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Alf Austin and Drew Parsons, two 73-year-old retired teachers from Orewa College, recently returned from an epic journey across Siberia.
The friends are no strangers to off the beaten track expeditions. Together, they have hiked and climbed and explored Svalbard north of Norway. Last year they drove down the Carretera Austral highway in Chile, also known as Pinochet’s folley. And, although Drew “hadn’t cycled for decades”, they both completed the Twin Coast Trail in Northland at the end of last year.
However, Siberia proved to be something out of the ordinary.
Drew’s interest in prehistory attracted him to Siberia, because of early settlements in the Altai mountain range. The pair also wanted to explore the remote and spectacular mountain environment.
Their first stop was Lake Teletskoe in the Altai Mountains where they were the only visitors in town. After hiking, dog sledding and snowmobiling on and around the frozen lake, they travelled south to hike along the creaking and groaning ice of the frozen Katun River. Drew describes dog sledding, which was on forest tracks on a racing sled, as “like being towed by a car on a very short rope”.
Near the Mongolian border they stayed in a remote mountain hut at Aktru gorge and climbed to the Bolshoi Aktru glacier at 3000m.
The second part of the trip involved a drive of 1000km north to Novosibirsk and a flight to Yakutsk, which is known as the coldest city in the world. The temperature when they landed was -41°C. Drew says as long as you were well insulated in balaclava, very thick down jacket, thermals and double sets of gloves, you stayed warm.
A local driver took them for the next leg of the journey – a 2100km, four day drive to Magadan on Stalin’s infamous Road of Bones. This involved crossing frozen rivers on ice roads and passing through forests hanging with snow. They drove over the snow covered, 2600m Verkhoyhanskiy Ranges, through remote Siberian valleys and over passes between spectacular peaks devoid of settlements. On a pass above the town of Ust-Nera the temperature was -51°C.
Along the way, they passed the occasional abandoned Soviet era mining town with blocks of empty apartments. At one abandoned Gulag site there was an unexpected delay as their vehicle got stuck in the snow – with no food available along the way, a late arrival in the township of Susuman saw them rely on emergency supplies of scroggan for dinner.
The town had run out of petrol and they had to wait for a tanker to arrive, so Alf and Drew explored the town with its impressive war memorial. Each settlement has one of these, reflecting the fact that 20 million Russians died in World War II. At the next town, they enjoyed a late breakfast – by then it had been 34 hours between proper meals.
Magadan, the final destination, was the port of entry for millions of prisoners destined for Stalin’s Gulag camps. Here the sea was frozen for 7km offshore and people were ice fishing using augers to drill holes in the ice.
Drew says he will always remember the magnificent scenery, the remoteness and the friendliness, hospitality, generosity and honesty of all the folk they met. He organised the trip by researching and booking online including places to visit, mountain huts and transport options, which he says made for a very economical, as well as memorable journey.
