Tag Archives: tiksi-2024

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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“The winter road won’t get us there on its own!”

It was with such words in our minds – or something along those lines – that we’d awake every morning on our Yakutsk-Tiksi-Yakutsk expedition. And this particular morning was no exception: time to get up and be off. So, as per, we were up at the crack, and back on our way northward…

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I left you yesterday with us on our way out of Khonuu early morning heading to the nearest filling station. As you’ll no doubt know, refueling is normally rather straightforward; however, up here – just outside the Arctic Circle – it’s far from simple…

First of all, you have to find a filling station, for there aren’t many. That often means heading to the next village – or the one after that – and in northern Yakutia that can mean serious distances (an extra hundred kilometers, for example). But there’s more to refueling than just that; accordingly, I hereby announce that this post is dedicated to… Yakutian gas stations!…

Now, filling stations in the Far North aren’t the all-singing-all-dancing minimarket-cafes with hotdogs and assorted other bells and whistles like you get in more temperate climes across the developed world. In a word, here, they’re simple:

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In the previous installment in the series of blogposts on our Yakutsk-Tiksi-Yakutsk expedition, we’d just arrived in the small village of Khonuu after nightfall.

Now, since Far North villages fascinate me – particularly how life can and is lived in such places – I really wanted to get a closer look at what’s what here to be able to then convey it to you, dear readers. Not that we ventured out far: we literally just walked around our lodgings, but still…

Here are those lodgings:

You see the pipes in the above pic? Those carry hot water to all buildings in the village from a centralized heating plant. I was rather astonished to find out that this – a holdover from Soviet times – is a mandatory attribute across the whole of Yakutia – even its northern reaches.

So what’s it like inside apartment buildings like this one?… ->

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Hi folks!

So many business trips – so little time for… continuing my tales from the deep-frozen Siberian Far North side! But since flying back from China, let me get back to it. So, where was I? Ah – yes: arriving in the village of Sasyr after nightfall and, given there are no hotels or guesthouses to stay at, we were bedding down in the village school’s gym hall on rubber mats!…

Unusual circumstances? Yes. Original? Indeed. Uncomfortable? No!…

We were warm (here – crucial!), there was food, there was fuel at the nearby filling station (we drove there later), and – most importantly – there was table tennis. What more could you ask for?

The following morning – on the fourth day of our Yakutsk-Tiksi-Yakutsk road trip – after breakfast, we were back on our way on the winter/ice road. Next destination: the village of Khonuu (see the map at the very end of this post). And what an interesting and gorgeous day it was too…

First – warm-up pic:

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All these business trips of mine and the corresponding blogposts of late have kept me from continuing my tales from the ultra-frozen side – from our Yakutsk-Tiksi-Yakutsk winter/ice-road expedition. That all stops here!…

So, where was I?…

Ah yes. Our original plan of heading north along the frozen Indigirka river had been scuppered since the Indigirka Tube had flooded. It was therefore decided by the more experienced among us to take the Arctica winter road instead. So, leaving the village of Ust-Nera, we did just that. Straight away – wonderfully wintery Siberian scenes ->

Our expedition leader – former long-distance trucker Alexander Elikov – had done the full length of this winter road plenty of times in both a trucks and Toyotas. His comments to us about it both soothed and instilled some worry at the same time: “It’s a fairly straightforward winter road; the only issue is that it’s so long and monotonous that by the end of it you’re bored silly”. Oof.

Early on, however, we were anything but bored – so enthralled were we by the passing scenery ->

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Our next overnight stay on our Yakutsk-Tiksi-Yakutsk road trip was in Ust-Nera. As you can see on that Google Map – that’s a long way: 560 kilometers, which should take around 10 hours (!). However, all those 10 hours were to be spent on the Kolyma Highway, so, we were like: yes, bring it on!…

I’ve told you plenty of times already – this isn’t just a fascinatingly beautiful road-route to be taken through the deep-frozen Siberian countryside, this is a candidate for one of the most beautiful road-routes in the whole world! Yes, that is a bold statement; but it’s not as if I haven’t driven on some of the other contenders for that title around the world; therefore, I’m sticking with my boldness. I mean – just look! ->

Still need convincing? How about our decision to drive along Kolyma Highway already a third time in as many years? Still need convincing? Read on…

Read on…