- Location
- Sandy, Ut
Wandering Through Siberia. A personal perspective of the Expeditions7 Russia/Siberia leg - Kurt Williams
Dates: Sept 10-27th, 2012
Attendees: Greg M, Scott B, Clay C, Andery S, Kurt W
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Tomtor, the pole of cold!
I've been back on US soil for a little over a month and just now I'm finding the time, but more importantly the clarity, to sit down and write about my experiences on the Russian leg of Expeditions7. While bouncing around Siberia we often joked that it would take a month to digest all the sights, sounds, and adventures we packed into our trip. This proved to be profoundly true - in fact 100% spot on in my case. I had taken notes along the entire trip and in the past few weeks I've pored over my pictures and added to notes here and there. However the other morning I woke to a few inches of snow blanketing the yard and immediately my mind retreated to our camp en route to Tomtor, where we woke to a similar snowy bliss. My mind was now spinning full speed with thoughts I just knew had to be jotted down before they escaped my mind, so for the past few days I've been typing like a madman at each chance I get. The trip was extremely culture-rich and I know my words and pictures won't do it justice, but nonetheless I wanted to share the experience in the best way I could. My goal isn't to offer a play by play account of our voyage, to do so would take a dozen pages and I just don't have the words to keep your attention that long.
Rather, I want to highlight some of the experiences that were most memorable and moving for me personally.
The trip started in July with a phone call from Greg Miller. I've come to learn that a phone call from Greg will result in several constants: Land Cruisers, lots of driving and late nights. I look forward to each and every one of those calls. He asked if I was interested in joining Expeditions7 for a leg through central and eastern Russia, which would have us trekking through remote Siberia. I was in. The trip started like they all do, with packing. I had some good background as to our travel schedule and likely accommodations based on my participation in one of the North American E7 legs. That said the NA leg was in the summer months and its far easier to pack t-shirts, shorts and flip-flops than cold weather gear, boots, and waders all while dealing with the high baggage fees and convenience issues of packing heavy duffel bags through airports around the world. Through packing, un-packing, and re-packing I was able to confidently get all of my gear into a single checked bag and a couple of smaller carry-on's.
Cinematographer Clay Croft and I met up in SLC where we would fly together to Paris and from Paris to Moscow, and finally Moscow to Irkutsk. I think you don't really know someone until you sit next to them for 30 hours of flights and connections - I now know Clay.
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Organizing & Prepping the 78's @ Lake Baikal
We made it to our team rendezvous in Irkutsk with little incident, the most notable being a broken airplane seat (craftily repaired by the stewardess utilizing a pillow), and a nearly lost bag as we made our final flight. Lo and behold, the bag showed up and Scott Brady was there to pick us up as planned- disaster averted. As we drove back to the hotel where we would meet up with the rest of the team, Scott briefed us on the previous leg of the trip, the driving conditions, and a rough agenda for the weeks to come. Before long we were loading the troopy's and en route to Lake Baikal, for a night of rest. Our accommodations were a pair of quaint cabins with a a patch of grass and just enough space for us to sort out the contents of the trucks and ensure we had all of the needed camping goods for the remaining voyage.
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Fishing on Lake Baikal
Lake Baikal is an an amazing site, the world's oldest lake, the world's deepest lake, and it contains roughly 20% of the worlds fresh water supply. At the advice of our hosts we spent an afternoon on the lake fishing, and while we had little luck with the rods, the open air and stellar sightseeing was an opportunity I won't soon forget. In another life I would love to again visit Baikal and spend a week or more exploring its shores. I've realized the same could be said about so many of the places we visited and I hope at some point in my life that opportunity presents itself.
With some decent shut-eye under our belts and the rigs prepped for some long stretches ahead we made an early start for Ulan Ude, where Greg had arranged dinner with a American couple serving a religious mission in town. Following the dinner, Greg spoke at a local church service with the aide of a local interpreter. The rest of the team sat in the audience and enjoyed his stories and dialogue with the locals. The attendees seemed genuinely interested in Greg and his desire to complete the Expeditons7 mission, a cultural exchange I found most enjoyable.
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Greg speaking in Ulan Ude
As I've mentioned we had a lot of ground to cover, and while Scott's agenda allowed for a reasonable travel schedule throughout our trip we were all anxious to keep driving and front-load the trip with time thus allowing us a bit more flexibility when needed. Our Russian fixer & interpreter Andery had jokingly mentioned "You can't cover 1000 kilometers on Russian roads west of Moscow in a single day". A challenge perhaps? In what became a near 40-hour push we covered close to 1800 kilometers with nothing but fuel stops and some stretch breaks. With 5 drivers we had the ability to keep a fresh set of hands on the steering wheel and let a few members of the team get some shut-eye. This major push turned out to be quite advantageous, allowing us to slow down a bit on the back half of the trip. With that gained time we ended with an extra day in Magadan to visit the local museum and prep the rigs for export.
