2005-03-16 - What a spectacular welcome
What a spectacular welcome to Kolymskaya!
16 Mar, 05 - 20:57
GPS-pos: N68°43´ | E158°42´ | Alt: 9 M
58 km;s during three warm days and we´re inside a cozy apartment! In the picturesque village of Kolymskaya, around 850 inhabitants, which is located between the taiga and tundra at N 68°43´42,0 and E 158°42´14.6
What a welcome indeed! We were immediately, whether we were tired after 6 weeks skiing or not, brought to the local museum, where we were welcomed in a traditional Chuckchi fashion with offerings to the Gods during a mellow drumming, than treated to some spiritual dancing and singing, finished off with eating a table with local delicacies like reindeer tongue, bone marrow, straganina, sugared gold berries and , of course, chai.
Just incredible! I am at loss of words and I have no idea why they treat us this good everywhere we come, but there´s no doubt that we´re soulmates with these people. They knew exactly when we would turn up, since they´ve followed our progress by the radio most hunters have in their logcabins.
After following a hard snowmobile track for a few hours yesterday, we´ve zoomed down a clean, wide and extremely fast winterroad during three very long days! We´ve done 12 hours per day! This is the reason we´ve made it to Kolymskaya a day ahead of schedule! We´re extremely knackered, but happy!
Well, the road, what a chock when it turned up! We´ve heard about its existence for quite a while, but weren´t sure whether it was a joke or not. It isn´t! It´s a clean and wide winter road going all the way from Yakutias capital, Yakutsk, and all the way to the Bering Strait. It passes through Srednekolymsk, Zyryanka, Kolymskaya and Cherskii, following the Kolyma from 45 km;s directly west of Kolymskaya and all the way to Cherskii. A proper autobahn! There´s no heavy traffic, but still. It means the trip to Cherskii will be much easier than anticipated.
It just feels great having made it! Two weeks break coming up! |
