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.
As far as you know, I decided to organize a road trip to Oymyakon, the Pole of Cold, from Jan. 17 till Jan. 21 for my friends. Today we, trip participants, gathered and had lunch in Yakutsk at the Chicago Bar.
There were alll of those mentioned in travellers list, including a German photographer Bjorn Steinz and a US student Tilden Smith. Bjorn arrived yesterday by plane from Vladivostok. Tilden came this morning by a car from Nerungri.
A very good news. I will go with my friends. By the last minute I wasn’t sure, whether I will go. There were a lot of works to be done. Read more…
Thanks to Eva Krečová, I’ve eventually watched the Long Way Round episode dedicated the Road of Bones. So many years past, but it happened now only. If you weren’t lucky to see it, just do it and consider your traveling this way. Must be a lot of fun and adventure stories.
Btw, Eva Krečová & Tomáš Holman are the Czech travel motorcyclists, who repeated the same journey along the Road of Bones in August 2009, but alone on one BMW bike and without local truckers’ help. Check their set of Kolyma Highways photographs.
Watch other parts of the episode. Keep in mind that Ewan and Charley’s biking took place in June 2004. May and June is the period, when local rivers tend to be furious and full of high waters. The safer period is August. Read more…
I have been reading the last report about Norwegians’ accident [in Yakutia/Siberia], and I want to ask you something… Is this a recent story? I haven’t found the piece of news relating to this.
Nowadays I know some people who want to make the journey to Oymyakon [the coldest place in Yakutia and the whole Siberia], only as a wish, without nothing to take it seriously. I’ve been reading different articles, and AskYakutia’s reports and I think it is not a thing for not taking it seriously. It’s very funny to see -60ºC, but another thing is to go for them.
What do you thing about this journey? It is a little dangerous, isn’t it?
Today’s top local news is totally dedicted to Norwegian adventure travelers lost allegedly in the Oymyakonsky region by the Embassy of Norway and found by the Russian rescuers. They were okey.
They appeared to be very naive travelers. They thought they would be the first who made it to Magadan by the old route of the Kolyma Highway in winter. Even experienced local drivers know that driving from Tomtor directly to Magadan that way is impossible, because it is impassable, it is covered with thick snow. Now they are forced to say they got stuck due to the breakage of their Mercedes Benz off-road vehicle. That’s the myth! Read more…
Once I published long-distance taxi rates that can be taken into consideration while traveling within Yakutia. But I’ve never written a post about pecularities of using such a ground transport, precisely about advantages and disadvantages of going from Yakutsk to Magadan via the Road of Bones (Kolyma Highway) by taxi.
UAZ is used as a long distance taxi within Yakutia. Photo provided by Slava Mestnikov.
This time I decided to fill this gap. First, let’s recall the route and list “pros”, then I’ll mention some important things to remember. Read more…
In March 2007, a few friends of mine, Yakutsk-based adventure cyclists, Marat, Maverick & Scorpion (don’t know why, but they call each others by nicks), traveled from Yakutsk to Oymyakon, the Pole of Cold. A funny thing. They documented the expedition pretty good. They’ve got a lot of high resolutions photographs, perfect videos and… Since the travel they couldn’t find time to make the full report.
Recently Marat promised me to make his report with pictures. Time is passing, but he didn’t finish his text yet. Well… While he is trying to find spare time, I decided to create my own post using some of his photos and the video done by Maverick for friends’ fun and digged out occasionally in the archive. Here is what we have by now.
Often asked about the tour to the Pole of Cold, Oymyakon. All the time the question sounds different. Some is interested in transfer rates, others in hotel rates, third persons are just wondering what to do and see in the Pole of Cold. So I decided why not just give away the description of the standard tour to the officially acknowledged coldest Siberian place?!
The Indigirka River, Oymyakon, Siberia/Russia. In some parts it is never frozen, even when the temperature goes below -50C.
The tour description was received from a friend of mine, Semen Baishev, an Oymyakon-based travel enthusiast. Actually it is him, who arranges all the travel program in the Pole of Cold for individual tourists and travel agencies’ groups. Oops, travel agencies might “kill” me for disclosing such an info :) Whatever. So… here we go. Read more…
The following useful info on accommodations was provided by Sardana Mikheeva via the Facebook group “Ask-Yakutia-Today” (don’t forget to join the FB group.) I added some info, more details and comments. So here we go. Read more…
Yeah, I am pretty much happy to present the list of useful stuff to bring along while traveling on bikes across Russia’s Siberia and Far East. The list was compiled, used and provided by Czech motorcyclists Eva Krečová and Tomáš Holman (the FB fan page OFF Siberia … ОФФ Сибирь Project), who, by the way, made the old route of the Kolyma Highway / the Road of Bones to Magadan Oblast alone on one BMW G800 the last summer. Read more…
Oh, my God! Oh, my God! Just wondering… Will the blog visitors, who love travelling and free downloading at the same time, be enough grateful for what I am going to do now? Damn, I am really up to let the world download the Kolyma Highway travel map for free. Read more…
