roads

Motorcyclists, take tyres for Siberian biking as many as possible!

August 4, 2011

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...

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.

Read more…

Travel Guide Video: The Kolyma Highway (The Road of Bones). By Casey Handmer.

July 27, 2011

An Australian hitchhiker Casey Handmer (on the left) with Vadim, a biker of Anadyr.

An Australian hitchhiker Casey Handmer (on the left) with Vadim, a biker of Anadyr.

A year ago, July 28, in Yakutsk I met Casey Handmer, who said he was on the way to Magadan. Asked, how he was going to make it. Hitchhiking was his answer.

He was not the first one, who travelled the Kolyma Highway (Road of Bones) by that mean. So, I didn’t worry much, but I should actually.

Read more…

Where to buy BMW or KTM motorbike spare parts in Yakutsk, Russia?

July 19, 2011

An American motorbiker, Ben Myburgh, in Yakutsk before his ride on the Kolyma Highway also known as the Road of Bones.

An American motorbiker, Ben Myburgh, in Yakutsk before his ride on the Kolyma Highway also known as the Road of Bones.

Yesterday, an American motorbiker, Ben Myburgh, arrived in Yakutsk. He made the way from Portugal to Yakutsk via Moscow and Mongolia. Today he is starting his journey the Kolyma Highway from Yakutsk to Magadan.

When he arrived, he got a few questions, but his most important request was, Where to buy a front wheel tube for his BWM F800 motorcycle in Yakutsk? Everything is cool with his current tubes, but he wanted to have one more for replacement.

Read more…

What is the condition of the Road of Bones in June? Watch the video of June 2011.

June 29, 2011

Milosz Augustyniak on the Road of Bones in Yakutia, Russia, in June 2011

Milosz Augustyniak on the Road of Bones in Yakutia, Russia, in June 2011

Previously I described the condition of the Kolyma Highway (known also as the Road of Bones) in June. As you know, the Kolyma Highway (M 56) connects Yakutsk and Magadan. The significant part of the road, precisely Khandyga – Magadan, was built by labour workers of Stalin’s gulags.

In posts where I mention the road condition in June, I write that it’s possible to drive the Kolyma Highway in this month, but if to go via Ust Nera. The route via this settlement is a major way and maintained all a year around.

The road through Tomtor is not reconstructed. Moreover, there are no bridges over rivers, that tend to be full of high waters at this period. Keep in mind that late May is the period of ice river melting and spring flooding. Therefore, in June, rivers are still full of waters. So, if you’ve got motorbikes and off-road vehicles, you can try the old road, but more likely you’ll be stuck on the part Tomtor – Magadan Oblast.

On the contrary, the new route via Ust Nera is the only way to be used in June. Last years, it has been improved by road workers pretty good. Broken bridges were reconstructed. If there were gaps, they were filled.

But… Read more…

Canadian 4wd travellers about their 5-day trip Vladivostok – Yakutsk. They plan to made it to Magadan.

June 13, 2011

Canadian 4wd travellers about their 5-day trip Vladivostok – Yakutsk. They plan to made it to Magadan.

Canadians just arrived to Yakutsk from Vladivostok. They spent 12 days in Vladivostok waiting for their Toyota Landcruiser from custom clearance, and they spent 5 days on the way with camping along the route. Yes, they were really tired.

A week ago, I received the sms on my mobile. It said, “Hi, it’s me, Ian. I got my car from the custom service. Now I and my friends are starting the trip to Yakutsk…” I was like, “Who is Ian?..” Then I thought, if he knew my mobile number, he must have kept in touch with me via AskYakutia.com… and I was right.

I checked my email box, typed his name in the search box and found Ian Veinot‘s message dated April 7th, 2010. A year ago! He wrote:

Hi..Thanks so much for posting all of the information you have so far. I just want to clarify one thing…Is the all weather road from Yakutsk to Magadan a separate route to the Road of Bones? I would like to travel the Road of Bones next year but would like to start in June so am hoping to use the all weather road starting in Yakutsk before returning from Magadan in mid-June on the Road of Bones when the rivers are hopefully lower. Thanks for any advise! Cheers.

My answer was short:

If you go by the new route of the Kolyma Highway, i.e. through Ust Nera, you can do it in June as well. This part is in good condition in the course of the whole summer. If by the old route via Tomtor, in late July and August only because of rivers.

My god! I remember, a few months later, he was also asking me, how to clear the car at the Russian custom. I recommended to forward all custom-related inquires to Walter Colebatch from SibirskyExtreme.

One year past, Ian arrived in Yakutsk, as he promised, in June. It happened yesterday, June 12th, 2011.

Further, please, find out the video with his story about the way Vladivostok to Yakutsk, learn what type of problems he had with his car custom clearance and see what made tired travellers happy in Yakutsk.

Read more…

Oisin Hughes’s biking the Kolyma Highway (Road of Bones). Not Dead Yet Videos.

May 12, 2011

Here are three videos of biking the Road of Bones via the Ust Nera, precisely on the route Yakutsk – Khandyga – Ust Nera – Magadan. They might serve as the answer to the question What is the condition of the Kolyma Highway in summer.

Oisin Hughes is a BMW motor biker from Dublin, Ireland. For a few years, he was riding a BMW motorcycle around the world through 27 countries and over 40,000 miles.

