November 6, 2024
Kamchatka-2024 – pt. 5: Kizimen… now and then.
It was farewell to what is possibly the world’s remotest hotel complex, and off we choppered south to our next Kamchatkan volcanic wonder – Kizimen (pronounced KizEEmen). And here she is – the view from the south:
And from the north ->
What differentiates this particular volcano of Kamchatka from others are the two lakes at its foot set among wonderfully “designer” landscapes. There’s also the amazing view of nearby Kronotsky volcano – here on the horizon to the right, upon which you can meditate for an eternity.
Another distinguishing feature is the fact that Kizimen is way off the tourists’ beaten track: it’s 70+km to the nearest road (across taiga and assorted unhospitable volcanisms; as such hiking here isn’t a thing). And since tourist-free is something I always gravitate to, I’d long dreamed of getting here by helicopter, landing, and checking it out up close. Alas – it wasn’t to be: it’s in protected national-park territory where the landing of choppers is forbidden. However, we did still get up close – only from the air:
We did in fact land, but only a way from it – where it’s permitted:
Up top – it’s actively smoking:
Let’s take a closer look of that up-top:
Fumaroles puffing away; and the smell of sulfur was so strong it came through into the cabin of the helicopter through the filters:
Incredibly beautiful scenes:
I had a delve into my archives, and found this: same volcano, different season ) ->
And a few more photos of this worthy – inaccessible exclusive – Kamchatka volcano ->
And here’s the volcano from Tumroki:
And there’s Kronotsky again. What a beaut. We need to fly over to it. So that’s just what we did. More on that in my next post…
The rest of the photos from Kamchatka-2024 are here.
