Siberia Is Calling

Yes, tomorrow I will go back to Siberia. It's my eighth trip to the place but this time it's a special one. For the first time, Toño will join me. Last year, Toño showed me his home town in México. Now I can return the favour by showing him this wonderful part of the world in the East.

It's winter in the northern hemisphere. Where we will go, they have kind of a heat wave right now with -35°F/-37°C. But it's supposed to go down again. Here are the weather stations in our region. In case, you want to keep track:



Anyway, it will be something very special for Toño, who is already preparing for the situation:



We will fly via Moscow to Yakutsk, one of the coldest cities on earth. There we will mount a Vachtovka, a 6x6 truck with passenger cabin, which will be our home for the rest of the trip. Our target is Oymyakon, the Northern Pole of Cold. On January 26, 1926, a temperature of -71.2°C (-96.16°F) was recorded there. Here is the map of our trip:



There is hardly anything that deserve the term road in that area. Over land, one can only travel in winter, often on (hopefully well) frozen rivers. Water has to be melted from ice. To save energy, washing will be rubbing snow over the body and shaving is hardly recommended. But the impressive landscape is worth the trouble.

We will be back on March 2 and will post a detailed report.