Frankly saying, this week I thought “Well, on the next Monday we are promised to see the first snowfall in Yakutsk. Winter is really at the hand. It’s time to think about the cold.” Besides, I noted that, according to the latest Google Analytics statistics, Oymyakon, the so-called Pole of Cold, became one of the most popular blog tags. I started expecting winter-related questions and something like “How to drive the icy Kolyma Highway?”
At the end of this month, I thought, there would be no more questions about the current condition of the road from Yakutsk to Magadan, especially when I had already given the answer in the 2009 September Report post… Hehe… I am truly smiling at the moment. What I love in AskYakutia.com is that it keeps providing unexpected occurrences. It is never possible for me to predict the type of the next query. Yesterday I received the following message:
“I don’t know if you remember me. I am a French man, who discussed about the Kolyma map with you some few months ago. I am in Yakutsk now. I came from Paris by car (1 month!) and I want to drive to Magadan by the new road, but I don’t have a 4wd, just an old Ford Fiesta. Is it possible [for me to get to Magadan via Ust-Nera] now?” Read more…
I found this question in the list of keywords that have brought some traffic to my weblog, and I recalled Nick Middleton, an Oxford geography lecturer and the creator of the four-series TV show “Going to Extremes.” The first part, btw, depicted his travel to Oymyakon, the Pole of Cold. While staying in the village, he gave a detailed explanation of why the area in eastern Yakutia was able to keep the cold as low as -71.2 degrees Celsius (-96.16 degrees Fahrenheit). Read more…
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…
If you have been thinking about hunting in Yakutia in autumn, check out the pictures of what it can be. 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.
Read more…
A Turkish traveller, who is planning to complete the around-the-world lonely trip “Istanbul2Instanbul”, is asking: “Everybody is talking about the danger to cross the Road of Bones alone, however, there are lots making lonely trips with thier motorbikes or cars. Do you think that it is dangerous to be alone on this road? If so, can it be a solution, for example, to go together with a truck which carries goods from Yakutsk to Magadan, if there is any?” Read more…
An Oymyakon-based travel enthusiast, Semen Baishev, informed me that in the course of summer he is going to arrange tours to the legendary Labynkyr Lake that is famous for a monster. Read more…
