-night.

Add to the fog – it started raining in earnest. Since we were camped at over 1300m, the temperature was expected to drop to well below zero. Our pre-tour notes said the temperatures we could expect on the whole tour would range between +10 to 30°C, so I brought an appropriate sleeping bag for those conditions. I managed at the Ichinsky camp, as I’ve already explained, but I was somewhat afraid I did not have a sufficiently warm sleeping bag for the conditions in the mountains. I had said that I wanted to buy a blanket when we were in Esso. That would solve the problem I knew was coming when we headed higher into the mountains. However, I was told that extra sleeping bags would be sent to us. At 18h00, with the rain and fog outside, the promised sleeping bags still hadn’t arrived from Petropavlovsk, a journey of some thirteen hours. I had decided to put on most of the clothes I brought with me in order to be warm. Mind you, I would look like the Michelin man and not able to move. But hopefully I’d be warm enough.

As bed time came closer and still no sleeping bags in sight, the crew decided to give us their sleeping bags and they would all sleep in the truck. It had kerosene heating. The driver slept in there all the time on one of the four bunk beds. Now all the bunks were going to be used and we were all going to be warm – it was not only me who admitted they were not feeling very warm.

The whole camp slept warmly. I certainly did. BUT, all trussed up in extra clothing, sheet-sleeping bag and zipped up sleeping bag it took around 15 minutes to go to the loo in the middle of the night! I wish somebody would invent a zipper for a sleeping bag that worked with ease – every time. It always seems to be a struggle to get the damn thing to move either way and not get caught up in the lining. Achieving an opening or closing with cold fingers just makes the task even harder. Then it’s a real wriggle to get out of the sleeping bag sheet and sleeping bag, find something to put on your feet, crawl to the zipper on the tent fly, unzip that, and all this is just to get out of the tent! A fumble around in the dark, the job done, and the whole cumbersome task has to be completed in reverse before trying to go back to sleep. Fun? Not! And added to that, it rained most of the night with only slight pauses here and there. We were well and truly back in outdoor wilderness camp mode. But that’s all part of an adventure such as this. I went to sleep hoping that the rain would ease for our walk to the volcano later that morning.

David

Russia : Kamchatka : #15 Forays into the Forest

Oct4

29th August and our last day in the Esso area. ‘Twas a very foggy morning that didn’t promise good things. But the plan for the day looked interesting. A morning drive out of town to forage in the forest; then, after lunch, a drive to an ethnic village to experience a cultural dance and music show put on by some of the local young people.

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I mentioned the rough roads!

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We made our way slowly to a hill on the other side of yesterday’s small lake.

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The fog/mist was lifting as we reached this summit. The forest stretched to the horizon and further. The dead trees were a result of a wild fire that went through the area about a decade ago. They were probably dead Pinus pumila.

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Further around and we could actually see the river snaking its way through the forest. By now, though, the weather had definitely changed for the worse. It was 100% overcast and it felt as though the wind was blowing straight from Siberia, having originated somewhere above the Arctic Circle. This was not very good at all for our rumbly chests.

And, by the way, those ‘alcoholic medicines’ hadn’t worked. I was still feeling anything but 100%. Maybe I needed more? Alcohol, that is!

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There were signs of bears, the most tangible evidence were footprints in the mud. Again, we knew they were around but we didn’t see them. Thankfully, and hopefully, they were already full of salmon for their winter hibernation and were generally only interested in the berries that were ripening everywhere. We liked the berries too, so we were doing the bears out of some of their vitamin C. We just hoped that our foraging for berries didn’t make them angry! But in reality, there were plenty of berries to share.

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Even though most plants here had finished flowering for the short summer season, I did find some more plants and fungi to add to my growing collection of photos of the Flora of Kamchatka. This little beauty is Ledum palustre also known as Marsh Labrador Tea.

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In this part of the forest there were several types of fungi growing on the tree trunks.

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Again, there seemed to be mushrooms and toadstools everywhere; a sure sign of autumn. Most of the ground mushrooms had almost finished their task and were beginning to wrinkle and wither. Spring, summer and autumn are all short seasons here. All plants have to make the most of the brief time to grow and reproduce. Winter is long and hard.

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Leathery and wrinkled. All part of the ageing process, isn’t it?

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All around us was evidence of past volcanic activity.

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A climbing Aconitum species; possibly Aconitum fischeri var.arcuatum or Aconitum alboviolaceum. I’d never seen a climbing, twining Aconitum species before. Intriguing.

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The plant contains poisonous aconite, but according to ancient Chinese medical lore, it can be used in the treatment of colds, coughs, and fevers. Perhaps that’s what we all needed a dose of. However, if the dosage is not carefully measured, prepared, and used – if the measure used is even in the slightest degree inaccurate – aconite is pure poison. Best left alone! Just put up with the cold and chestiness.

