This month’s adventure with purpose got us very jealous here at HQ. An epic kayaking expedition through one of the last truly wild and unexplored places on earth – the Kamchatka Peninsula in Russia.

Unashamedly tagged ‘explore to conserve’, mention of The Kamchatka Project immediately made our ears prick up, as those of you now familiar with our mission may well imagine. This expedition makes Ed’s upcoming kayak adventure down the Loire from St Etienne to Tours look like a Sunday row in comparison (sorry Ed, but you know it’s true).

The Kamchatka Peninsula is the 1250 km appendage to Russia’s Far East (view map). With a human population which only just outnumbers the brown bears, 30 active volcanoes( including the highest in the northern hemisphere - Klyuchevskaya Sopka at 4750m), only one highway and no major industry, claims that this remains a largely untouched and unexplored wilderness are not to be scorned. Perhaps the most significant aspect of this rugged land, criss-crossed by free flowing rivers, is the fact that between a quarter and sixth of the world’s salmon spawn here. Indeed, aside from the epic whitewater, it is the plight of these scaly friends of ours that lured this team of experienced kayak expeditioners.

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