whitesnow13: desember 2009

onsdag 30. desember 2009

The real Siberia story.

Some of you might heard something about us being rescued out of Siberia. At least all the local cops have heard about it, which means that each police-checkpoint in the last couple of days has been a fun experience. Now we can tell you the story from our point of view:
After just one day in Yakutsk we headed out for Magadan and the famous road of bones. We drove around 900 km before we got to the real starting line. Our first problem on the road was not the road itself, but the disagreement between the map and its gas-stations. Also, cities that on the map didn't exist. We had 40 liters of gasoline. Ahead of us was only one town 160 km away, behind us 400 km to the last city. We had to take the chance, and luckily the city Tomtor is real. We stacked up on fuel and started.
The road itself wasn't very bad the first 25 km. Some bridges had fallen down, others seemed like they would collapse any minute, but it was possible to drive on the rivers. Then the road turned worse, with more and more snow. Suddenly, all the dashboard indicators lit up. We quickly got out, just to discover that the fan-belt had fallen off. The engine had to be turned off, and now it was a race against the clock. Every minute the engine got colder and the possibility to start it up got unlikelier. After nearly an hour of work we had fixed the problem, and the car started up again (This is where we should have turned around).
The problem was caused by snow being shoved up around the engine. We strapped a fire-blanket under the engine and kept going. This solution worked great for the next 70 km, until the fire-blanket was covered in snow which had frozen to ice. All the indicators lit up again, but luckily the fan-belt was still on. After getting 120 km in, using around 12 hours and burning a lot of fuel, we stopped just before a river-crossing. We started to remove snow from the road, but decided that we had to turn around, and give up.
On the way back we only reached 12 km before the left front wheel locked. We knew we had to get back, we tried to drive on, but 8 km later the engine was way too hot and the fuel consumption too high to get close enough to Tomtor. We were stuck.

We contacted the Norwegian embassy 09 a.m local time. Due to the timezones, we got in contact with the right person 3 p.m. We explained the situation and kept in contact with them the next couple of hours. We also contacted Peter, our danish friend in Yekaterinburg, who co-operated with the Norwegian embassy. The first information we got was that it would take 4 days to get a car out. Therefore a helicopter was the only solution to get us out. Russian UD worked on getting the permission for the helicopter to take off, which would take 20 hours. Russian police traced our sat-phone to find our exact co-ordinates. 10 p.m local time we got the latest news that the helicopter would arrive around 3 p.m the next day. We got ready to go get some sleep around 11.30 p.m, but then we could see some lights. A car approached, and two men got out (turned out they were firemen). They helped us getting the wheel turning again, and started towing us the 100km back to the city. We were back 5 a.m, they got us an apartment in a motel of sorts and took the car to a warm garage.
The next day, we were told that the temperature outside was around -50C.

A big thank you to Hege and the Norwegian embassy, Peter in Yekaterinburg and our two heroes in the UAZ!

torsdag 24. desember 2009

Editor's update

I just spoke to my brother, and they are currently located in a small town some 1200km from Magadan.
Everyone's alright and spirits are high. Their dog, Sibira, is thriving as well.
The car is running and they are planning to continue towards Magadan soon. They are without internet access at the moment, so this is just a short notice in lieu of a proper update from the boys themselves.

Since their story about being stuck in the snow in Siberia has gotten a little bit of national attention, this might be the place to clear up a few misunderstandings.

They weren't rescued by a company of Russian soldiers as some reports seem to indicate, they were found and towed 100 km by two nice guys in an old UAZ. They are not driving a rented car as some papers report, it's still the same old 1988 model Mercedes that they bought in Larvik back in August.

I got an explanation about the cars technical status involving the loss of a bottom plate, fan belt malfunction and a frozen wheel, all supposedly fixed with an ingeniously placed heating blanket. I have no idea, it didn't make much sense over the telephone, they can hopefully explain it better when they write their next update.

I've also been asked to convey a most heartfelt 'thank you' from the boys to Peter in Russia, the Norwegian Embassy in Moscow, and the local rescuers.

torsdag 17. desember 2009

Road to Yakutsk - Part 2

Driving on Lena River

Lena River seperate us and Yakutsk

Russian trailer passing us.

