Proud to announce the opening of the photo exhibition “On the Road of Bones: Ghosts of the Siberian Gulag Along the Old Kolyma Highway” at Kris Waldherr Art and Words studio gallery in Brooklyn, New York, today.
About exhibition
Through photography and mixed media, “On the Road of Bones” reveals the secret history and hidden landscape of Kolyma, formerly the land of Soviet labor camps and the coldest inhabited region on earth. Stunning new works by young native Siberian photographers Bolot Bochkarev, Nastya Borisova, and Ajar Varlamov trace the remains of the vast highway built across the taiga, tundra, and permafrost of North Asia by Stalin’s prisoners. The exhibition juxtaposes the tragic events of the past with the powerful natural beauty of the frozen land and the daily lives of northern people.
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Rainy, rainy, rainy… Chilly, chilly, chilly… Yeah, that’s how it is. September 2009 appeared to be hard for drivers travelling on the Road of Bones. Especially on the old route of the Kolyma Highway from Tomtor to Kadykchan. Everything along the way from Yakutsk through Kyubeme to Tomtor looks perfect. No real obstacles. You can ride to Kyubeme just for 1.5 day and you wouldn’t even stuck.
However, the road after Tomtor is not as smooth as one wishes to be. I called the head of the Tomtor settlement and asked “Is it possible for a 4wd car to drive after Tomtor to Kadykchan?” He said, “Yes. No problems at all. River waters are not so high. You can wade rivers easily. There are puddles on the track though, but if you have a winch, you won’t stuck.” A few moments later I heard “Believe me, everything is okey. I have here the chief of road maintenance department, and he proves my words.”
I passed the information to the Turkish 4WD traveller, Ali Eric (www.istanbul2istanbul.com), when he was already in Khandyga. By the way, you should see his eyes prior to his departure for Magadan. There were excitement and doubts at the same time. As any adventure traveller, he wanted to try the old route of the Kolyma Highway, the most thrilling part of the journey, but his mind said also things like “Be careful. That’s Siberia. You shouldn’t risk.” Further, please, see what happened then. He sent three astonishing photos from Magadan. Read more…
Thanks to my writing about Yakutia for international readers, I have a unique opportunity to communicate with very interesting people. One of them is Rob Lilwall, a travel cyclist of London. Five years ago, he decided to embark on the journey of his life.
Bored of his work as a geography teacher in England, Rob eventually packed his panniers and took his bike for an adventure. He flew as far from England as possible. To Magadan. That was where he and his old school friend, Al Humphreys, hit the Road of Bones. It was the end of September and the beginning of a Siberian winter. At that point everything seemed perfect.
A month after he wrote Read more…
That’s great news. Czech OFF SIBERIA adventure motorcyclists Tomáš Holman and Eva Krečová, who are traveling across Russia on one BMW bike, allowed me to post their travel photos taken on the Road of Bones this summer. They rode from Yakutsk to Magadan via the old route Kyubeme – Tomtor – Kadykchan (Magadan Oblast).
In a previous post 2009 August Road Report: the condition of the Kolyma Highway (the Road of Bones) in Oymyakonsky Ulus I gave information on the current road condition using some Tomas and Eva’s report. This time I am up to show pictures of how it looked like. Read more…
As far as you remember, the Kolyma Highway the east part of which is well known as the Road of Bones splits after the settlement of Kyubyume (Kyubeme) into two directions. Further find some new short reports on these routes. Read more…
So… Two UK adventurous bikers of the Sibirsky Extreme travel motorcycle expedition have just ridden the Kolyma Highway. They had left Yakutsk on Thursday afternoon and arrived in Magadan on Sunday evening. 2100 km, 3.5 days, and 7 tyre changes! What did they say about the federal road?
The road was a little better than the Vilyuisky Trakt, but only a little better. There were still long gravelly sections, the odd sandy patch.
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