Another day – another winter-road fairy tale (and another schotel).

I left you yesterday with our arriving – on our (March 2024) Yakutsk-Tiksi-Yakutsk road-trip – in the village of Ust-Kuyga before lunch. We didn’t stop there, as we wanted to keep up the pace and crack on – all the way to Khayyr. And the pace was indeed kept up, for the road became a winter (ice) road upon the smooth surface of the frozen-over Yana river. And smooth = fast!…

First we drove some 130km to the village of Severny, but since it’s long been abandoned we passed straight through it still on the winter road ->

Now, you might think by quickly glancing at the above map that the winter road sticks to the river all the way, but have a closer look and you’ll see that isn’t the case: it keeps veering off it. This slowed us down as off it always means slower going. But still, the going overall: good. But, why all the haste anyway? Because we still had a long way to go. Look! ->

But I’m getting ahead of myself. Rewind back to our leaving the asphalted Deputatsky–Ust-Kuyga road and onto the winter road on the Yana and… it was time for lunch, which we had directly upon the river, naturally! ->

Lunch on the Yana. Sounds wonderful; however, it was mere instant noodles (like I say: wonderful!).

While I was waiting in the car as our “meals” were being prepared, I used the downtime to turn my attention to our expedition’s route to Tiksi. Here it is in the following pic. Ignore the Russian language; the main thing I want to show you is the very round-about route we took – a long-winded lurch to the east and then back west (marked in red), instead of the almost directly north route via Batagai (Батагай on the map). So, why did we take this route, which is more than a thousand kilometers longer? ->

Map honestly copied from here

Easy: because taking different routes when getting to and from most any destination is always better than there-and-back on the same route (we took the long route getting to Tiksi, and the plan was to return to Yakutsk down the more direct route south via the above-mentioned Batagai (more on how the plan went later!)). And this principle of different routes there-and-back goes for within the Arctic Circle too; in fact – especially so. For it would mean a lot more meditation upon a lot more different white expanses, plus overnight stays in plenty more deep-frozen villages (and more visited-village checkmarks for the list too).

Meanwhile – another rewind: we leave Ust-Kuyga on the winter road on the Yana river ->

A lovely day, and a smooth winter road – seeing us reach a hundred kilometers per hour at times…

Suddenly – naleds. We reduce our speed accordingly ->

Road workers. Respect! Imagine that for a task – keeping these winter roads clear?! ->

Suddenly – what looks like some an oil/petroleum installation of some kind:

We approach the abandoned Severny, where we take an almost 180-degree turn and on to Khayyr ->

Severny is a typical abandoned village of the North. At one time the Soviets brought here much industrial equipment and dug here and extracted there; they then went one further and built both industrial and residential buildings; then, decades later, it all became unprofitable and everything was closed. And today it looks like this ->

All rather depressing ->

The only thing “alive” these days – the winter road that skirts it upon the river (but I think at least some buildings (like dachas) in the village are alive too – why would they clear the road that runs through it otherwise?) ->

The signs at the hairpin turn in Severny ->

And again we were plunged into a white “desert” – even with Arctic cactuses! ->

Civilization? We didn’t make a stop to find out…

We pass another abandoned village – Kular. They used to mine gold here – but then the gold ran out…

I say abandoned – but clearly not completely: passing through it we saw a rather decent, clearly lived-in, two-story cottage with cars parked up on the drive. Extraordinary!

Onward (on the… Kuchchuguy-Kyuegyulyur (!) river) – but not in a straight line; far from it! ->

And the above squiggles (which saw 20km as the crow flies become 60km as the Tank drives:) from the drone look like this ->

And finally we make it to Khayyr ->

Tiksi – that way (which is where we were to head the following day)…

We take a brief walkabout in the village, which, remember, is waaaay up inside the Arctic Circle – where in winter the sun never rises at all, but where in summer – it never sets! ->

The village administration helped us out with our lodgings. Town hall:

We couldn’t crash in the village’s “house of culture” as it was being used as a polling station ->

That left us with just one more option – as per tradition already: the village school! ->

Again we occupied the sports hall: spacious, and comes with soft mats for mattresses ) ->

Later on I’ll dedicate a whole post to our lodgings on our road trip; for now – here’s tonight’s schotel! ->

I found an electric socket so put fingers to keyboard to write notes for what you’re reading now (before I’d forget some details); no internet, mind ->

Petrovich got some drone practice in:

Meanwhile in the school’s canteen…

The day’s stats:

Overall journey stats:

And that’s all for today folks, but I’ll be back with more from the Arctic Circle side shortly…

The rest of the photos from our Yakutsk-Tiksi-Yakutsk expedition are here.