Last summer he visited Yakutsk, my city, and continued his journey to Magadan via the famous Kolyma Highway and then to Vladivostok, South Korea, Canada, USA and back home to Ireland.

Read more…

Dimitri Kieffer’s ultimate description of Russia’s Chukotka – Kamchatka – Magadan route. From Uelen to Anadyr, Omsukchan and Magadan.

May 8, 2011

Dimitri Kieffer on his Arctic walking expedition from Alaska to Chukotka, Russia.

Dimitri Kieffer on his Arctic walking expedition from Alaska to Chukotka, Russia.

From time to time, I get really frustrated about being the answer machine and doing research works at requests. Aaaah, but I do not complain at all, as to give answers and insights into Yakutia and neighbouring regions is my passion…

Thanks to the Ask Yakutia weblog, I have aqcuainted with a lot of people around the world. Lately, many of them moved within my email inbox from the “Requesters” category to the “Friends” list :)

This month, for instance, brought two great adventurers. Both of them are fellows of the Explorers Club.

It is Karl Bushby, the author of the highly praised “Giant Steps” book. He is mentioned in the prevous post “Karl Bushby, the UK explorer, about his walking from Bilibino (Chukotka) & Srednekolymsk (Sakha-Yakutia), Russia’s Far East.”

The second great one is Dimitri Kieffer, a Franco-American explorer, who completed together with Karl Bushby the famous Bering Strait Crossing Goliath Expedition from Nome (USA) to Uelen (Chukotka / Russia) in 2006. So, more info on Dimitri and his achievements can be found on his page http://nexusexpeditions.blogspot.com/

So what am I trying to say by this long entry?..

It was Karl Bushby, who gave the explaination of how to get from Srednekolymsk to Bilibino by a car using winter roads. It’s the way that goes through Yakutia’s Kolyma.

Finally, Dimitri Kieffer gave me the ultimate description of his winter walking journey from the farest point of Chukotka, Uelen, to Magadan (read the Kolyma Highway, the Road of Bones, that connects Yakutia’s Yakutsk and Magadan Oblast).

Dimitri said, “Here was my route over multiple winters… Uelen – Anadyr- Krasneno – Vayegi (all in Chukotka) – Slautnoye – Kamenskoye – Manily – Paren (aka Urs Paren) (all in Koryak Okrug of Kamchatka) – Verniy Paren- Giziga – Evensk – Tavatum – Shiroka River – Galimy- Omsukchan (all in Magadan Oblast) and then you are on a permanent road to Magadan…”

Read more…

Karl Bushby, the UK explorer, about his walking from Bilibino (Chukotka) & Srednekolymsk (Sakha-Yakutia), Russia’s Far East

May 4, 2011

Karl Bushby, of 21st Century Odyssey, in Yakutsk, Yakutia, Siberia, Russia

Karl Bushby, of 21st Century Odyssey, in Yakutsk, Yakutia, Russia

This is Karl Bushby (www.odysseyxxi.com), who has been doing the epic journey back home to London from Puntas Arenas (Chile), the most sourthern point of South America. He has been walking around the world for 14 years. Alone. Unsupported.

When he walked from Chile to Alaska, he wrote the famous book “Giant Steps.” When he crossed the Bering Strait from Alaska to Russia’s Chukotka, he made a documentary for BBC Channel.

Further, find more info, and two videos. Read more…

How to cross the Lena River, when ice roads closed near Yakutsk?

April 18, 2011

MI 8, Polar Airlines helicopter, in Yakutia, Siberia, Russia

MI 8, Polar Airlines helicopter, in Yakutia, Siberia, Russia. Click the image to enlarge.

Since April 15, 2011, ice roads across the Lena River near Yakutsk are closed officially. Today the temperature is +7C at daytime. Snow and ice river cover are melting fast. Some drivers, especially villagers and truckers, run risks and cross the melting river, but that’s not good. More chances to sink.

Due to high demand and the absence of the bridge over the Lena, Polar Airlines (www.polarair.ru) starts MI 8 helicopter flights between Yakutsk (Magadan Airport) and Mannyahtaah (Megino-Kangalassky region on the opposite bank) from April 21, 2011.

Read more…

Is it safe to drive the Road of Bones, the world’s coldest road, in November?

March 11, 2011

Chernyj Prizhim on the Kolyma Highway, so-called Road of Bones, in Yakutia, Siberia, Russia

Chernyj Prizhim on the Kolyma Highway, so-called Road of Bones, in Yakutia, Siberia, Russia

I have written a lot about ways between Yakutsk and Magadan, Yakutsk and Oymyakon. Actually, both are the same. They are on the Kolyma Higway, known also as the Road of Bones or M56. I thought it’s time for requests to stop coming. All posts on this theme are filed under Kolyma Highway and Road of Bones.

Instead, I started receiving very specific questions. Love them all. They are specific as their authors are not regular people. Last two messages arrived from companies that focus on extraordinary expeditions. One was from explorers, who do so-called cold climate journeys. Another from the TV show, that arranges and broadcasts breathtaking off-road driving.

Two requests are related tightly to Oymyakon and the way to this place. Actually, questions sound the same.

Read more…

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