Hi! My name is Bolot. I am a journalist. Based in Yakutsk. Ask me a question about the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia), Siberia / Russia, and get the answer.
Once I had a great wish to make a report on my and my friends’ travel to Oymyakon, Russia, along Stalin’s Kolyma Highway.
First, I created the page called A Roadtrip to the Pole of Cold, Jan. 17-22, 2010. Yep, it was two years ago. Time is passing so fast.
After while, I published the post Activity tips: What to do in Oymyakon? Part I – Tomtor.
Then, people kept on asking me additional questions. Read more…
This is just my way to announce that La Lupe Production’s TV Show “Climas Extremos” are now available on Spanish TV. Follow La Lupe Production Channel on Vimeo to learn schedules.
Yeah, it were them, Mario Picaso Soriano (left in the above pic) and Oriol (right), who created the Climate Extremes showing people’s live in extreme weather conditions. The first episode is dedicated to Oymyakon located in Yakutsk. Read more…
My favourite local band is “103.” It is a group of villages, who perform rock in the Sakha language. And I thought why not make a slideoshow with my winter pictures of the Kolyma Highway (Stalin’s Road of Bones) and their music. Take a look at what I came with.
By the way, when I and my friends started the travel (driving) on the Road of Bones on the route Oymyakon – Yakutsk in January, it was -57.3C. Pretty extremely cold. No wonder that the road is considered to be the world’s coldest road.
As far as you know, the Kolyma Highway connects Yakutsk and Magadan. The most of it was constructed by Stalin’s gulag prisoners. Yeah, it is in Siberia, Russia.
Thought I wrote much about driving from Yakutsk to Oymyakon, but still questions are coming into my mail box. Here is the last one with many repeated questions. It arrived from a journalist who wants to do a report for a German car magazine about driving in a real winter. He says he needs a car.
“Is there any rental car company that rent cars for self driving? Or what are the major car dealerships in the city (German brands very welcome like Mercedes, BMW, Volkswagen, Opel, Porsche, Audi; or Volvo, Fiat, Renault… – or do you only drive Japanese cars?). Also I like to know the problems using a car at minus 45 degrees. Can you stop the engine? How do you keep the petrol liquid? What about the tires? I am thinking to drive from Yakutsk to Oymyakon. Is that possible? Very dangerous? Crazy? How long does it take? Huuh, so many questions, but you probably know the answers…”
Find my answers to this man’s questions: Read more…
Ok. Here is my answer to the most frequently asked question last days, “How much does it cost to travel from Yakutsk to Oymyakon?”
Hope you remember that Oymyakon is the village located almost 1000 km west off Yakutsk and considered to be the world’s coldest inhabited place.
Dimitri Kieffer (http://nexusexpeditions.blogspot.com/) is the Franco-American adventurer, who is listed in NYC-based Explorers Club. He is doing an NEXUS expedition around the world using human powers only. Some call such a journey human powered circumnavigation.
It was him, who walked with Karl Bushby from Alaska (US) to Chukotka (Russia). By foot. On the sea ice. Through Bering Strait. It was him, who gave me a great info on the route from Chukotka to Magadan Oblast, as he walked that way with a sledge in last winters. Check the post Dimitri Kieffer’s ultimate description of Russia’s Chukotka – Kamchatka – Magadan route. From Uelen to Anadyr, Omsukchan and Magadan.
And here is what he says about cycling together with his lady, Gulnara Miftahova, from Omsukchan to Yakutsk in August-October 2011.
A great fellow! A great explorer to follow!
I was pretty happy to follow, help a little and meet him and make the above video. Further, please, find his current expedition facts and, certainly, 40 travel photographs! Read more…
Yesterday I said bye to the Scottish travellers, who are making the MAD Expedition from Magadan (Pacific Ocean) to Scotland (Atlantic Ocean) on their own Landrover Defenders. They drove the Kolyma Highway through Ust Nera on September 13-18, 2011.
They are a group of friends from the Scottish city of Glasgow. Stuart, Richard, Gaven, Graham. They do long-distance driving travels regularly. Last time they made it from London to Kazahstan. This time they are here in Siberia on the way home.
Their mission is not just to have fun on the road, but also fundraising for charity. Check the list of charity funds they are supporting. Good friends with good intentions!
Ilya Kovyakin, the host of AskMagadan.com, helped them with cutsom clearance at the sea port in Magadan, Russia. Check out his website later to learn more about the specifics of custom paperworks.
The Scottmen’s travel delayed for more than a month. Initially they planned to start their road trip in the late July 2011, but their shipping company made a mistake in papers, so the cargo with the off-road vehicles stuck in Seoul on the way to Vladivostok and Magadan. It wasn’t the Russian custom service, that postponed their trip.
These four Scottish travellers prepared themselve to ride in the conditions of hot summer weather. In July they asked me, what the current weather was. I said, “+36C and +42C.” They were shocked to hear such news.
After a month, in the early September, the situation was totally different. The temp in Magadan and Yaktusk was already +10C, all trees turned in yellow colors. Moreover, it’s more colder on the road, especially in mountain area. When arrived in Yakutsk, guys said they were camping at -25C… at night.
Ok, no more words about the road conditions and weather reports. Let’s watch travel pictures taken by Scotsmen on the way from Magadan to Yakutsk.
What does biking on the Road of Bones in the late September look like? The answer is in the following video and pictures.
Enjoy adventure! Read more…
An American chopper Doug Wathke and an Austrian BMW rider Hansjorg.
Yesterday I received an sms from Doug Wothke, who said he arrived in Yakutsk… on a Harley & Davidson motorcycle. It was late night. Right after midnight. He wrote he was looking for hotels to stay. For some reasons, all of them were full.
Hotels were full, as the republic’s big events are coming these weeks, including international economical forum dedicated to infrustructure development in the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia). They didn’t know that, and, frankly saying, that was not the point to mention even. Finally, they found so-called mini hotel (a sort of a guest house).
Today I have met him and he was not alone. There was an Austrian biker named Hansjorg on a BMW and one Russian Max on a KTM from Tynda, who said he catched up his group of Moscovite bikers going also to Magadan… And, yes, there was an Moscow-based American BMW motorcyclist Tom Reiter, a friend of Walter Colebatch’s. As far as you know, Walter is the UK motorbiker, who had explored Siberian roads (www.SibirskyExtreme.com) for others.
So… today, instead of two expected bikers, Doug and Tom, I saw 9 motorcyclists, they are 2 Americans, 1 Austrian, 6 Russians. They were changing tires and preparing their bikes for a long ride to Magadan.
See more photographs of today’s meeting. Read more…
Many tyres are a must for the Road of Bones, Kolyma Highway. Photo of the bike from the Siberia Off Czech expedition.
As it is hard not to make your rear tyres flat...
Let’s repeat the truth about the Road of Bones, known officially as the Kolyma Highway that connects Yakutsk and Magadan. Siberia, including Yakutia, doesn’t have highways as perfect as European amd Asia-advanced ones. It’s Siberia!
Previously, I wrote that it’s impossible to buy spare parts for your motorbikes in Yakutsk. No so many motorcyclists in the city. As a result, no high demand for motorcycle shops at all.
Yesterday, I met really nice British bikers Ed and Dan from the brighton2expeditions. They made the long way from London to Yakutsk via Central Asian countries and Mongolia.
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