I have to say
“Clif, thank you very much for your writing and sharing the great report on the journey by the ship “Mechanic Koulibin” down the Lena River from Yakutsk to Tiksi. This is valuable information. I am glad I have friended with you!”
Clif Maberly arrived with his wife from Hong Kong, but they are Australians. I had been keeping contact with Clif before his coming. And you know what? That was him who asked me much about the waterway from Ust-Kut to Yakutsk and from Yakutsk to Tiski by the regular passenger boat.
So, enjoy his informative report written specially for AskYakutia.com.
On the Lena River
By Clif Maberly
This year Karen and I chose to take our vacation from where we work in Hong Kong on a ship from Yakutsk in the middle of Siberia to Tiksi in the Laptev Sea in the Arctic Ocean down one of the greatest rivers of the world, the Lena. Within the limits of our time and the infrequent flights from other directions, we chose to fly to Yakutsk via Novosibirsk. We will return to China via Khabarovsk.
For a time we dreamt of taking the 2009 14 day cruise tour of the “Mikhail Sveltov,” ut we really couldn’t afford it, though its program looked excellent. Then we heard of a passenger vessel that travelled the same route. In time we found out about the “Mechanic Koulibin”and began making arrangements to be on board for its August 5 sailing.
The “Mechanic Koulibin” is a passenger vessel designed for river and seashore navigation. It is a German BiFa (Binnenfahrgastschiff) Typ B ship. It has 1, 2, 4 and 6 bed cabins, two canteens, and salons. This one is definitely not a tourist ship, but is used by local travellers as the primary way to travel between the settlements along the Lena River. Although it navigates the river effectively, the creature comforts have not been maintained – the salons are in poor repair and poorly furnished. They weren’t even open for the trip down river. The reading lights in the cabins were not functioning and toilets in poor repair. The same ship is used on the Yenesy River, but travellers say that ship is in better repair and the salons are open to passenger use. However the trip is still worthwhile.
We were advised to bring food for the journey, but it wasn’t necessary. The dining room was open for two hours three times a day, and produced good food in good variety –for around 55 rubles a plate. There was bread available, 2 rubles a half-slice for the whole journey. Any bread you had taken along yourself would have spoiled before long. It is good to bring some of your own food—for cabin and between hours eating. There is a good choice in Yakutsk supermarkets.
If you want to be electronically functional, and very popular, bring along a power board or two. There are few power points on the ship, usually in the corridors, and dozens who need to charge their mobile phones—more for the young people’s collections of mp3 music and games than for calling. There were few places with phone access. We had purchased a MegaFon simm card and did get through a few times. Some needed power to charge their blackberries or their notebooks for video viewing. Nobody has double adaptors, so adaptors and power boards are appreciated. You might not want to plug a power board into the wall if the power point is outside your door unless you want to listen to a cacophony of competing game sounds and mp3 music all night. We brought along multi-system plug boards from China that were a boon to foreign travellers.
The “Mechanic Koulibin” does the return journey to Tiksi on the about twice a month for the period the river is navigable—mid June to early September. Between then the river is iced, mid winter enough to become a road to heavy trucks. The summer round trip takes from 8-10 days. It is best to allow for the full 10 days in your planning, as communication on board is limited, and you might not make your connecting travel schedules. Alternatively you could take half the journey. There are flights to and from Tiksi most days, for 14,000 rubles full price, 8,000 discounted or early-bird booking. You may take a flight from Zhigansk on the way back, saving yourself two days. We elected to do the whole trip, as described below.
The fares on the “Mechanic Koulibin” are currently 9,990 rubles first class, 5,800 third. It seems that return tickets are only available on the first class cabins and if booked through a travel agent. We booked boat and air fares through one travel company. However tickets are available at the wharf and on the boat. While we were told that only first class cabins were available for tourists, some travellers travelled second and third class. Most useful to us, and crucial to our final decision to take the passenger boat rather than the cruise we could not afford, was the internet Yakutsk journalist Bolot Bochkarev, with his AskYakutia blog on www.yakutiatoday.com.
We elected to do the whole return trip. We were looking for the ultimate escape from our high pressure life in Hong Kong. The journey was totally relaxing. The landscape along the sides of the river changed all the way—gradually becoming less verdant as we travelled towards the north. The days became longer and longer, with longer and longer sunsets, until there was only an hour between sunset and sunrise. The pace and gentle vibration of the ship was calming. Although it was possible to lose yourself in rest, reading and pleasant landscapes from the deck, there was much more available on board than you could get on a cruise.
