Heidi Brown Rafters on the Tigrovaya River get a new view of the krai and a taste of Russian camping. A rafting trip offers a glimpse of Primorye s rural beauty. But ladies, put down that ax. Maybe you can cook up some canned meat instead. By Heidi Brown Travel even half an hour out of Vladivostok, and hints of Primorye s natural beauty appear.
Trees stand thick, streams duck beneath the road and unfamiliar birds perch on dacha roofs.
If it s hard to picture, then the only option is to see it for yourself. Camping in Primorye is quite easy to do even without a car, since the local trains travel hours out of the city. One group, the Regional Studies Department of the Pacific Geographical Society, led by Leonid Boynyakov, often calls foreigners when planning their next trip. Boynyakov says his group has a more academic focus then the other purely sport clubs in town but can arrange research or sport trips, from Chukotka to the Baikal. This inter-cultural activity means, though, that foreign participants sometimes find differences between Russian and Western camping practices.