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Wednesday
July 11th. The tour begins in Magadan – it’s up to you to get
here but we offer as much support as possible. There are flights from various
places in Russia such as Moscow and Khabarovsk, easy connections from
Vladivostok, from Harbin and Beijing in China, and we can help with those
coming in from elsewhere. Regardless of your arrival time we provide a transfer
from Magadan airport to the city centre for check-in so please look into
flights and contact us for advice. It is not a problem to arrive a day early if
this suits you better, we can arrange extra nights at the hotel for anyone who
needs them.
On arrival
in the city the group will meet our lovely local partners Vika, and Volodya. They
will explain some basics about the history and geography of the region – we’ll
learn more in detail later on. We’ll check in to the
VM-Tsentr Hotel. The location is terrific and it’s a very comfortable place
(the voucher the staff gives you when you check in is for one free drink in the
hotel bar – it's only written in Russian). We’ll have a group dinner and then
you’re free to wander the city. Our local friends can recommend places to go,
things to see and do. Remember that it stays light late into the night here so
you don’t have to worry about getting lost in the dark. The city isn’t huge and
can easily be wandered around on foot without too much difficulty; you’ll find
it a very interesting place indeed!
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Thursday July 12th.
Today we take a tour of the highlights of Magadan City; we’ll visit the Mask
of Sorrow (Gulag monument dedicated to the victims of the Dalstroy forced labour system, a deeply moving monument on a hill
overlooking the city), the local museum (which has a terrific display about the
gulags as well as the local wildlife, both extinct and extant – the mammoth
exhibit is particularly good), the workshop of a local bone carver (one of the
quirkier businesses in this area is mining for mammoth ivory! This gentleman
has a stock of the tusks as well as the bones of other extinct creatures in his
basement workshop, he carves them into trinkets and works of art, it’s quite
unique!), an observation point over the main bay of Magadan City (great for
photos, also this is where the ships docked that brought prisoners to this
place at the edge of the world, a chilling location), we’ll also go to a local
beach (in true Magadan style there is an abandoned factory on the beach!) – where in the brief flowering of summer the locals like to sunbathe (the water
is very cold, swim if you dare!).
Along the way we will stop for a group lunch
and finally at the end of the day we’ll go to the local souvenir shop for all
our Magadan-themed goodies and then you’re free for the evening. A big day
tomorrow!
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Friday July 13th. We head off along the Kolyma Highway (known in
the west as the ‘road of bones’) – the longest road in the world and one built
by prisoners to ease the passage of many more unfortunate souls into the
inner-depths of the Kolyma area, from where many would never return. We’re
heading for the Dneprovsky Gulag Camp – one of the most complete remaining
camps in the area (note that these camps are not preserved as museums, they are
left to crumble and decay, in a few years almost nothing will be left to see of
this dark place). The drive will be done in a Kamaz truck – a large multi-axle
Russian vehicle that can traverse the 20km of deep forest we need to drive
through to make it to the Gulag site. Along the way we’ll make some stops for
rest and refreshment including at the abandoned town of Atka, which we will have
time to explore.
We should arrive at the Gulag in early afternoon and then
we’ll set off on a hike around the area; we’ll be guided by a local gulag
historian and expert, he’ll give us a fascinating insight into what went on
here and has many a heart-breaking story to tell, and some amazing statistics,
feel free to ask anything you like about the Gulag, he knows a great deal
indeed! Bears do pass through this area but fear not! We also take a couple of
local hunters and drivers with us who know the Russian outdoors very well, they
will ensure our safety and security on this part of the trip, and also pitch
camp for us to rest and eat a terrific meal of local specialties after we have
finished exploring the Gulag site. Some of the highlights of this exploration
include guard towers, the mine entrance (it was a tin mine), the cemetery,
bread making buildings, officers houses. It’s a chilling and fascinating place
to visit, let alone spend the night. The sun will be up until about 2AM here
but get some sleep if you can we surge onwards the next day!
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Saturday
July 14th. We’ll
break camp and head for a few more Gulag sites here, including a demolished
factory site. Then we’ll make our way back to the highway and switch from the
Kamaz truck to some comfortable mini-buses that we will now use along the Road
of Bones. In the buses we’ll drive onwards enjoying some amazing scenery and
surroundings for most of the rest of the day, stopping at a truck-stop for
lunch and finally arriving in the remote and unusual city of Susuman in the
late afternoon.
Susuman is very run down and some parts even seem abandoned,
but thousands of people live here, there are shops, a restaurant (where we will
have dinner), and a guesthouse run by a local factory (where we will spend the
night), it also has some interesting things to see on a wander around the town
such as a young scientists institute which for some reason has an airplane
sticking out of an apartment building, some soviet-era apartment building
murals and signs, a church, and often curious locals who are happy to chat and
interact with the rare visitors to their city. If you want a night out in
Susuman then go right ahead but it’s definitely a good idea to get some rest,
something truly amazing awaits us the next day!