The inside of our car, the heat doesn't reach the back.

Cold winter in Siberia

Terrible road

M56...

Russian town in the middle of Siberia

Hitchhaikers. When the temperature is minus 30, and someone need a ride, you pick them up, no matter what.

Sibira

The first part of the 2000 km drive to Yakutsk

On the way from Chita we stopped to make some dinner. As usual we made it with the multifuel on the front of the car, but the view was exceptional, so we had to share it.

The first sign of Yakutsk. We had finally got to M56, the highway to hell. Just 1117 KM to drive.

Juggling the M55

The road between Chita and Skovordinio (the last city on M55, before we turned north on M56) changed between new tarmac (Russia modified the road in 2008), and stones.

M56 offers a lot. This part, they had buildt a small bridge because the original road was under construction.

After just 50 km on M56, we arrived just a few seconds after this truck had some troubles. The road was almost purely ice. The truckdriver blocked the whole road...

.. But 5 minutes later he solved the problem. He just got in the car, pushed the pedal and somehow got a bit out to the side.

Yakutsk!

Vi er best i verden! Vi er best i verden! Vi er i Yakutsk! Det er aldeles utrolig! Vi har slått Russland! Russland, kjempers fødeland - Vladimir Putin, Boris Jeltsin, Laika, Tsar Alexander, Sputnik, Road of death, M56, minus 40 grader, vi har slått dem alle sammen. Bertel O. Steen, can you hear me? Vår Mercedes tok a hell of a beating! A hell of a beating! *Fritt etter Lillelien.

Yakutsk nådd, hva nå?

Nå sitter vi trygt og komfortabelt på et hotellrom i Yakutsk. Jeg har lenge sett frem til dette øyeblikket. Fint nok, det er bare et delmål, men det er på mange måter større enn målet. Svært få mennesker har trodd at vi har vært seriøse, svært få mennesker har trodd at vi kunne og svært få mennesker har trodd på oss. Jeg vet ikke om det gleder meg, men det får en til å føle oppnåelse. Hva enn kan hende i morgen, men dagen i dag er en seier, og det kan aldri endres. Seiers følelsen kommer til å bli veldig god å ha med seg videre på turen, for vi skal til Amerika, og det er veien fra Yakutsk til Amerika som er denne turens Joker. Den er like tiltrekkende på mennesker som oss, som den er umulig for oss. Mange har prøvd før oss, og mange vil prøve etter oss. Turen videre fra Yakutsk er dagens tema, og mulighetene er mange. Jeg føler at det ikke lenger finnes et eneste hinder i denne verden, våre muligheter er like store som våre drømmer. Fra mitt trygge sete på hotellrommet er lysten til å nå opp til Beringstredet og seile bilen på en flåte over til Amerika sterkere enn noen gang, la oss se hvor mange hinder denne verden er laget av og hvor langt vi kan komme.

Pe.

lørdag 12. desember 2009

Shita

... Or at least we think it's prononuced that way.. In russian it's spelled C "backwards N", I, T, A. We arrived earlier then we expected, just to find out that we had crossed a new timezone. I think it's the seventh or eight on this trip, we're not sure anymore. I'm not sure which day it is anymore either, or which date. The only thing we are sure about is that we have a great time.
We have finally got some structure on our days now. We drive until 1 A.M - 2 A.M before we find a parkingplace along the highway. It's almost as the norwegian "rasteplass", only without the toilets and tables. We remove all our luggage from the car and into the tent. (The tent was supposed to be used by us, but since we have the car running all the time, we might as well stay in there as outside.) When we lay the backseats down we get a nice bed measuring 1,85*1,20. Two of us goes to bed, while the third stays awake. During the night, we shift. This gives us 5 hours sleep 2 nights and 10 hours the third. When we all wake up we make some coffee, before we drive on.

fredag 11. desember 2009

Ulan-Ude

We are now in Ulan-Ude, waiting for our camera to re-charge. The road between Irkutsk and Ulan-Ude is the best road we so far have driven on this trip. The road went through mountains, steep hills, lots of trailers along the road that didn't get up the hills, or drove out of the road on the way down. We had a good drive, stopped along a gas-station and bought a new cd (Mp3 with 200 local songs and Alexander Rybak...) and sat camp 80 km outside Ulan-Ude.

