The final push for Tiksi!

Hi folks!

I left you last time with our leaving Nayba on the final stretch toward Tiksi (in case you’re new here – on our Yakutsk-Tiksi-Yakutsk expedition). There were just ~three kilometers of land-based winter road out of Nayba – then it snaked back onto the frozen-over Laptev Sea, with us heading northwest ->

As you’ll guess from these pics – the going was super-fast. Suddenly – a whole convoy of trucks coming the other way ->

From Nayba to Tiksi it’s a mere 130km, which took us a mere 150 minutes (including photo stops).

Up goes the drone ->

By the shore the going got bumpy ->

Up here, when sea currents, iced sea, plus a shore combine, this is what you get ->

Can’t work out the scale? Petrovich to the rescue! ->

Inverted selfie (with DZ), or… a youie? ->

Ice snaps done; onward…

And there it is, finally: Tiksi – the destination of our adventure (no – I shouldn’t call it an adventure…) ->

It wasn’t an adventure in and of itself; it was a very well-planned trip – with provision for the inevitable unexpectednesses and… adventures ).

Distance left to go – not the usual thousands of kilometers but… 500 meters! ->

The moment we’d been waiting for! ->

The day’s journey stats (inc.: 12 hours of driving!) ->

And the overall stats (main ones: total journey distance – 3100km; averages speed: 30km/h!) ->

Those with experience of arctic driving may be scratching their heads looking at those journey figures. They may be wondering how on earth we managed to drive from Yakutsk to Tiksi the long-way round (via Deputatsky) and bypassing the shorter route via the Indigirka Tube (taking the much longer one via Sasyr) all in eight days? My explanation? We were simply lucky! Besides the flooded Indigirka Tube we had zero other delays – something that never normally happens. No snowstorms, not even much snow fall, and no other obstacles – be they expected or unexpected. Oh yes!

No waiting for snow-clearing vehicles for days, no queueing in traffic at tricky stretches; we just drove and drove and drove. Clear skies, fully cleared winter roads, no massive ice blocks barricading the road. Incredible!

The whole route:

More incredulity: we kept to our journey schedule – to the day! Again – it was all about luck. For example, if we’d been just a day behind on our itinerary, we’d have been delayed by a full week by arctic blizzards. We’d have had to have sit out the storm out for ~seven days in Khayyr!

And here’s our “hotel” – in these apartment buildings! ->

Inside – yes, basic. But all we really needed were a roof, warmth and other basics – and all of them were present and correct, sir ->

Drive to Tiksi – done. All that was left was getting back down to Yakutsk (not before checking out Tiksi, of course – in tomorrow’s post)…

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