29/12: Driving by Car through Siberia. Part 2: Ekaterinbug - Yakutsk (BAM)
This is continuation of Part 1: Ekaterinburg – Yakutsk (BAM). The travelers drove all the way from Ekaterinburg through BAM (Baikalo-Amurskaya magistral) to Yakutsk, through the icy and snowy roads where temperatures rarely went higher than minus 34 celcius, and finally reached a bridge to Tynda. The bridge was broken, so they decided to cross over the ice.
"After we passed about 10 kilometers pass Chilcha settlement, we made a 'pit stop' to add some diesel to the main tank from our canisters. Here we realized two things: the special antifreeze gel for diesel got frozen in the canister; the second, and the worst, thing was that the diesel itself in the task got also frozen...
(you can still see the old military outposts on this picture of BAM railway we passed along our way to Yakutsk)
While we've been thinking what to do next, a big Ural lorry with some railway workers appeared on the road. They offered to pull us back to Chilcha to their base, where we could warm up our cars and melt the ice in diesel.
That's how we got hosted by the real BAM builders. Using the opportunity to get to a warm nice place we made a dinner:
While our Land Rover Defender was warming up in a huge hangar, I was trying to understand why when the temperature is lower than minus 45 celcius, the heating inside the car fails to work properly. Previous night was quite uncomfortably cold, especially in the morning. It turned out that actually the heating switches off automatically when it's minus 45 because the cold air simply extinguishes the flame. So, using a typically Russian method – drill and hammer – I changed the system, so that the air would be taken in from inside the car. Didn't have problems with heating from then on.
We left our hosts and already in the darkness passed the remaining 200 km to Tynda. After passed the town, we finally reached M-45 motorway "Lena" and stopped for a night break. We started driving again early in the morning and after driving about 80 km from Tynda entered Yakutia.
Yakutia met us with the most beautiful parhelions in the clear air (another name for this phenomenon in English is "sundogs"):
In front we saw Chulman settlment that was covered with a thick layer of smog or mist (which as it turned out was caused by a nearby factory).
There's almost no wind in Yakutia during the winter, and the further we advanced into the republic, the better we could see it. Even the lorries are all modified because of that: the exhaust pipe is placed as high as possible. Otherwise, a trace of mist behind the car will be hanging above the road for hours:
This is Evota mountain, which is 1601 meters high. It's hard to say where is the horizon, where are the clouds, and anything else. It's also actually the highest point of "Lena" motorway – about 1355 meters.
Everything around is totally white and it's quite hard to orient yourself – the horizon and clouds mix together. And huge elm trees far away actually turn out to be small bushes 1.5 meters high.
Tommot - Yakutsk - Khadynga
A few kilometers before Tommot (about halfway along "Lena" motorway between Tynda and Yakutsk), the front driver Oleg Mayorov gets into an accident. While he was making a long left turn (which was also going upwards), Oleg noticed a car driving really fast towards him. Magically avoiding a head on collision, he turned to the side, into the deep snow. Nobody was hurt, even no bruises, and the car looked totally ok outside.
His Land Rover Defender is lying in a deep snow, almost on the side. We'll have to use winches to pull him out:
To be continued...
This travelogue follows the story of Evgeny, who traveled with his friends through Siberia. You can read his other travel stories (in Russian) on his LiveJournal blog. If you want us to translate a specific post, leave a comment here.
"After we passed about 10 kilometers pass Chilcha settlement, we made a 'pit stop' to add some diesel to the main tank from our canisters. Here we realized two things: the special antifreeze gel for diesel got frozen in the canister; the second, and the worst, thing was that the diesel itself in the task got also frozen...
(you can still see the old military outposts on this picture of BAM railway we passed along our way to Yakutsk)
While we've been thinking what to do next, a big Ural lorry with some railway workers appeared on the road. They offered to pull us back to Chilcha to their base, where we could warm up our cars and melt the ice in diesel.
That's how we got hosted by the real BAM builders. Using the opportunity to get to a warm nice place we made a dinner:
While our Land Rover Defender was warming up in a huge hangar, I was trying to understand why when the temperature is lower than minus 45 celcius, the heating inside the car fails to work properly. Previous night was quite uncomfortably cold, especially in the morning. It turned out that actually the heating switches off automatically when it's minus 45 because the cold air simply extinguishes the flame. So, using a typically Russian method – drill and hammer – I changed the system, so that the air would be taken in from inside the car. Didn't have problems with heating from then on.
We left our hosts and already in the darkness passed the remaining 200 km to Tynda. After passed the town, we finally reached M-45 motorway "Lena" and stopped for a night break. We started driving again early in the morning and after driving about 80 km from Tynda entered Yakutia.
Yakutia met us with the most beautiful parhelions in the clear air (another name for this phenomenon in English is "sundogs"):
In front we saw Chulman settlment that was covered with a thick layer of smog or mist (which as it turned out was caused by a nearby factory).
There's almost no wind in Yakutia during the winter, and the further we advanced into the republic, the better we could see it. Even the lorries are all modified because of that: the exhaust pipe is placed as high as possible. Otherwise, a trace of mist behind the car will be hanging above the road for hours:
This is Evota mountain, which is 1601 meters high. It's hard to say where is the horizon, where are the clouds, and anything else. It's also actually the highest point of "Lena" motorway – about 1355 meters.
Everything around is totally white and it's quite hard to orient yourself – the horizon and clouds mix together. And huge elm trees far away actually turn out to be small bushes 1.5 meters high.
Tommot - Yakutsk - Khadynga
A few kilometers before Tommot (about halfway along "Lena" motorway between Tynda and Yakutsk), the front driver Oleg Mayorov gets into an accident. While he was making a long left turn (which was also going upwards), Oleg noticed a car driving really fast towards him. Magically avoiding a head on collision, he turned to the side, into the deep snow. Nobody was hurt, even no bruises, and the car looked totally ok outside.
His Land Rover Defender is lying in a deep snow, almost on the side. We'll have to use winches to pull him out:
To be continued...
This travelogue follows the story of Evgeny, who traveled with his friends through Siberia. You can read his other travel stories (in Russian) on his LiveJournal blog. If you want us to translate a specific post, leave a comment here.
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