June 6 Hot springs and dobri Russki (good Russians)

Today we went inland with a packed lunch for a change. Once we beached our zodiacs, we were piled into 3 monstrous trucks and taken to the mountains on the island of Iturup to visit their hot springs. We drove through a few villages on the way which gave us the opportunity to see how the local people live - we had local schoolteachers as translators so we were able to ask a few questions.  Fishing is the main, perhaps the only, industry that keeps the villages ticking. There is little tourism apart from the occasional 'expedition' ship like ours so we had a chance to see things exactly as they are. 

We drove up and up through forests and across rivers and ravines with the patches of snow increasing as we went. For us, who rarely see snow in winter, seeing it in summer was a little bizarre. The air was filled with the smell of Christmas trees and the sound of masses of small birds chirruping away from the scrub, trees and bamboo thickets - the wild variety of bamboo that grows on the islands is not tall (and there are no pandas!!)

We made a number of stops to search for birds.

The road down to the hot springs was steep and covered in snow in sections and we reached a point where the lead driver pulled up and refused to go any further. So out we clambered to tackle the rest of the way on foot, but after checking out the decline I reckoned it was much too steep and slippery for me to climb back up comfortably so Lindsay and I retraced our steps to a safe place and sat on a rock to have our picnic lunch and wait for the others to return - keeping a watchful eye open for bears. Were we worried? .... weellll not hugely, why? I don't know as there were bears know to be in the area, but here we were!

We were surrounded by silence as we picnicked alone in that beautiful little piece of wildness! But that was soon shattered by the return of the trucks which had gone back a ways to park. The long and short if it was that eventually when our lovely driver, the man with a golden smile (all his front teeth were entirely gold!) discovered that I was afraid I couldn't make it to the springs, he walked down the track, even after his fellow driver had done the same reconnoitre and put the kibosh on it, to check the road conditions for himself. When he came back he piled me and Lins and another person into his truck and 'walked' it down the slope and then guided us on foot down the last little steep stretch to the hot pools and waterfall. The other drivers wouldn't go there. At one stage he actually reversed down the slope. What can you say in the face of such kindness? He was obviously keen for us to share the beauty of his island.  We felt very privileged (particularly as he didn't go back for a few others who were similarly concerned like me).  The only explanation I can think of is that people are very responsive when you try to communicate with them in their own language - believe me I can speak very few words of Russian, but those few combined with sign language and many 'thank yous' and smiles carry you a long way. 

Pale blue warm water captured a few brave dippers!

In spite of being totally out of puff, the effort was worth it. There perched on the side of a very steep mountain was a cascading 'waterfall' of pale blue warm water trapped for a spell in a couple of shallow pools surrounded by rocks and crossed by a wooden bridge.  Quite lovely! swimming was out for me given the time (and bruised rib cage) but I managed to have a bit of a paddle. Yay!

Getting back up that slope in the truck was a challenge for my man with the 'golden smile' but we made it!

We have been treated so generously and with genuine kindness from so many of the Russians we have met. It has been quite humbling.