Russia (local)

Chukotka is the most northeastern tip of Russia, just across from Alaska. Completely cut off from the road system of the rest of the country and under the strict regime of the Russian border guards, this part of the planet is as difficult to travel as hardly anyone else. Four years, I fought for a special permit to travel on my own to the felt end of the world - a privilege that only a few Western individual travellers had been granted. In the summer of 2018 I got the long awaited "Yes" and the way was finally cleared for an extraordinary expedition across the unpopulated inland - from the Kolyma swamps to the Bering Sea.

On so-called "Zimniks", the Russian winter roads over frozen rivers, lakes and swamps that only exists a few weeks, I went into the Russian Arctic for a third time in late winter 2017. After my first tours, which took me to the Polar Urals and Nenet tundra north of the Arctic circle, this time I went through one of the coldest areas of our planet: through Yakutia in eastern Siberia - with a finale on the ice of the frozen Arctic Ocean.

A couple of years I wondered how to cross the Sayan and Altai mountains with a start from lake Baikal in one ride from east to west, because this area in Russia is only reachable by a couple of dead-end roads from the east, north and west. Between this roads no usual connections exists - pure wilderness dominates over hundreds of kilometers, so it seemed to be necessary to combine the destinations with big detours... But with the time I found out, that there are drivable tracks in the Altai which connect the dead-end roads. Only a crossing of Sayan seemed really impossible by bike... until I read about 'packrafts' - lightweight inflatable boats for combined land-water trips. That was the answer to my dream trip! I decided to cross the trackless section of Sayan with such a packraft and my bike on it - until the next road appeared to continue with the bike...

On my second winter travel through Northern Russia I explored the region of Komi and Nenets west of the Polar Ural. This part of Russia is like the most areas of Northern Siberia not reachable by bike in summer, because only fragments of roads exists. So I followed the winter roads along the rivers Izhma and Pechora from Uchta up to Nar'jan-Mar north of the Arctic circle and from there though the tundra partially back to the railway line. The main challenge was the extrem coldness in first days, accumulated snow on little roads and a lot of crazy meetings with the locals...

This three months trip by train, ship, minibus and bike was a really low budget adventure through whole Russia. Many decisions how and where I travelled depends on marginal money and time but also on locals help. By bike I passed in two month the Eastern part of Siberia (district Irkutsk, Buryatia and Yakutia): at first along the Baikal-Amur-Magistral from Ust-Kut to Bodaybo, than by ships on Vitim river to Lensk and from here again by bike (and minibus) to Yakutsk and finally Oymyakon, the northern ``Pole of Cold'', where -71,2°C were recorded in 1926. On last section of this 2800 km bike trip I experienced the onset of Siberian winter...

You will find a lot of photogaphs (``Bilder''), the mapped route (``Karte'') and informations about the route, day-km and travel costs (``Streckenprotokoll'').

On Russian iceroads, the so-called ``zimniks'', I cycled in march 2008 three weeks along the frozen Ob-river. The trip started in Priobe (Chanty-Mansijskij district) and ended in the mountains of Polar Ural near Salekhard above the arctic circle (Jamalo-Neneckij district). At the beginning I had no knowledge about the exactly road course, because it isn't shown on maps. I also had no special winter clothes, but no really critical situations in coldness (-37°C minimum). This bike trip was an great adventure with breathtaking impressions of Siberian winter and some meetings with the Chanty, the natives of northern Ob-region.

The tour report is written in german, but a collection of photogaphs (``Bilder''), the mapped route (``Karte'') and informations about the route, day-km, weather and travel costs (``Streckenprotokoll'') are self-explanatory.

A photo report. Route: Tver - Staritsa - Ostashkov - Svapustcha - (soil road) - Molvotitsy - Demiansk - Zaluchie - Staraja Russa - Shimsk - Erunovo - Novgorod - Train to Pavlovsk - Tsarskoe Selo - Petergof - Saint Petersburg

Warum Karelien? Warum nicht! Ich wollte schon immer einmal mit dem Fahrrad durch Nordrussland fahren, seitdem ich dort einmal mit dem Zug durchgefahren war und aus dem Zugfenster heraus die endlosen Wälder bewunderte. Dann las ich während meiner Arbeitszeit, beim Drucken der ``Frei atmen'' um genau zu sein, die Anzeige von Markus Müller, der Leute zu einer Radtour durch Karelien suchte und ich rief an.

Unreliable server, you'll have to dig for the story.

The natives of Kola Peninsula are kindhearted and eager to help, but there is one strange thing about them. Each time you try to ask someone about the road he puts a strange smile on, makes wide gestures and mutters something about off-road vehicles and ice roads. Sometimes our questions brought sweet memories to life: ``Yes, it was in the year before granny died, 1973 it was, and we drove 150 km to the very end of this road in a lorry in no more than a week. And don't listen to the neighbor, he just got to the middle the year before last.'' Inspired by these descriptions we took one of the ground roads north. It started from simply bad quality and later turned out somewhat between ``absolutely impossible to ride'' and ``possible to ride if you Really want it''.

We wanted to visit the classical destinations of the Russian Republic of Karelia... But not in the usual way with a river-cruise on a vessel... We did it by bike!

A nice report, with plenty of pictures, and extensive practical information.