Ust-Nera and the road to Oymyakon - 1000 km of snowy tundra
We continue the winter anti-Thai theme and the theme of travels in Russia. Last time Vitalik told about Yakutsk and Lena Pillars. Indeed, if you want impressions, it is not necessary to go to the south, you can go, on the contrary, to the edge of the permafrost, where the temperatures are so low that my imagination cannot even imagine them. Read another post from Vitalik about the road to the cold pole Oymyakon in Yakutia, about the coldest place in Russia, and possibly on the whole earth after Antarctica. True, Oymyakon is fighting for this title with Verkhoyansk, and scientists will not come to a consensus..
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Flight Yakutsk - Ust-Nera
Between Yakutsk and Oymyakon there are about 1000 kilometers of the way to the north-east. It passes through the deserted forest-tundra, many kilometers of ice crossings through the Lena and Aldan, mountain serpentines of the Chersky ridge, and most importantly - through fifty, and if you're lucky, even sixty-degree frosts. The road clearly promised to be difficult, and therefore I decided to drive it entirely only once - on the way back (how to get there). And I planned to get to Oymyakon by plane through the administrative center of the Oymyakon district, the city of Ust-Nera, and from there already 400 kilometers on a hitchhiking - thus, meeting in one day.
A two-hour flight from Yakutsk to Ust-Nera deserves to enter the Guinness Book of Records as the most insolent rip-off of customers in the history of civil aviation. A one-way ticket by Polar Airlines cost me more than from Moscow to Yakutsk round-trip, despite the fact that I got it after a promotion. To imagine the flight conditions, it is enough to understand that it was performed on the AN-24 aircraft, which was discontinued back in 1979. From the inside, he looked like a real pepelats, fittings protruded from the gnawed seats, persistently biting into the ass, the flush in the toilet did not work (the announcement said that it should not be in the winter), and sound insulation seemed to be absent in principle. It remained to admire the mountain landscapes outside the window, since the plane flew quite low.
Nevertheless, there was a service on board, which was that one could get a choice of orange or tomato juice, and from the hands of the co-pilot. And passengers with luggage had to pick it up from the luggage compartment on their own, and also carry it through the icy canvas of the airport..
Well, yes, not for comfort you need to go to the Pole of Cold. Upon arrival, I called the dispatcher's number previously found and arranged a ride. The driver Maxim turned out to be a hitchhiker, who was going to go to Oymyakon right now. Only now ... we drove to literally the nearest gas station, where it turned out that our Range Rover, apparently, unable to withstand the overloads, cracked and broke the rear suspension. What to do? Going on a long journey with such a breakdown was tantamount to suicide. We needed repairs, and with welding.
Finding welding at the end of the January holidays in Ust-Nera turned out to be a non-trivial matter. In the only working car repair shop, the welder was absent, thumping in who knows where. Well, the city is small, everyone knows each other, and after several calls, we still managed to find a free master. A warm garage for repairs was kindly provided by local gayts (the case when we can say thank you to them). The guys had several hours of work, and I had time to walk around the city.
Ust-Nera
Ust-Nera, a city founded in 1937 by the forces of Gulag prisoners, can be called an illustration of the modern economic model of Russia, brought to perfection. The outskirts of the city are rich in gold, antimony and other valuable metals. All this is actively mined with the participation of local residents, but at the same time the city itself looks like a shack of a gradually sinking drunk, in which a mess and desolation reigns. Entire neighborhoods in the city are abandoned, some wooden houses still show signs of life, but it is obvious that the days of this life are numbered. Trash and stray dogs all around.
It was not even poverty that struck me more (expensive cars on the streets, by the way, are also present), but how much neglect. Locals clearly do not want to make their life more beautiful and tidier, apparently because they do not see a future in it. There is only one cafe in the city, and that is the nausea of the Soviet era. The club and shopping arcade also leave a depressing impression. This is because the mining of gold and other metals is completely controlled by the mafia, which consists of people from all over the CIS. These people clearly do not associate their lives with extreme frosts, and such an attitude «those in power» transmitted to all other residents.
Nevertheless, the locals in communication, although seemingly unfriendly, are very friendly. For example, a guy whom I asked about the road to the monument to the victims of repression, a few minutes later caught up with me in his car and offered to give me a lift - obviously, he didn’t want me to walk two kilometers in the cold on foot. The monument itself, by the way, is officially dedicated to the builders of the track «Kolyma», and it mentions the prisoners of the GULAG as if in passing - apparently, for political correctness.
The road to Oymyakon
When I returned, the repairs were almost complete, and soon we finally went to Oymyakon. By this time it got dark (and it gets dark in January here at four o'clock in the afternoon), and we spent the next eight hours of the journey in conversation, only occasionally getting out of the car «on business».
By the way, the sensations of a two-minute sortie in the middle of the track «Kolyma» truly cosmic and worth driving there at least once. You are standing in front of a dark precipice, above you billions of stars, under you somewhere down there like an endless crowd of larch trees bent ugly under the weight of frost. (It's a pity, all this can't be photographed with a phone.) The air is so dry that even without outerwear you don't feel cold at first, but after about half a minute all this surrounding space is taken as if to gnaw warmth out of you, and you begin to understand what it means metaphor «whisper of the stars», which the locals call severe frost.
We drove along a perfectly snow-white road, Maxim talked about his hunting trips and sucked red wine from a 1.5-liter bottle, nibbling on Magadan capelin. «Otherwise, such distances cannot be mastered, - he says. Some people need to sleep on the way, and some - like me - do not have much time, so a couple of sips of wine or brandy help to cheer up. Anyway, there are gays only in Ust-Nera.» Towards the end of the journey, the bottle turned out to be empty, which, by the way, did not affect the rather neat driving style..
«But if the car stalled, then how can you find dry firewood under this layer of frost in order to quickly make a fire?» - I ask. «Yes, it's elementary, - Max answers. For example, look - dry larch, but not», - he shows me two identical white pieces on the side of the road. In half an hour we drove past a huge dying fire. The one who got into trouble, obviously, has already managed to evacuate.. «See - I told you it was simple!» - soothes Max.
After another two hours of travel, we arrived at the Fork - the only place where you can refuel. Further, the road went to the right - to Yakutsk, and to the left - to our Oymyakon. Gas station and cafe with a warming name «Cuba» give the impression of a real polar station. And the food is extremely simple - apparently thanks to the self-mobilizing body it seems surprisingly tasty.
After another couple of hours of travel, we drove up to the house of old man Gutsul, or Gandalf, as young people call him for his gray beard. Hutsul, as Max told me, is a very epic character. He tells everyone that he is 73 years old, but the locals unearthed it, which is actually several years less. Hutsul loves to share the details of his intimate life and boasts: «I can satisfy a woman for two hours without taking out!» Now he lives practically as a hermit at a weather station, together with a young wife. He has several children, but all were taken away by the guardianship authorities, since the parents cannot provide them with schooling. It's a pity only Gutsul took a 20 km hike right before we arrived. As he explained to his wife, «beat someone in the face». I'm not sure, however, that it was this that was the incentive to get out of the house on a not at all warm January evening. My wife gave us tea by the light of a kerosene lamp (there is no electricity in the house), and we went on..
We arrived in the Oymyakonskaya valley very much after midnight. Max called his acquaintances from the gas station, and they left for me on the porch the keys to the guest house in the small village of Kuidusun (about that, where will stay).
P.S. Vitalik does not blog, so here is a link to his Facebook account. In the next post, you will find out 33 interesting facts about Oymyakon, pole of cold.