Not far (20 minutes on snowmobiles) from the 70-kilometer road between Verkhoyansk and Batagay, there’s a unique natural phenomenon that goes by the name of the Batagaika crater ->

Apparently it formed as a result of a combination of global warming and certain actions of Soviet Homo sapiens – those certain actions being cutting down the trees in the surrounding area, plus the making of ruts by heavy all-terrain vehicles (used during the deforestation). This eventually led to the permafrost thawing, becoming a ravine, and then spreading out, giving us today this here bizarre massive tadpole-shaped depressed formation on the Siberian plains:

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The town of Verkhoyansk is one of extremes. First and foremost, it’s considered to be one of the coldest places on the planet – a Pole of Cold. It also happens to be the northernmost town in Yakutia (so – not including villages), and it’s also the town (again – not village) with the smallest population in Russia. Wait – there’s more: back to the climate theme, it’s in the Guinness Book of Records for having the greatest range of temperatures – a whopping 105.8°C between the coldest and warmest!

Here’s the sign at the village’s town’s gates as you enter it ->

The town of Verkhoyansk – the Pole of Cold

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In the previous post, I left you with us leaving Tiksi earlier than planned. We left earlier to avoid the coming storm, which could have seen us stranded in Tiksi for more than a week. Now, Tiksi is a wonderful place, but staying there for a week+ sure wasn’t in our plans. We all agreed: “Let’s get the hell out of here!” And that’s just what we did – on the winter road back the way we came…

We left at 4pm – just in time for the sunset:

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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 ->

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Last week, I left you with us in a schotel in Khayyr. Today…

…Things were getting decidedly more polar – no vegetation whatsoever, and flat white expanses all around as far as the eye could see – much like up around the North Pole! ->

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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!…

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And so, it was farewell Deputatsky, and hello, once again, the long and winding road north. More of the same? Yes. We were ever bored? Yeah – right!…

But what made this day stand out from being “just another” day of wonderful whiteness were… the halos in the morning! ->

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Ahead of schedule, we were fast approaching the destination of our road trip – the northern-Russian-coastal town of Tiksi.

Already behind us were the towns/villages of Khandyga, Ust-Nera, Sasyr, Khonuu, and Syagannakh. All was hunky-dory with our Chinese vehicles. And since we made it to the town of Deputatsky much quicker than expected, of course – that meant only one thing: a walk around this village that’s some 400 kilometers inside the Arctic Circle (to give you a taster-teaser – just in case any of you, dear readers, may fancy one day visiting the place)…

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You know the drill already: a new day on our Yakutsk-Tiksi-Yakutsk expedition means another early rise, another quick breakfast, and minutes later piling back into our cars and setting off again on our way. On this day we had around 300km ahead of us taking us from Syagannakh to Deputatsky…

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