Driving in Russia is one of the most hair-raising experiences I've dealt with, right up there with getting nerfed by Trophy Trucks during the Mint 400. Crazy bumpy roads on narrow mountain passes, and if you're not passing, you're getting passed. Add heavy truck traffic, pedestrians, and free-range cattle. It's a miracle this country has a population. That said, while the road conditions deteriorated as we moved further east, the courtesy of drivers seemed to have drastically increased. These areas are extremely remote, an ambulance could be a day away if they would even bother sending one at all. I think the community at large realizes this sense of remote isolation and works together to make the roads a bit more tame (but still insanely crazy!) in order to achieve a common goal, getting to your destination. Scott wrote a short article on the subject, well worth checking out to get a vibe as to our experience: DRIVING IN RUSSIA.
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The overall condition in many parts of the Russian Highway in the Siberia Region
Eastern Russia is remote, like no other remote I have experienced in my life's travels thus far. While I've been in some pretty isolated areas, none had the same immense serenity that I felt in the mountains of Siberia. We could go hours without passing a single vehicle yet roll into a small mining village that teemed with activity, people walking, truck traffic, kids walking home from school - a contrast that was repeated over and over as we traveled hundreds of kilometers before lunch and then a few hundred more before dinner. How does one define remote? How about when Google doesn't even have town names or maps.
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There is a trail under that river
I ended up taking far more pictures than usual, it was just so hard not to want to capture everything I could. While I'm far from a professional photographer, my pictures do the job for me, they capture the story and provide me with a cue that I can later translate into full blown memory. Like they say, a picture is worth a thousand words - sometimes a few more.
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The ferry crossing of the Aldan River
Our ferry charter across the Aldan River gave us a minute to sit back and relax during the hour long crossing. The ferry was seemingly overloaded, dented, and rusty, yet it was perfectly fitting. There are several different ferry outfits operating at the crossing, and while I can't say ours was the biggest or best it surely had the most character. As an added bonus it was the only ferry left when we arrived at the launch so we were happy to have a spot on any boat at this point. There was a chance the ferries were out of service or the river swollen thus preventing crossing, so our successful crossing was a major milestone.
Dates: Sept 10-27th, 2012
Attendees: Greg M, Scott B, Clay C, Andery S, Kurt W
Tomtor, the pole of cold!
I've been back on US soil for a little over a month and just now I'm finding the time, but more importantly the clarity, to sit down and write about my experiences on the Russian leg of Expeditions7. While bouncing around Siberia we often joked that it would take a month to digest all the sights, sounds, and adventures we packed into our trip. This proved to be profoundly true - in fact 100% spot on in my case. I had taken notes along the entire trip and in the past few weeks I've pored over my pictures and added to notes here and there. However the other morning I woke to a few inches of snow blanketing the yard and immediately my mind retreated to our camp en route to Tomtor, where we woke to a similar snowy bliss. My mind was now spinning full speed with thoughts I just knew had to be jotted down before they escaped my mind, so for the past few days I've been typing like a madman at each chance I get. The trip was extremely culture-rich and I know my words and pictures won't do it justice, but nonetheless I wanted to share the experience in the best way I could. My goal isn't to offer a play by play account of our voyage, to do so would take a dozen pages and I just don't have the words to keep your attention that long.
Rather, I want to highlight some of the experiences that were most memorable and moving for me personally. The trip started in July with a phone call from Greg Miller. I've come to learn that a phone call from Greg will result in several constants: Land Cruisers, lots of driving and late nights. I look forward to each and every one of those calls
. He asked if I was interested in joining Expeditions7 for a leg through central and eastern Russia, which would have us trekking through remote Siberia. I was in. The trip started like they all do, with packing. I had some good background as to our travel schedule and likely accommodations based on my participation in one of the North American E7 legs. That said the NA leg was in the summer months and its far easier to pack t-shirts, shorts and flip-flops than cold weather gear, boots, and waders all while dealing with the high baggage fees and convenience issues of packing heavy duffel bags through airports around the world. Through packing, un-packing, and re-packing I was able to confidently get all of my gear into a single checked bag and a couple of smaller carry-on's. Cinematographer Clay Croft and I met up in SLC where we would fly together to Paris and from Paris to Moscow, and finally Moscow to Irkutsk. I think you don't really know someone until you sit next to them for 30 hours of flights and connections - I now know Clay.
