Russian kayak guide Ivan Klochkov has just finished one of the most demanding sea kayak trips anyone has attempted in the North Pacific in decades: roughly 3,840km along the northeastern coast of Russia, from Kamchatka to Chukotka.
Klochkov set off from Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky, the regional capital, on May 24 after a year and a half of planning. He reached the tiny settlement of Uelen on September 1 — 124 days after starting. Uelen sits just beyond Cape Dezhnev, the easternmost point of the Asian continent, looking across the Bering Strait towards Alaska. Only Jon Turk's 1999-2000 paddle from Japan to Alaska compares in scale in this part of the world, and Turk's expedition was Klochkov's inspiration.
The route is brutally exposed. Much of the coastline is cliff, with few safe spots to land, and the North Pacific serves up fog and rough water for weeks at a time. Klochkov's father paddled with him for the first 627km through Kamchatka; the remaining 3,000-plus kilometres he covered solo. On one relentless stretch between Ust-Kamchatka and Chukotka, he pushed 600km in just 17 days, largely because there was nowhere to stop.
Wildlife was a constant. Brown bears regularly wandered into his camps, prompting him to rig an electric fence around his tent. Further north in Chukotka, brown bears gave way to polar bears. His expedition photos — shared on Instagram despite Meta's status as a banned "extreme organization" in Russia — show a coast of dark water and rock, with almost no sign of human life.
Why does this matter to travellers? Kamchatka and Chukotka are among the least visited corners of Asia, and stories like this are a rare window into what the region actually looks like: volcanic coastline, bear country, remote Indigenous villages at the very edge of the continent. Few people will ever paddle this route, but it shows what's possible on the fringes of the Russian Far East — and what a serious undertaking any trip there remains. For adventure travellers, it's a reminder that one of the planet's great last frontiers sits only a short hop across the Bering Strait from Alaska.
Story via ExplorersWeb.
