5.3 LENSK - YAKUTSK (Eastern Siberia).

Once in Lensk we followed Alexy and Evgenia to their home in Almazny. 225 km over a clay with gravel dirt road. Although it rained, Alexy floored it. No one was overtaking us at 80 to 90 km/h. Two Land Cruisers hammering down the road. I needed the extra hp (no turbo in the 105) to follow. Since Alexy had the lead and I was the second car, we hosed down the 5 mm of clay from the my coachwork at Alexy's home.

Evgenia and Alexy with the kids.

We slept one night on the couch and visited next morning the open diamond/brilliant mine of Mirny. The mine is 525 m deep and just an open hole in the ground. The mine in exploitation is a staggering 754 m deep !

Visitors platform: an undercarriage of an excavator.
Check out the size of the caterpillar track!

The little hole of 525 m deep.
Mirny on the rim.

Mirny shopping street lined with birch.
Nice colors.

In the afternoon we left and headed for Yakutsk. About 1100 km over dirt roads. We were officially entering bear and wolf country. On the barge I paid little attention to the stories from the truckers, telling me to stay in the car during the night. Bears knocking off a mans head with one blow ... until Alexy and Evgenia asked us to stay in the car at night.  10 – 20 km upon leaving Almazny, we saw between the trees a third warning : a fully dressed mannequin … without head. In the middle of the night, when nature called, we did it not gaze at the stars.

Daily progress:
Lensk on the Lena River (A), Mirny & Almazny (B),
Camping along the road (C & D), Yakoutsk (E).
Two floating bridges and five (toll) ferries.

Result of a wildfire: black trees on white sand.

Autumn colors.

Winter preps: closing the gaps between the logs with clay.

Village street.

Yakutsk, the coldest city on earth. Due to the permafrost all buildings stand on (concealed) stilts. Thriving on gold and diamonds, the vibrant city has a higher standard and life style. Very friendly people. Most of the people have very Asian features. We were thanked by the warden of the Archaeology & Ethnography Museum for our visit. In Belgium they don't even look at you. Entering the museum, the warden asked us in Russian: « Americans or Belgians ? » … What ? Why not Germans or English or French, … Was she tipped off about Belgians staying in the city ? We were walking from the hotel to the museum, about 4 km away, so no car with foreign registration in sight. Weird!

Mammoth Museum.

In the National Art Museum a young man asked spontaneously if we didn't need explanations about the paintings and statues.

In a restaurant we were served by the boss who came to our table only, on her very high heels with het long black hair slung over one shoulder and in a cafetaria a young woman, studying English and French, held between costumers short conversations with us. By the way : very good cake and coffee in Yakutsk.

Horse saddles from the Yakut in the Art Museum.

A lot of stylish young people (university city) constantly scrolling and tapping on the smart phones (very Asian) in the streets, malls or restaurants and a healty number of petrol heads. In the evening they gathered on the plaza in front of the CTEPX hotel and got the attention of the girls by showing off the stereo, revving the engines and leaving with squealing tires : Yakutia Drift or The Fast And The Furious In Yakutsk.

Shopping mall with restaurants and cafeteria.

Temperatures are around 5°C in the morning and 10°C at noon, unless the sun is out with a puffing 22°C.

Yakutsk center.

No, no towaritsj Lenin it was
the opposite direction!

We also met Bolot Bochkarev. He must be known by all overlanders wandering about on the Road of Bones and I contacted him some years ago. His web site that he keeps up to date, completely for free, is a must for all tourists and adventurers comming to the region : www.askyakutia.com. Just checking via Google where I could find a Toyota dealer to service the car, I came again across his web site explaining what I expected : there are no specific mark dealers this side of Siberia (see also 5.2 Lena River Cruise). But an article on this web site showed the street where a lot of spare part dealers and work shops are located. We got the car serviced in Ul. Lermontova 37.

Bolot also explained that wolves are afraid of men and are rarely seen. Bears become agressive when surprised or with young. So, if you make a lot of noise when getting out of the car, there will be no problem and ... snow is normal in the second half of Septembre.

On Saturday 14 Septembre we left Yakutsk for Magadan. About 2200 km on the Road of Bones ?

An other one bits the dust. 

WWII memorial.