The ship was full of interesting locals, traders, fishermen, hunters and workers from the settlements; locals returning for a home visit from their working place elsewhere; travelling teams of researchers, Russian and foreign; children and students going home for a brief holiday or returning to school, in Yakutsk. There were disturbing drunkards, drinking beer as long as there was a large bottle to share. We encountered some who took out their discontent on foreigners—but none were dangerous. Most of the passengers were family people, and soon contained any threat to ship harmony.
Perhaps we should mention the children. With extended daylight and little parental control the children were a bother at times. Their noisy racing around the decks wore a little thin after one in the morning, night after night—’feral’ is a word that came to mind. On the other hand one of the main drawbacks of a long passenger boat ride compared with a ship with cruise recreation facilities is the limited opportunity for exercise—after four times around the upper deck we adults began to feel conspicuous, so we did envy the endless opportunities for exuberant exercise for the children. However it seemed that they never got enough. So bring your ear plugs.
The arrival at settlements was always interesting. Regardless of the time of day or ‘night’ the whole village would turn out on the river bank for the arrival. There were always relatives arriving, often with exciting additions to settlement homes—televisions, washing machines, refrigerators even a sofa. There were new outboard motors for the ubiquitous aluminium boats, and spare parts for the vehicles and machinery. There was always special food and drink from the capital. A flotilla of boats of various sizes tied themselves up around the ship to load and unload people and goods. Then they revved off in all directions—along and across the river to distant homes.
All kinds of vehicles were ready on the stony beaches to transport goods and people up the banks to the out-of-sight settlements on the other side. Some traders had giant six wheel trucks ready to pile with their 1-2 tons of saleable items. There were ancient sidecar motorcycle taxis, even a converted personnel carrier with clanking tank treads. Usually a lifeboat was lowered into the water and wooden walkways were attached to both ends to be the gangplank to the boat. Villagers jossled to board the boat—to help their relatives and friends off with their luggage and to invade the canteen. Ice-cream was a favourite on-ship sale. We had expected to buy supplies from settlements; instead settlements bought supplies from us.
The main towns along the way were Zhigansk, founded in 1632, 800 kilometres downriver from Yakutsk, just past the Polar Circle; Sikhtyakh 1,200kms from Yakutsk and Kyushur regional center 1,400kms downriver and 300kms from the end destination Tiksi. However there were settlements of various sizes between, with an excited arrival once or twice a day. The ship tilted towards the bank at each stop as everyone crowded the decks to be in on the action.
At the end of the river there is a large delta that extends 100 km into the Laptev Sea and is about 400km wide. The delta is frozen tundra for about 7 months of the year, but in May transforms the region into a lush wetland for the next few months. Part of the area is protected as the Lena Delta Wildlife Reserve. By taking the round trip we were not able to visit either Tiksi or the wildlife reserve. The ship anchored off port in a sheltered part of the delta for nearly 24 hours because of weather difficult for landing, and had a turnaround of just over an hour—not even long enough for a quick visit to the town. Tiksi was a bustling military and Arctic Ocean port as recently as 10 years ago, but with the collapsed economy it is almost a ghost settlement today. It still is the port for oil and gas for up-river Sakha Republic, but for little else.
For our journey there were a record number of foreign travellers. One well known daring traveller, Spaniard Jorge Sanchez, had invited ten of the most travelled people in the world to do this trip together, to share exploits and work on standards to measure travel. Six had accepted his invitation. So he was joined on the “Mechanic Koulibin” by two Americans, Jeff Shea from Singapore (www. jeffshea.com) and Kevin Hughes of the TCC – Travellers Century Club (www.travelerscenturyclub.org); one famous Pole, Wojtek Dabrowski (www.kontynenty.net); and the even more famous Frenchman, Andre Brugiroux (andre.brugiroux.free.fr). All are “top trotters” (Wojtek’s term for those who have travelled to all 192 countries of the United Nations). No one was in the same class as Andre, who has been an economical traveller since he left France with $2 at 17, and at 71 is still looking for places he has not been. But others deserve a respect for their achievements—it would take 50 years to catch up to Andre. Like Charles Veley who will join them on their return to Yakutsk, who has touched down in all listed countries over the last three and a half years—a record that will be difficult to match. It all leaves Karen and me with our modest 60+ TCC countries modest independent travellers indeed.
Also with us were three intrepid travellers from Cologne, Germany. Anette Schurg, Barbara Hahn and Doris Netenjakob take an adventurous vacation in Russia every second year, to keep their Russian up. This year they chose the Lena River. They talked with everyone on board. We were blessed by their accounts, their interpreting skills and their games.