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Poisonous this plant maybe, but the flower is a delight.

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And what about these beauties growing in the undergrowth. A species of Amanita.

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And this is one of the most recognisable toadstools, the quintessential fairy home, an Amanita sp. I looked, but I didn’t see any fairies sheltering under this umbrella. Maybe they were just shy!

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Interesting bark of Betula platyphylla ; Flat-leaved Birch

It had been a good morning in the forest despite the rough tracks. We called back to the hotel for a quick lunch. While there, I checked on the flashing EXIT sign in our room. And, yes. It was still flashing!

During dinner the previous evening, the babushka who runs the hotel came into the eating area with a young man at heel who proceeded to check the fire detection units attached to the ceiling. We’d noticed earlier that the ‘EXIT’ sign in our room was flashing continuously, but of course, took no notice. There were no flashing lights or sirens and definitely no smoke or flames! Thirty something hours later the ‘EXIT’ sign was still flashing and still there was no sign of smoke or fire. We would no doubt sleep peacefully again for another night under the flashing light. I have no idea what the matter was, nor do I expect to find out. Where were we?

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After lunch we drove for about 25 kms to another part of the forest to visit an ethnic village. Near the entrance track to the village we saw this colourful sight. Whatever the faith of these local people, they believed in using prayer flags made of strips of material to send their thanks and entreaties to their god/gods.

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Here, we were greeted by a lady of the village who turned out to be the ‘mother-figure’ of the group of young people we had come to see perform.

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After her welcome, we followed a track to the village passing totem poles which stood proudly at the entrance of the village site. Tents could just be seen through the trees.

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In the village area, we saw some interesting carvings placed here and there on the grass.

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I quite liked this otter sculpture.

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The dances were to be performed on a slightly raised platform. The dance group consisted of 9 dancers who ranged in age from 12 to 30. Dressed in traditional ethnic costumes, they performed some lovely dances. They were introduced by the lady we had met earlier and she did a great job of involving us in her stories.

They were an enthusiastic group and seemed to have a lot of fun while dancing. And while they danced, I took photos of some of the young people showing more closeups of their costumes and bead decorations.

It had been a very interesting visit in this lovely setting in the forest. After that pleasant interlude, it was back to the hotel for a hot tub, dinner and bed. But before got to sleep, the four of us in my room were disturbed by the arrival of two of our other lady travellers! Their room, they said, was unbearably hot, just like ours was on arrival night. OK. Their mattresses were soon wedged into our room, on the floor. So now I had five women in my boudoir! Oh the joys of adventure travel!

I thought I might have been able to send an email to Jennie from here to let her know that we were all OK. Not so. This is the longest time I’ve ever been in any country that I’ve visited, even off the beaten track ones, where there has been absolutely no internet access possible. This area of Russia is really so remote. It is just over 7000km to Moscow – and that’s as the crow flies. There is no linking road from Kamchatka to Moscow and all travel in that direction is by boat and/or plane.

Do they have TV? Well, yes, but not here in this guesthouse. We did have a TV in our hotel room in PK but all programmes were of Russian origin so it was a futile attempt to turn it on because all the titles are in Cyrillic script, which of course I don’t understand.

No. The world, with all its modern technology, could have completely disappeared for all I knew, or in fact cared. For me all that existed at the moment was our little bit of paradise in the wilderness of Kamchatka.

David

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Russia : Kamchatka : #11 Bystrinsky Nature Park (b)

Sep28

Our exploration of the Bystrinsky Nature Park continued with the backdrop of some of the mountains and volcanoes that we hoped to explore in the next few days. But for now, it was all about finding plants and small ‘critters’ in the forest and in the wild meadows.

I wandered away from the road and began to explore these wild ‘meadows’.

We were each engrossed in our own wanderings and findings…

… all thoroughly enjoying the day.

New growth buds of Rhododendron aureum ; Goldish Rhododendron

Their golden yellow flowers had all finished weeks before.

Seed capsules of Rhododendron aureum ; Goldish Rhododendron

Skeletal patterns of a decaying leaf.

Seed of one of the Willow Herb family.

A beautiful, golden scalloped mushroom.

A closer look at that delicate cap.

What’s the collective term for these Inkcap Mushrooms…. a huddle of mushrooms?

The Coprinoid family of mushrooms, or “Inky caps”, are fascinating mushrooms. They are saprobes, that is, they assist in the decomposition of wood, dung, grassy debris, forest litter, and so on. Most of the species have black spore prints and gills that liquefy, at least partially, as the mushroom matures. The resulting “ink” provides the common name for the inky caps, and can actually be used as writing ink.

