First Trials

At Tioply Kliutsh there was supposed to be a museum about the Kolyma Highway. It had moved and and it took us quite a while to find the new place. Thre is no point to tell the new address. Things change here all the time and next year it will again.

When we finally found it, its curator explained that the museum is not set-up yet. She has no idea when it will be, because she has no money to do so. We helped her to set up a TV and a VCR, so that we could at least watch a video about the Kolyma Highway.

Our hotel

Vasily lives in Tioply Kliutsh. We had lunch at his place and then headed north on a side track of the Kolyma Highway towards a settlement called Topolinnoje. On a frozen river, we tried out the hunter skies for the first time. It's quite tricky to operate them without sticks, but with Valenki and a rather basic strap binding.



After dinner, we were asked to help to pull another Ural truck with a flat tire out of a ditch. Mutual assistance goes without saying in this area. Gregor made the mistake to grab a jack without gloves. Within an hour, his fingers were covered with huge bubbles.

Having done our good deed for the day, we were ready for our first night in the Vachtovka. Vasily constructed benches that can be used for dinner and easily can be turned into bunks. Of course, this will always require a lot of luggage shuffeling, but it works just fine.