大象传媒

By Nick Green, Director on Seven Worlds, One Planet

Image by John Shier

I’ll never forget the first time I saw the incredible Valley of the Geysers from the window of our Russian helicopter. Cresting over a mountain ridge the valley suddenly rears into view, some 90 geysers steaming, bubbling and exploding with life, a truly mind-blowing site.

It had already felt like an adventure just to get to this point, an 8-hour plane flight from Moscow over endless miles of vast Siberian wilderness meant we knew we were heading somewhere off the beaten track.

Our destination was Kamchatka, a peninsula in the farthest reaches of eastern Russia with one of the highest concentrations of active volcanoes anywhere in the world.

We arrived at the airport in Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky with its runway sitting right in the shadow of the Koryaksky and Avachinsky volcanoes.

After we had filled our workhorse helicopter to the brim with our filming equipment and supplies for the month it was time to set off for the valley.

The flight in is spectacular, flying through a volcanic landscape that is completely blanketed in snow and ice, just a few bear tracks criss-crossing the valleys giving a tantalising hint of what we were there to film.

We wanted some dramatic drone shots of this frozen world and that meant setting the helicopter down on a frozen lake at the base of an active volcano.

I wasn't entirely sure how the pilot was going to work out whether the ice would take the weight of our helicopter but I soon found out, a few entertaining bounces up and down on the lakes surface and the pilot was sure the ground was solid.

Out of the helicopter we spent a few hours filming the volcano with the drone before it was time to leave, just as we started to pack up someone shouted bear!

On the horizon was a huge male, purposefully striding his way across the snow. Even at this distance I could tell he was huge, this was my first wild bear and my heart was beating fast.

As quickly as he had come the bear disappeared again, this was certainly not to be our last or closest experience with a bear.

Once we had arrived in the valley it was time for the tour, our fantastic ranger Elena letting us know all the tricks to working out which part of the ground is safe to walk on. She points out a boiling pool ominously called the cruel geyser, here an unfortunate bear got its footing wrong, slipped in and was sadly boiled to death.

The valley is incredibly atmospheric, all around you the landscape is alive with activity, there's a constant murmuring beneath your feet and the sound of hundreds of bubbling pools fills the air. Then, all of a sudden one of the larger geysers bursts into life, a 40m high spout of boiling water shoots high into the sky, a reminder, as if one were needed that we cannot take this place lightly.

And then there are the bears themselves, amazing animals peacefully going about their business as they pick their way through the volcanic landscape.

The big boys are approaching 650kg and heading into their mating season you have to keep any eye on them too. The section of the valley that is free of ice is only around a mile long and this means there are bears everywhere. You can be busy filming one bear and before you know it, despite their enormous size, a bear has snuck up right behind you.

Perhaps strangely, standing just a few metres away from these bears isn't at all frightening, I am positive that they're just curious to check out this collection of strange people that have suddenly been transported into their world, and mean us no harm at all.

Having the extremely experienced and knowledgeable ranger Elena at our side made us feel like we were in very safe hands too, she spends six months a year living out here amongst these bears so knows their behaviour very well.

Usually a loud shout and a wave of the arms was enough to stop the bears from coming too close but there were times when Elena needed to ready a warning shot from the shotgun that she carried with her at all times. I am happy to say that the warning shot was never fired and even the most persistent of bears eventually got bored of looking at us and carried on with their day.

As the weeks went by, we learned to live and work alongside the bears and were witness to some incredible moments. A mother with two young cubs fresh from their winter den bringing her cubs to the valley for the very first time. Sub-adult males practicing their fighting skills in a playful wrestle, readying themselves for the real thing as they get older and bigger. Enormous males in a tense stand-off, sizing each other up and seemingly ready to launch into battle.

The valley provides these bears with a vital food source as they wake from their winter slumber, fresh grass growing directly beneath the erupting geysers. It's fascinating to watch these huge animals skilfully navigate the treacherous landscape to get themselves a vital meal and start replenishing the fat reserves that they shed during their long hibernation.

The Valley of the Geysers is a truly magical place and the memories of being there will never leave me.

It provides something special for the bears and for me it provided a powerful reminder that these true wildernesses still exist in an increasingly overcrowded world.