But the mushrooms, of course, do not have the production of ink for writing in mind! Rather, liquefying the gills is a clever strategy for dispersing spores more efficiently. The gills liquefy from the bottom up as the spores mature. Thus the cap peels up and away, and the maturing spores are always kept in the best position for catching wind currents. As this happens, the shape of the cap progresses from more or less oval (when seen from the side) to broadly bell-shaped and, eventually, more or less flat as the spores nearest to the stem are exposed to the air currents.”

{Notes from http://www.mushroomExpert.com}

There was lots more to explore but the time had come to rejoin the truck.

We were to meet by a bridge over a stream. There, on the stoney bank, I found

this purple daisy, Lagedium sibiricum ; Siberian Lettuce with attendant aphids.

Our driver, Toly, had filled in his waiting time by fishing from the bank of the cold mountain stream below the bridge. But his fishing produced only one loach. One loach between 16 wouldn’t go far, so it was suggested it might go into a soup. We climbed on board the truck and headed back towards the camp and lunch.

Along the way, one of the group spotted a bear bounding off into the distance which enlivened us all. But that was to be the end of bear sightings on that outing. Better luck later we hoped.

The stream bubbled its way through the forest.

Toly stopped again as we crossed the river just a few hundred metres from our camp site. If we needed more fish, he said, he would fix the problem. And he did just that, well and truly. He dragged in fish after fish with a little help from our guide. In around 20 minutes there were 10 fish lying on the bank. I’ve never seen so many fish being caught from a river in such numbers in such a short time. The fish were gutted and cleaned on the spot to be presented to our cooks on our arrival back in camp.

While they fished, I found these elegant mushrooms by the side of the stream.

A peep under that ‘skirt’.

Empetrum nigrum ; Crowberry, a valuable medicinal and food plant.

Lunch was served shortly afterwards. Today it consisted of soup, bread and fresh salad. Some fresh jam had been made from berries collected around the campsite while we were away. This jam added some life to the bread. The driver produced some local beer which he had bought at the last stop. Beer like this is dispensed into soft drink bottles for transport. It was good. More sweet biscuits, chocolates and wafers finished off the meal along with tea or coffee.

After a rest, we headed off again for a walk, this time from the camp site itself. We found some more interesting plants, some in flower. And, we did see some bear pooh! So they were obviously around! But we didn’t see any actual bears. That was probably a good thing since our tents were rather flimsy things. I’m sure that if a bear had wanted to enter, it would not prove to be a problem.

Ptarmica camtschatica; Kamchatka Sneezewort

Parnassia palustris, commonly called Marsh Grass-of-Parnassus, Northern Grass-of-Parnassus, and Bog-star.

Seed head of Dryas punctata; White Mountain-Avens, a member of the rose family

A caterpillar well camouflaged with its host plant.

A brightly coloured caterpillar blending in with the greens and shade.

Our crew knew which mushrooms were edible and we often found them in our meals, especially in soup. After wandering about for about an hour and a half, we headed back to camp to relax a little before just such a meal.

I broke out the two bottles of beer I’d bought the day before and shared them with Heather. Very pleasant it was too, sitting at the entrance to my tent as the sun slowly sank in the west and as the cloud that hung around the top of the nearby volcano slowly dissipated.

Dinner consisted of a clear fish soup with large chunks of potato. This was followed by our recently caught fish. Flour dusted, shallow fried, no more than a couple of hours from swimming in that stream; you can’t get fish much fresher than that. We’d been told by the crew that the loach was regarded by the locals as only good for soup. But I guess when there are six different kinds of salmon available, all equally fresh, a secondary fish like loach is thought to be somewhat inferior; only good for soup. Not so, we thought. It tasted fantastic to us. With more chocolates and sliced fresh apples and orange along with tea and coffee to follow, we again left the table more than adequately fed.

Not-withstanding this great day and good feed, I was a little out of sorts that night as I prepared for bed. Why so? At one of our stops earlier during the day a mozzie had bitten me on my upper lip. The blighter packed quite a punch I can tell you. My lip became quite swollen and felt as though I’d just been to the dentist. Not pleasant. It took some hours to subside, but I’m pleased to say there were no lasting side effects, although – I did develop a funny twitch, and a droopy eyelid, and my mouth twisted to one side, and I kept falling over….

David

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Russia : Kamchatka : #10 Bystrinsky Nature Park (a)

Sep26

After the long, 400km drive from Petropavlovsk, it was a relief to know that we would be walking for much of the day, exploring Bystrinsky Nature Park. This was a more forested area, so we hoped to find some different types of plants.

I had thought that it might be a cold night at Ichinsky Camp when I saw how much snow was on the mountain behind the campsite, and I was right. It was cold. When I got up at 06h30, I noticed that the small bottle of water for hand washing at the entrance to the mess tent had a frozen surface.

