Travel from Yakutsk to Tomtor via Ust-nera

Flying over east Yakutia.

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!)

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

The ice grows in quantity really everywhere!

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.

A memorial to a gulag on the way to Magadan, where executions were performed.

After about 10am the sun comes out, illuminating the tallest mountains.

At noon, the light of the sun is still very goldish/pinkish. Today is January 13 and, because of the high latitudes, the days are shorter, but with amazing lights.

The road in the middle of the taiga 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.

A cowshed. The heat is generated by the animals itself and kept inside by thick insulation.

On the left: an horse. This is a very important animal here and they ability to survive in such low temperatures is really impressive.

At 3:07pm, looking in the opposite direction of sunset.

After about 10 hours by car and 350 kilometers among the frozen tracks in Siberia, I'm finally in Tomtor where I sleep in this nice hotel.