The international sports and tourism project "Incredible 10,110 kilometers of Russia" – which started on August 18 in Sevastopol on Geographer’s Day and the 176th birthday of the Russian Geographical Society – ended in the Far East in the “Land of the Leopard” National Park. The last stage was a hiking trip, during which participants from Russia and Serbia covered about 75 kilometers on foot in a day.
A group of seven athletes did not disturb the nature of the specially protected area. The race took place on a special track created to protect the national park. To prevent possible encounters with wild animals, the project participants were accompanied by the “Land of the Leopard” staff. After the end of the event, an award ceremony took place.
"Such projects help to attract additional attention to the conservation of rare animals and plants in South-West Primorye, to acquaint new people with coastal nature and the history of the rarest Amur leopard," said Olesya Storozhuk, deputy director for environmental education and tourism at the national park.
She reminded that “Land of the Leopard” has been working productively with the Russian Geographical Society for a long time, and the new project has formed another promising "context" for cooperation.
"The event was planned for last year and was dedicated to two dates at once: the 75th anniversary of Victory in the Great Patriotic War and the 175th anniversary of the Russian Geographical Society. For obvious reasons, we have postponed everything until the following year, but the dedication to memorable dates has remained unchanged. ‘Land of the Leopard’ has very interesting nature and unique landscapes, so we decided to hold the final here. This was a pilot project – we wanted to test the format. Everything worked out, and we do not exclude the possibility that this event may become an annual one," said Vyacheslav Eremeev, advisor to the director of the Russian Geographical Society Center in Serbia.
The task of the participants of the project "Incredible 10,110 kilometers of Russia" was to cover the distance in three different ways: first, swim ten kilometers in open water in Sevastopol; then, in the same period of time, travel ten thousand kilometers on motorcycles to Primorye; and, finally, walk a hundred-kilometer route in a day. The preliminary stage of the expedition took place from June 18 to June 26 in Serbia. It was dedicated to the Victory over fascism.
An unusual event was launched on August 18 in Crimea, on Geographer’s Day. Its goal is to popularize an active lifestyle, as well as unique natural, cultural and ethnographic sites in Russia.