Landing in Ust-Nera at -46 degrees centigrades, over a snow covered runway. The passengers take care of their luggage, loading and unloading it by themselves from the airplane (here there is no risk that your luggage is routed elsewhere by mistake!)

Ust-Nera is a town with approximately 8000 people living here. The temperature is holding at -46, but just one week ago it was -62.

A small, but nice and compherensive museum in Ust Nera. Top-left: the museum from outside. Top-right: a refurbished typical old yakutian house, taken from an ancient settlement. Bottom pictures: this region is also sadly known for the gulags and executions during the first half of past century. It is unknown how many pepole died here exactly, but is estimated that they were from 20 to 110 million, a really horrible thing that must never happen again, anywhere in the world.

Now the real adventure begins, driving all the way back to Yakutsk, via the Pole of the Cold Oymyakon. The group is made by myself, a guide and two drivers. Of course, we have a satellite phone and lot of safety equipment. The car is very simple, no electronic parts at all... this lets people to fix it quickly anywhere, should something happen. The engine is covered with blankets, to let the heat to accumulate. As there are no gas stations for hundreds of kilometers, additional fuel is loaded into separate small tanks.

The road in the middle of the forest. Driving here is safe because at these low temperatures the snow is like sand and not slippery at all. Moreover, there are really few cars, maybe you may encounter one every 2-4 hours, or even less.

Everything is ice-covered and pastel coloured because of the low sun, even at noon.

We stop in this old Yakutian settlement, where there are few people living. We are invited inside a typical home, where a lunch is also offered. It has been one of the most beautiful experience of this trip to appreciate how this people live in such extreme and isolated environment, visiting their homes and eating with them.

PICTURES

St. Petersburg

Three days in St Petersburg are really not enough to appreciate the city and to visit the countless museums, so I have to limit my itinerary only to the Arctic and Antarctic museum, the Hermitage, the Church of Our Savior and the Krassin icebreaker, the ship that has saved the members of Umberto Nobile's expeditions to the North Pole.GO

Novosibirsk

Novosibirsk is the Russia's third biggest city and geographical center, as well as the capital of Siberia. I hike in the city with a temperature going from -10 to -18 deg.centigrades, visiting the Opera theatre (the world's biggest!), the Transiberian railway station and the downtown, where ice sculptors were at work.GO

Yakutsk

Yakutsk is the capital of Yakutia autonomous region and has about 240000 inhabitants. The temperature was frequently around -40 degrees, both C. and F., as the two scales meet at this low value. I hike in the downtown main streets, visiting also the local museum, the dock onto Lena frozen river and the Permafrost institute. GO

From Yakutsk to Tomtor via Ust-nera (YOU ARE HERE)

A flight of about two hours brings me from Yakutsk to Ust-Nera, a town of approximately 8000 inhabitants, from where the tour continues to Tomtor by car, crossing valleys, mountains and villages having the lowest winter temperatures of the northen hemisphere. This area is also sadly known for gulags and executions during the first half of past century.

Tomtor

Tomtor is a small town situated inside the "Pole of the Cold", the world's coldest inhabited place, where the January's average temperature is -50 degrees centigrades. I visit the old gold mine where nice ice sculptures are kept, and an hot spring where most water never freezes. GO

Oymyakon

Oymyakon is a village made of many charming small houses, where about 1200 people live. It is here that the lowest temperature of the northen hemisphere, -71,2°C, was recorded. I went on a frozen river with a fisherman, to see how ice fishing is carried-out, spending a few hours out at -52°C. I've also visited a nearby horse farm. GO

From Oymyakon to Yakutsk via Tyoply Klyuch

The distance from Oymyakon to Yakutsk is about 1000km and requires two full days by car, with an overnight in Tyoply Kluch. Again, wonderful frozen mountains, valleys, lakes and river, where everything is white. A visit to a meteo station is also included. GO

Visit http://www.yakutiatravel.com for tours to Yakutia