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Sunday July
15th. Up
early, first we hit the shops for supplies, then we drive on a further 90 mins
to the largest abandoned city in this region; Kadykchan. This truly is the
ideal abandoned town (if such a concept even exists!) – it’s the right size to
spend a whole day wandering around without going through the same buildings
twice, but small enough to know where you are all the time, the buildings
haven’t been inhabited in two decades but most of the apartment blocks have
held up very well. We can explore apartments, the city government building,
schools (the highlight we believe, just for the murals alone), hospitals,
restaurants, shops, etc. all left to the ravages of nature. It’s spooky and
mind-blowing and we can guarantee that you’ll never forget this day! On
previous visits some amazing souvenirs such as old school books, license
plates, signs, etc. have been found too, so you’ll definitely be able to get
yourself some amazingly unique mementoes of this fascinating day. Trust us when
we say this will be among the most memorable days of your life – it has to be
experienced to be believed!
We’ll eat a picnic lunch on the spot and then in
the evening you have a choice of accommodation; either return to Susuman for
another night in the hotel there, or occupy an abandoned apartment and become
one of the very few Kadykchan residents of the 21st Century. If taking the
second option then expect no electricity, no running water, no furniture (we
will have camping equipment) and a general sense of post-apocalyptic living.
It’ll be a night like no other; you’ll almost not want to sleep at all!
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Monday July 16th. Those who
stayed overnight in Susuman will head back to Kadykchan to collect those who
camped out with the ghosts and memories, for the latter group if you get up in
good time you can squeeze in a couple more hours of Kadykchan exploration
(after comparing notes with what everyone else discovered this is a very good
idea), otherwise have a lie-in until pick-up and we’ll head off along the
highway mid morning, stopping for lunch at a rest-stop along the way.
Our
destination today is Ust-Nera, a riverside settlement on the northern edge of
the Road of Bones. We’ll arrive here late afternoon and we’ll try out a Central Asian cafe very far from the 'Stans! There will be free time to relax or to
explore the city today as well (remember it gets dark very very late!) and
we’ll stay overnight in a local hotel.
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Tuesday July
17th. A
free morning in Ust-Nera! Our local partners can show us around or you can go off
on your own to see what there is to see in the town. We’ll have lunch at
leisure and then assemble again to go to the small local airport. Here we will
board one of the few flights that leaves Ust-Nera and take the 2 hour flight
out of Magadan province and to the city at the other end of the Road of Bones,
the capital of the vast Sakha Republic; Yakutsk!
On arrival in this city we’ll
get picked up and head for the city centre, our hotel awaits so we will check
in and then have a brief orientation with a local expert about what Yakutsk is
all about; its history, ethnography, geography, and more. Look for Yakutsk on a
map – it’s nowhere near anything else so the very fact of its existence is an
oddity, one that we will learn all about! Also (for trivial fans) it’s the
largest city in the world built on permafrost – see the stilts that hold up all
of the buildings around the city for a quirky architectural feature here. Tonight
have a free evening to do whatever you like (our local friends will advise if
you need some help, it’s a safe town with plenty of nightlife options for
drinks, wandering around, restaurants, and so on).
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Wednesday
July 18th. After
a leisurely morning (a rare thing on this fast-paced and action-packed tour!),
we will have a tour of the highlights of Yakutsk in the afternoon, including
old and new buildings so we can see the evolution of the architectural style, a
truly remarkable church, a massive war memorial along the mighty Lena River, and
much much more – including the Kingdom of Permafrost – a subterranean look at
frozen ground, much more interesting than it sounds, as well as the mammoth
museum where you can see how specimens of this extinct beast are recovered from
the area, and meet a local expert who travels around digging them up from the
ice. The evening will be free for us to have a night out in the quasi-European
local bars and restaurants and to wander the city, interacting as much as
possible with the very diverse local population, a highlight in and of itself!
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Thursday
July 19th.
We’ll take a flight from Yakutsk to a place even more remote and obscure; a
town called Mirny, about 2.5 hours deep into the heart of Siberian Russia, a
place remote even by the standards of Russians. A place that exists for one
reason only; Diamonds! In the heart of the town is the second deepest pit ever
dug by man, a giant hole from whence untold tons of diamonds have been hauled
from deep within the earth. The raw statistics tell one story (you can read all
about it here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mir_mine) but getting to visit the site is
something else entirely. The exact level of access we can gain is not finalised
yet but we’ll have gone somewhere very unusual and somewhere to shame the holiday
destinations of your friends! We’ll spend as much time here as possible and
stay the night in Mirny too. It will be a long, expensive, and arduous journey,
but one that will provide an unbeatable experience in deepest Russia, something
that will stick in the mind forever!
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Friday July 20th. The
morning is spent exploring the town of Mirny, even though the mine may not
operate any more there is still a population of people living in this seemingly
unlivable remote place, we’ll see what life here is all about and see what
local businesses and people are up to. Human interaction is important on any
holiday and we’ll get as much as we can at this point. We’ll have lunch at a
local restaurant before taking the flight back to Yakutsk, on arrival in the
city everyone is set loose for the last bit of freedom of the tour, so explore
with great gusto, or settle down in a café to think about all that we have
experienced in the last days, there will be much to think about, and you’ll
have taken more photos that you would think, that’s for sure! We’ll find a good
spot for a final dinner of the trip.
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Saturday
July 21st. Departure Day – There are flights this day to Moscow (from where almost
anywhere in Europe can be reached, as well as North America), and to Harbin (in
Northern China, from where you can easily move on to anywhere in China or East
Asia and down to Australasia), and other destinations too. So head home, continue to explore Russia, or
embark on even more adventures! The end of the trip but the start of remembering
the trip for many years to come!
