Siberia is a vast area lying to the east of the Urals shrouded in myth and mystery. While to the foreigner it conjures visions of salt mines, snow and freezing temperatures, the reality could not be further from the myth. While it is cold in winter with temperatures plummeting to absurd levels, the remaining seasons transform this area into one of the most beautiful one could imagine. Late spring - early summer brings a profusion of wild flowers which literally carpet every valley while the temperatures climb into the 20s and 30s. The lush grass provides food for a variety of deer while bear and wolves inhabit the remoter regions. Autumn turns the trees to amber and the undergrowth to red which is spectacularly beautiful.

Moscow originated as a wooden fort built on a hill at the confluence of the Neglinnaya and Moscva rivers in about 1147. During the Soviet era it was of course the showpiece of Russia which has resulted in a complex city with 15th century churches sitting next to modern office blocks, narrow crooked lanes and long broad avenues, rich museums and modern department stores and a population of 12 million people. It has an indefinable buzz which permeates through the city 24 hours a day making it both fascinating and exciting. There are innumerable restaurants, a wide range of hotels and a wealth of historically important monuments including of course the magnificent Red Square, the glamorous Kremlin, festive St Basils Cathedral, refined New Maiden Convent, variety of art galleries and even the KGB Museum!

Kamchatka, it is now almost three hundred and fifty years since the Cossacks discovered this mysterious peninsula in the north-east of Russia. But it is still unknown terrain. During the Cold war Kamchatka was one of the most secret zones, prohibited for foreigners to come and seldom visited by Russian. However, this situation had its advantages: volcanic landscapes, wide valleys, gigantic coastal regions, forests and tundra of incomparable beauty were largely preserved as they had been known to aboriginal population and as the first Russian conquerors found them.