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Sergey and Yulia are an English-speaking Russian team from Karelia, North-West Russia. They are both experienced in organising small and select expeditions and remote excursions for naturalists, scientists and outdoor enthusiasts young and old. Their expeditions are of special interest for participants who want to learn or improve their camping techniques and survival skills, and learn related traditional handicrafts. Filenko and Maklakova have worked with clients from Russia, Australia, Germany, Finland, Sweden and the United States.
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Sergey Mikhaylovich Filenko, 35. Educated as a biologist at Petrozavodsk University, Sergey has a keen knowledge of soils, plants and wildlife. Since his extensive training at Finland’s Kuru College of Forestry and at Hartpury College in England, his professional guiding work has kept him busy throughout north-west Russia. He has worked for the Vodlozero National Park in Karelia and for the Paanajarvi National Park on the Finland-Russia border. He has recently (2005) been leading a Beluga whale-watching project on the Solovky Islands in the White Sea. He is also a member of an Anglo-Russian group currently exploring river routes used during the Middle Ages by the old Novgorod traders. Sergey is a gifted teacher. He has run courses in canoeing, skiing, hiking climbing and traditional birch bark handicrafts. Above all he likes to teach the art of living comfortably not just surviving in Russia’s vast and remote terrains and in all climates.
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Yulia Maklakova, 31, also from Karelia, has a biology degree and undertook identical guide training to Sergey - in fact Yulia and Sergey met each other on the same courses in Finland and England in 1996, and have been working together on and off ever since! Yulia has accumulated similar fieldwork experience with diverse talents and skills: she has organised skiing and canoeing tours for Paanarjarvi National Park; she was Ecotourism Manager at Vodlozero National Park; she is a fully qualified First Aid Instructor (European Red Cross); and sometimes also works as a master-demonstrator in birch-bark handicraft at the world-famous Kizhi Island National Museum. She is a photographer, and her work has been shown at several exhibitions around Karelia. |
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Roger Took, English museum curator, Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society and author of Running with Reindeer (publ. Murray, 2003) writes: "Having participated in many Russian fieldwork expeditions since perestroika, some of my best experiences have been in the company of Sergey Filenko. I have enormous respect for his professional skills and I like his personable character. Travelling with Sergey will guarantee maximum pleasure and you will learn something new every day".
Filenko and Maklakova are based in Petrozavodsk, Karelia, Russia. E-mail: juliguide(a)hotmail.com , juliguide(a)gmail.com
| Design: Igor A. Baryshev |
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