Organizing & Prepping the 78's @ Lake Baikal
We made it to our team rendezvous in Irkutsk with little incident, the most notable being a broken airplane seat (craftily repaired by the stewardess utilizing a pillow), and a nearly lost bag as we made our final flight. Lo and behold, the bag showed up and Scott Brady was there to pick us up as planned- disaster averted. As we drove back to the hotel where we would meet up with the rest of the team, Scott briefed us on the previous leg of the trip, the driving conditions, and a rough agenda for the weeks to come. Before long we were loading the troopy's and en route to Lake Baikal, for a night of rest. Our accommodations were a pair of quaint cabins with a a patch of grass and just enough space for us to sort out the contents of the trucks and ensure we had all of the needed camping goods for the remaining voyage.
Fishing on Lake Baikal
Lake Baikal is an an amazing site, the world's oldest lake, the world's deepest lake, and it contains roughly 20% of the worlds fresh water supply. At the advice of our hosts we spent an afternoon on the lake fishing, and while we had little luck with the rods, the open air and stellar sightseeing was an opportunity I won't soon forget. In another life I would love to again visit Baikal and spend a week or more exploring its shores. I've realized the same could be said about so many of the places we visited and I hope at some point in my life that opportunity presents itself.
With some decent shut-eye under our belts and the rigs prepped for some long stretches ahead we made an early start for Ulan Ude, where Greg had arranged dinner with a American couple serving a religious mission in town. Following the dinner, Greg spoke at a local church service with the aide of a local interpreter. The rest of the team sat in the audience and enjoyed his stories and dialogue with the locals. The attendees seemed genuinely interested in Greg and his desire to complete the Expeditons7 mission, a cultural exchange I found most enjoyable.
Greg speaking in Ulan Ude
As I've mentioned we had a lot of ground to cover, and while Scott's agenda allowed for a reasonable travel schedule throughout our trip we were all anxious to keep driving and front-load the trip with time thus allowing us a bit more flexibility when needed. Our Russian fixer & interpreter Andery had jokingly mentioned "You can't cover 1000 kilometers on Russian roads west of Moscow in a single day". A challenge perhaps? In what became a near 40-hour push we covered close to 1800 kilometers with nothing but fuel stops and some stretch breaks. With 5 drivers we had the ability to keep a fresh set of hands on the steering wheel and let a few members of the team get some shut-eye. This major push turned out to be quite advantageous, allowing us to slow down a bit on the back half of the trip. With that gained time we ended with an extra day in Magadan to visit the local museum and prep the rigs for export.
Driving in Russia is one of the most hair-raising experiences I've dealt with, right up there with getting nerfed by Trophy Trucks during the Mint 400. Crazy bumpy roads on narrow mountain passes, and if you're not passing, you're getting passed. Add heavy truck traffic, pedestrians, and free-range cattle. It's a miracle this country has a population. That said, while the road conditions deteriorated as we moved further east, the courtesy of drivers seemed to have drastically increased. These areas are extremely remote, an ambulance could be a day away if they would even bother sending one at all. I think the community at large realizes this sense of remote isolation and works together to make the roads a bit more tame (but still insanely crazy!) in order to achieve a common goal, getting to your destination. Scott wrote a short article on the subject, well worth checking out to get a vibe as to our experience: DRIVING IN RUSSIA.
The overall condition in many parts of the Russian Highway in the Siberia Region
Eastern Russia is remote, like no other remote I have experienced in my life's travels thus far. While I've been in some pretty isolated areas, none had the same immense serenity that I felt in the mountains of Siberia. We could go hours without passing a single vehicle yet roll into a small mining village that teemed with activity, people walking, truck traffic, kids walking home from school - a contrast that was repeated over and over as we traveled hundreds of kilometers before lunch and then a few hundred more before dinner. How does one define remote? How about when Google doesn't even have town names or maps.
There is a trail under that river
I ended up taking far more pictures than usual, it was just so hard not to want to capture everything I could. While I'm far from a professional photographer, my pictures do the job for me, they capture the story and provide me with a cue that I can later translate into full blown memory. Like they say, a picture is worth a thousand words - sometimes a few more.
The ferry crossing of the Aldan River
Our ferry charter across the Aldan River gave us a minute to sit back and relax during the hour long crossing. The ferry was seemingly overloaded, dented, and rusty, yet it was perfectly fitting. There are several different ferry outfits operating at the crossing, and while I can't say ours was the biggest or best it surely had the most character. As an added bonus it was the only ferry left when we arrived at the launch so we were happy to have a spot on any boat at this point. There was a chance the ferries were out of service or the river swollen thus preventing crossing, so our successful crossing was a major milestone.
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