Also you can fish rainbow trout, char, grayling. Fishing down Bystraya river or Opala river you have a chance of enjoying volcanoes, a primeval beauty and unique thermal springs.

While visiting such a unique place one cannot help but meet its natives, most amiable people possible, Koryaks, Itelmens, Evens, Chukchis and Aleuts.

For these ancient tribal nations, reindeer breading was main occupation for centuries deer provided them with everything necessary: meat, skin for clothes (reindeer skin for coveralls, footwear) and for building portable dwellings (yarangas). The reindeers bones were used for making tools and household articles and animal’s fat was used like oil for lightening. Highly developed handicrafts such as wood and bone carving, metal works, native clothing and carpets, embroidered with beads and braiding are displayed at Museum of Local Lore. It is amazing to see way these Northern tribes now live, preserving skills as they were used to dwell, hundreds of years ago. The way they hunted, ate and slept.

Kamchatka is still a mysterious and yet mostly undiscovered vast area. Its virgin lands and wonderments of treasured beauty are waiting to be explored and enjoyed by those willing to seek adventure.

Up hill behind ruins, Felix showed us rocks with six-inch wide holes a foot deep or more, and perfectly round. They were filled with water - their purpose, according to Felix. We like water with fewer bugs, but he and Irina drank water collected in them. It was a peaceful spot, overlooking valley below.

Arrowhead Hunting Success

Over hill, we had some luck searching for rocks and arrowheads, but not like Felix. We saw hundreds of pieces of pottery, but all very plain looking. He found pottery that had beautiful designs on it, and metates. He found a tiny clear quartz arrowhead, perfectly made, that had probably been used to hunt small birds two hundred years earlier.

Each of us wandered a bit. Ana and I made it back to van first, and when Irina and Felix returned, we cooked beans with instant rice on our camp stove. After meal, we said goodbyes, and traded addresses. They went back to hotsprings, while we headed other way with bags of rocks, an antelope antler, and two broken arrowheads.

Notes:

For interesting rocks, go out after a rain and you can see Fire-agate and Apache Teardrops laying on sand. For best rock collecting, visit designated rockhound areas in southeastern Arizona. As for arrowhead hunting, and ancient pottery, enjoy yourself, but it may be illegal to keep any artifacts now. The BLM office in Safford can give you directions and more information.