I’m not one to usually feel the cold, but when I’d gone to bed at around 22h30, I’d put on a tee shirt under my polo shirt. This was topped with my woollen jumper and then my fleecy top. I wriggled into my sheet sleeping bag, then into my sleeping bag proper and then covered the lot up with my towel and wind/waterproof jacket. I was as snug as a bug in a rug even though I could barely move, all trussed up like the Michelin man. I made only one foray into the cold at 01h30 – the cold was obviously having its effect! I slept well though.

And another thing that concerned me. The first sign of that head cold, the one that I’d been trying to avoid, had reared its ugly head and I had a sore throat. Would it develop, I wondered? Probably.

A bit after eight, which was nearly an hour earlier than the programmed time, our crew appeared. They would have heard us up and about, and ready to go! They had probably wanted to sleep-in and I can perhaps understand why when it’s that cold in the middle of their summer. I don’t even want to think about their winters! Some hot porridge warmed us and there were the usual two types of bread, cheese, jam, cold meat, tea and coffee.

We set off about nine and drove for awhile. Was this what we’d come all that way to see?

The truck pulled up in a scrubby, treed area. Now it was time to walk, each at our own pace, although we did have a time and a place to meet again further down the road. The same willow and poplars predominated. What had seemed rather boring from the truck as we drove by, proved to be anything but boring. Although I didn’t find many flowering plants that I hadn’t previously photographed,exploring this area at walking pace produced some interesting finds including a half a dozen different caterpillars with as many different toadstools and mushrooms. I don’t know their names but I can share them with you and hope you feel as though you are out there exploring with me.

My first mushroom find.

What a fascinating mushroom cap!

A delightful natural garden of fungi and moss.

These looked edible but one is never sure…. so best leave them alone.

This intriguing flower, Aconitum sp., is one species of a large group of Aconitum plants which are aptly named Monkshood or, sometimes, Devilshood. Also known as ‘Queen of Poisons’, the botanic name Aconitum comes from the Greek, meaning ‘without struggle’. Toxins, extracted from the plant, were used as a poison to kill wolves and leopards in times passed and for that reason it was also given the common names of Wolf’s bane and Leopard’s bane.

This was bear country so we had to keep eyes and ears open …

just in case we disturbed a bear enjoying the berries; be we so lucky!

Demar, our crew’s gofer, followed along at the rear of the group with a flare in case we were bothered by a bear. He also had a shrill sounding whistle and some fire-cracker bungers. But, unfortunately or otherwise, they were not needed.

There were a variety of berries in the scrub to entice bears to forage, however, if humans eat these berries, Lonicera chamissoi (Chamisso’s Honeysuckle) they will be violently ill. There were signs that they gave bears an upset tummy, too!

Juniperus sibirica, is widely distributed in Kamchatka.

There were other things to avoid besides bears. This hairy caterpillar for instance.

Hairs on caterpillars usually equate to pain when touched!

This one didn’t look in the least offensive and seemed to pose for its photo.

What a handsome specimen of caterpillar.

However, I guess that red ‘tail’ may be a something of a warning. Best left alone.

And this one was almost architectural in its design and well camouflaged as a dead leaf. Its head is at the bottom of the photograph which could confuse any predator.

Talking of architecture, what about this magnificent mushroom!

This one more like the ones in the parks at home in the autumn.

Occasionally, it was good to stand up, stretch the back and legs and enjoy the scenery.

A protruding volcanic plug stands out against the skyline.

The prickles of roses were another hazard to watch for in the scrub.

Bumblebees at work on a Kamchatka Thistle, Cirsium kamtschaticum.

Equisetum hyemale, or Scouringrush horsetail, is a rather fascinating plant. It’s quite common in Kamchatka where it sometimes forms thickets which were used in days past to pasture horses and cattle.

The intricate structure of the horsetail rewarded a much closer inspection.

Yet another elegant mushroom in a damp, mossy spot.

You need to get down low to enjoy the beauty of these tiny mosses.

A tiny forest of moss sporangia.

A young Mountain Pine, Pinus pumila, growing amongst the rough scoria rocks.

The weather looked to be closing in but it was not too threatening. We had not yet reached our meeting point and there was still time for some more exploring. So off we went again to see what we could find.

More of that anon

David

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Category Archives: Mushrooms and Fungi

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Russia : Kamchatka : #20 Kozyrevsk to Petropavlovsk

Russia : Kamchatka : # 19 Tolbachik to Kozyrevsk

Russia : Kamchatka : #17 Cinder Cones; Tolbachik Volcanic Region

Russia : Kamchatka : #16 Esso to Tolbachik Volcanic Region

Russia : Kamchatka : #15 Forays into the Forest

Russia : Kamchatka : #11 Bystrinsky Nature Park (b)

Russia : Kamchatka : #10 Bystrinsky Nature Park (a)