The 10th of July there started international expedition Thor Heyerdahl Explorer Camp Expedition. Its eighteen participants from Russia, Czech Republic, Armenia and Lebanon, aged from twelve to seventeen years, gathered in Novosibirsk to make a trip on a raft. They had been inspired for this unusual water transport by the travels of legendary Tour Heyerdahl. However they are not going to repeat his famous routes along the Pacific and the Atlantic oceans. The team will pass through the Novosibirsk Reservoir to the Gulf of Orda. The bus will bring the group back to Novosibirsk from the Ordynskoe village.
During all the expedition the teenagers will be conducting research in the sphere of ecology, geography, culture and history and they will be making presentations of their scientific and social works in English.
Heyerdahl floated on a raft of «Kon-Tiki» across the Pacific Ocean from Peru to the archipelago of Tuamotu with his five companions in 1947 in order to substantiate the possibility of colonization of Polynesia from America.
In the first day young travelers visited the museum of the «Kon-Tiki» tour club. A famous explorer Tour Heyerdahl was the honored president of the club times ago. The children have got acquainted with the fund of rare books and manuscripts in the State Public Scientific and Technical Library of the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences. Visiting of the regional museum, the planetarium and the zoo will inspire them for further discoveries.
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The international team is awaited by the Day of national cultures as well – the members of the expedition will see performances of folk groups, will taste various dishes, traditional for various regions.
The participants will go to Tomsk for one day in order to discuss ecological problems with the employees of the Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Protection, to meet with the rector of Tomsk State University.
The 15th of July the team will embark on a Siberian raft «Kon-Tiki». There the teenagers will be studying to knit knots, will get to know how to steer. This voyage will be the culmination of the expedition, dedicated to the 70th anniversary of the brave Tour Heyerdahl adventure.
The organizers of the project are the following: the son of the famous explorer - Tour Heyerdahl Jr., the Russian Geographical Society, Novosibirsk touristic club «Kon-Tiki» and the foundation «Vahagn and Hasmik Hovnanian». The Thor Heyerdahl Explorer Camp Expedition is being held each year in different countries, last year this event took place in Armenia.
The organizers expect that coming back home, the participants of the expedition will become the ambassadors of peace in their countries, that they will share knowledge about different cultures with their relatives. «This is international diplomacy, which allows you to establish horizontal links, to understand each other better and to minimize risks. That is remarkable that we continue this project and that we are receiving a delegation in Siberia», - the chairman of Novosibirsk regional branch of the Russian Geographical Society Igor Novikov noted. «We are sure that namely through similar projects the bridges of friendship between different countries are being built», - one of the organizers, curator of the section of children's and youthful travels of Novosibirsk regional branch of the Russian Geographical Society Ekaterina Vronskaya is summing up.