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…
Received a very nice request from a 12-year-old lady from Stochholm, Sweden.
She wrote:
Hi!.. I am 12 years old. I am working on a school project about Yakutsk and Yakutia. There are some things I want to ask about. – What type of clothes do you use during wintertime? -What abot the wildlife in Yakutia, what type of animals live there? – Children who don’t live close to their school, how do they get to school during the coldest periods?
This is so cool! I was extremely glad to hear kids’ interest in Yakutia.
Here are my answers: Read more…
Here is the famous hillarious Japanese TV Show about Oymyakon (Ojmjakon), one of the coldest inhabited places in East Yakutia, Siberia / Russia.
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’s that in the video?
This is the road from Yakutsk through Vilyuysk to Mirny. Driving by members of the winter 4wd expedition to Russia’s Republic of Sakha (Yakutia), one of the world’s coldest places on the globe. Four cars – three Nissan Patrols and Toyota FJ Cruiser – and seven men. These are 5th and 6th days of the YakutExpo expedition started on February 24th, 2011, in Nerungri, initiated and conducted by Artemyj Lebedev, a top Russian blogger.
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