This relay team sure is bombing along the iced tracks! It’s impossible to keep up. Keep on running-walking!! For those interested, here are some more pictures. We’re now heading south from the village of Argakhtakh, through more of the tundra and lakes of the Kolyma Lowlands, to the district capital, Srednekolmynsk. At this small settlement we leave the lowland landscape and rejoin the Kolyma River. Srednekolmynsk also gets us ‘back on the map’ with internet searches, being a key stop for adventurers, journalists and others who post pics. The adventurers, I noticed, tend to follow the Kolyma to Cherskiy, so our last two days in the lowlands have been in some of the remotest areas.
LINK 1: New York Times article: more about the impact of melting permafrost and some very interesting photos. nytimes.com/2019/08/04/worl...
LINK 2: Blog entry by Swiss traveller, Syril Eberhart, with his insights into daily life, hospitality, and photos of Srednekolmynsk involving snow and ice (so this is what we’ll see at this time of year.) footprintless.org/2018/03/1...
LINK 4: No photos, but for those who read French, a fascinating account of the way the prison camps - both from the 19th and 20th centuries - are memorialised (or not). The account starts in the regional capital Yakutsk (further along our route) but then heads to Srednekolmynsk: memoires-en-jeu.com/varia/m...
LINK 5: Just a reminder of how dangerous our journey is. This incident took place to the east of Srednekolmynsk in 2018, when it was only minus 18 (we’re in minus 23-30). Note especially the comments by the pilot: siberiantimes.com/other/oth...
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GailXrunning
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Brilliant effort there! I’m in the lesser-to-middling ranks, depending on when I check. 😁 I was very pleased to be making a contribution. But then, having developed shin splints (from walking to a vaccination centre, can you credit it?), I’m compensating with vicarious use of my energies.
He would ask them why are you running in such a very cold place like Siberia, we would reply that this is a rely run to The Cape of Good Hope in South Africa, I am not sure what he would say about that. 😀
Yep. Now we’re thinking it all through (on the hoof, as it were), we definitely need a serious support team on hand. With snowmobiles that can stand up to the conditions.❄️❄️❄️
🏂⛷☃️ (That’s all the emoji library has. My money’s on the third.)
And now - just a couple of hours later - we’ve raced through Srednekolmynsk!!!🏃🏼♀️🏃🏻♂️🏃🏼♀️🏃🏾♀️🏃🏻♀️🏃🏿♂️ Go, go, COGH Ultra Relay team!!!👏👏👏 On our way to get ourselves on the south side of the Arctic circle.
These are fabulous GailXrunning. You’re a super-researcher. 👏🏼
I specially liked the bit about how there are so many lakes every Siberian could have one. But all that melting permafrost- something to worry about as we trundle along....
This is such fun ! I’ve decided to try and brush up on some of the Russian literature i once studied, and make it geography related. First rediscovery is the Kolyma tales by Varlam Shalamov - a survivor of the prisoner/labour camps in Kolyma. One of his tales is about ‘Typhoid quarantine’ which I thought was slightly topical 😷 in which he relates how being put into quarantine barracks during a typhoid outbreak was a period of respite from hard labour. I guess reading about prison camps makes one appreciate being quarantined in the comfort of ones own home....
Isn’t it?! I’m new to all this running and running culture. Took me an age to figure out what folks were talking about with LEJOG and JOGLE. What I really like about this COGH is the team relay approach.
Great reading suggestion, and for more than one reason. Taking a sneak preview, I think you might have opportunity to revist Tolstoy and Lermantov in the Caucasus too.
Hmmm I think I might give Tolstoy a miss, but Lermontov is on the list 😀 I’m a bit disappointed that we won’t be going through Doctor Zhivago land though - maybe I’ll double check that one ! Siberia really is huge !!!
Woohoo 🙌 we’re running 🏃🏽♀️ 🏃🏼♂️🏃🏻♀️🏃🏿♂️🏃🏾♀️🏃♂️ Thank you so much for doing all this research! It makes it even more fun than it would be! Am sitting here in bed (before heading out for a run.... yes, really! Really! I promise! 😁) telling my husband all about the regions we’re running through!
Thanks for this, it's so interesting. I will be heading out to the frozen wastes this morning (or possibly the local canal) as part of my half marathon training. This really does add interest and enthusiasm. 😀
I managed 28k last week (eventually managed to log in km rather than miles like LeJog) but hoping to pick up the kilometrage now that I am no longer homeschooling.
Brilliant Post, thank-you.I really liked the honest, warts-and-all descriptions from the explorers. The locals are very friendly and generous, but there is lots of scope for mis-communication & mis-understanding!
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5K closer to COGH 😁🏃
