Kuril Islands: an adventure in the forgotten Russian archipelago

The Kuril Islands lie between Japan besides Russia's Kamchatka Peninsula. Few travelers know about them. The chain of volcanoes sits between the Sea of Okhotsk and the Pacific Ocean. Animals and old villages remain almost exactly as they were. No crowds, no buses, no souvenir stands.

Russia or Japan both claimed the islands for centuries. The Ainu lived there first. Russian next to Japanese settlers arrived. Abandoned shacks, rusted guns and stone markers still stand on several shores.

Fifty-six islands form the group. Each island has its own shape. One has cliffs that drop straight into the sea. Another has a long sand spit. A third hides a round lake inside an old crater. Mount Alatur on Iturup steams and sends hot water into nearby pools.

Brown bears walk the valleys. Steller's sea eagles sit in high spruce tops. Whales surface between the waves. Dolphins race the bows of small boats. A quiet passenger with binoculars sees all of this in a single afternoon.

Trails run along knife edge ridges left by old lava flows. Tents fit on soft moss beside clear streams. Cold water lets divers see orange soft corals and sea lions that swirl past masks. Barangik Falls drops in one white ribbon - Lake Kibinka reflects the sky like polished metal.

Summer, from June through August, brings calm days and temperatures that reach the mid sixties. Winter snow piles higher than houses and the wind cuts like glass. Only seasoned Arctic travelers attempt the islands then.

A permit from Moscow is required. Most visitors fly from Vladivostok to Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk - board a small prop plane or a supply ship. Guest beds are few, roads are gravel and meals come from whatever the cook caught that morning. The payoff is silence, space and scenery that very few human eyes have seen.