In Tiksi we were joined by a team of 14 environmental scientists from all over China under the leadership of leading professor Dong Suocheng, director of the Regional Eco-Economic Research and Planning Centre in Beijing. They were affable travelling companions, and all spoke some English. Of particular interest to me was botany professor Wu Su-gong from Yunnan, who knows one of my favourite countries almost as well as I do—Laos. I offered to be his interpreter in the future. I am sure I will meet up with him again.
So this time there was an all-time record of eleven foreign travellers travelling downstream and 20 foreigners upstream (including the Chinese research team)—six nationalities including us two Australians.
We had been concerned about travelling without language for so long, but came across a number of Russians who spoke English well. There was a team of 6 geologists with the giant Rosneft Company, who left the ship for a two day survey of a oil potential at a new Cambrian rock site on the Laptev shelf, and who rejoined us for the trip back. Chief geologist Nikolay Malyshev, Arctic Shelf leader Victor Obmetko, and team members Alexy, Bulat, Tatiana and Roman were all good travelling companions and English speakers. We also met up with Thomas the Latvian-Siberian archaeologist, and many others. Even those who could not speak English were often friendly. We enjoyed games with children in the saloon on the return trip—bring non language games like tri-ominoes to play.
The “Mechanic Koulibin” is not a cruise ship. It is not even a tourist ship. And it may be a problem if tourists begin to compete with locals for cabin space. There were around 180 local paying passengers on board and nearly thirty children on board for the upper reaches of the river; as well as thirty crew and five in the public kitchen and canteen. This is the only transport to the far reaches of the Lena River. We felt privileged to ride the round trip with the “Mechanic Koulibin” this time, and would thoroughly recommend it to independent travellers seeking a relaxing and adventurous 3,400km river trip that was an introduction to the peoples and to the real life of the Sakha Republic.
We were blessed with fellow travellers this time, otherwise the 10 day journey with no time and no chance to visit any settlements between, or even see our destination Tiksi might have been more dissapointing. A small concession of time to let the traveller pay a quick visit to a settlement or two along the way and Tiksi at the end, and a little information when there were long delays along the way would have enhanced the journey for travellers. However, as our less-than-welcoming captain Anatolya Nikolavich had someone tell us, “this is not a tourist ship.” (This attitude seems to be personal rather than a policy of the company. Sergei G. Kourin, director of Mechanic Koulibinv LLC and head of the company that controls the ship’s activity was very encouraging to travellers.)
The changing natural vistas along the river and river banks were the highlight of the trip. The air was so clean, the temperature so brisk, the reflections so beautiful that it would have been the journey of a lifetime without the social and cultural enhancements. The tundra that stretched off into the distance is said to take in a fifth of the trees on earth. We didn’t see a single wild animal, but then we saw less and less evidence of people as we travelled north into increasing peace and calm. Each night the arctic sunsets were so varied that you didn’t want to miss them even though they were when you should have been sleeping. And there was always the freedom to sleep in, sleep during and sleep instead of doing anything else. For those with sleep debt from their busy urban work and life this was an ideal way to catch up. There was something about the journey on board that not only distanced you from your life worries, but also gave you permission to let everything go for a while.
The other half of the journey still waits—from Kachug near Lake Baikal, the start of the navigable river, 4,222kms from Tiksi. The best connection to the river is at Ust-Kut, the point where the Baikal-Amur Mainline railway meets the Lena and handles 80% of cargo in the Sakha Republic region. There are passenger boats, usually hydrofoils, to take you on the four one-day trips 2,400kms downstream to Yakutsk. But getting to Ust-Kut is not easy and time consuming. We elected to fly to Yakutsk via Novosibirsk this time (in our case, from Beijing). Will we return to see the rest of this great river, or will the call of the six day trip down the Ob River to another arctic region at Salekhard catch our interest next time round?
Note: If you decide to take this journey it is imperative you get a permit to travel to the polar regions—a permit that takes 40 days through an agency.
Similar Posts:
- The Lena River: Yakutsk – Tiksi (Neelovo) – Yakutsk. By the ship “Mechanic Koulibin.”
- The way from Yakutsk to Tiksi in September 2009
- Are there two Mikhail Svetlov cruise ships in Yakutia?
- Is it possible to charter a helicopter from Tiksi Airport?
- Russian River Cruises: The Lena River by ‘Demian Bednyi’