Uka som gikk

En ekspedisjon innebærer som regel at deltakerne er litt over gjennomsnittsformen. Utholdenhet pleier å stå i høysete når man skier seg gjennom Antarktis eller sykler til Peru. Vår form lå derimot langt under Ola nordmanns snitt. De eneste vi kunne skryte av å være bedre trent enn var 75 år gamle kvinner med kols og en forkjærlighet for margarin. Vi bestemte oss derfor å ta noen krafttak før vi forlot Kasakhstan.
Det var ikke store grep som skulle til for å forbedre formen betraktelig. Vi begynte å reise oss opp i sengen når vi stod opp, istedenfor å rulle ned på gulvet. Vi kjøpte 1 liters vannflasker istedenfor 0,5, slik at vi virkelig kjente melkesyren når vi kostet på oss 3-4 slurker vann.
I løpet av få dager var vi kommet i såpass form at vi greide å fylle bensin selv, nesten helt uten å bli andpustne. Vi eksperimenterte også med kuldefølelsen. Vi dristet oss til å sette airconditionen helt ned på "min" i flere minutter, og kjørte tilogmed med en liten gløtt på takluka.
Nå viser det seg midlertidig at alle disse forberedelsene var bortkastet. Etter 2-3 dager i minus 25-30 har kroppen selv tilpasset seg. Vi kjører gjennom Sibir med vinduer åpne for å ikke krepere i varmen. All måkingen vi så for oss har russiske brøytebiler sørget for å ta seg av. I tillegg går bilen som en klokke, så vi trenger strengt tatt ikke å bevege oss ut av bilen for annet enn toalettære forhold.
Nå nærmer vi oss slutten av Sibir, neste område vi entrer er "the far east". Forhåpentligvis får vi bruk for treningen vår her, det kan ikke være så lett å kjøre til USA.
Whitesnow09

torsdag 10. desember 2009

Irkutsk

We have reached Irkutsk! After the last post we drove of, and now: 2 800 km and 46 hours later, with the car running constantly because of the cold, we are in Irkutsk. Now we are going to find a supermarket, buy some bread and get back in the car for the next 6 000 km to Yakutsk.
The car had a small brakedown in a street here in Irkutsk. The throttle stopped working, but 40 minutes later and a soda-cap placed in a genious way, the throttle was up and running better then ever.

We will consentrate to get as fast as possible to Yakutsk (E.T.A between 15-22 december.), but we will try to update here whenever we have the opportunity.

mandag 7. desember 2009

After 4 bordercrossings we arrived at the Kazakhstan-Russian border thinking this would be easy as usually. But for the first time they actually checked our car. Everything had to be carried from the car, through an X-raymachine and back. When the luggage was allowed to leave Kazak, it was our turn. The guard got the passport but discovered that we missed a stamp in our imigrationcard. We tried to plead ignorance, but he pointed out that it was written in english on the backside. After that we didn't speak english. The guard told us something about "police" and "straf", but our act was so good that he gave up and let us through. We were back in Russia!
Russia greeted us with a real winter. Since China had forced us to apply both kazakhstanian and russian visas again, we were out of money and decided to set camp for 10 days in a forest. The first couple of days went by with no problems. We had a fire going, good temperatures and plenty of food. Then we counted the food and sigarettes, temperature dropped and we had a lot of problems... Almost no food left, 20 sigarettes for 8 days and -30C during the night, which made the car act kind of funny. When we opened the door the head lights automatically turned on. The hydraulicfluid froze, and the oil was like syrup. Heavy snowfall also made it hard to move the car. Thanks to the 4matic we got out!
We had now reached the temperatures were we needed the car running all the time, but we were almost out of gas and rubles. After 4 days we had to abandon the camp. We phoned home, got an early christmas presant, and drove to Novosibirsk.
After writing this we are driving east to Irkutsk, around 3 000 km from here. We will not stop the car unless we have to.