We left Severobaikalsk for Ust-Kut to get the freight barge down the Lena River. Leaving the GPS running this took 4 days and nearly 1000km. We reached Lensk and later Mirny.
We were warned by the Russians on the barge to be wary of the Local Yakutsk people as they were 'drunk' and 'crazy' liked guns and other scary stuff. As usual we tried to dismiss this. But after 3 days and making friends they were adamant it was a problem. They said to only stop in truck stops and for a few hours but basically keep driving (its 1400km on dirt/gravel roads!). So we left Lensk at 2000hrs heading north towards Mirny. As the sun was setting we were looking for somewhere to wildcamp out of town when my side window exploded. Completely shattered. showered in glass I kept driving. There was no easy explanation, we take knocks on the windscreen all the time from passing trucks, cars etc. Heard a few clinks on metal barriers from stones flicked up by us, but the side window? Instantly we thought we had been targeted. So we drove all night to get to Mirny where we phoned a friend from the barge, it was 3am by this point and the local police had started to talk to us. When we told them what happened they said they would put the truck in the police lock-up and we could stay with them and fix the window later on. Long story short the police took great care of us (told us it was a stone that smashed the window) got the window fixed, taken around town, out for lunch, free service of the landy by the diamond mine, taken to the zoo, interviewed for the local news, given 150L of diesel (free), got a big cake for my birthday and generally well looked after and not spent a penny in 5 days!
From Mirny we took the only road to Yakutsk, the one we were warned about. We didn't see anyone drunk (unlike Mongolia and the Altai) everyone was super friendly and great.
We made it to Yakutsk, After 4 nights on the Vil. Trakt from Mirny (1150km) in pouring rain, big sand pits and mosquito carnage we arrived 2 nights ago.
We towed a few cars through the sand, wore all our brake pads to the metal and generally camped in misery. The sun is out here in Yakutsk though and we have dried everything out, aired the roof tent, replaced all the brake pads, swapped around the tyres and fixed a handful of minor niggles along with a good clean out. We met up with Ed, a Canadian on 2 wheels (BMW X-challenge) and wouldn't have found our £20/night guest house without him! Will hopefully post a few things up shortly. We timelapsed the last 4 days driving with 4 ferry/barge/river crossings so that should be interesting for future posting.
Only 2000km from Magadan now and the road seems to be closed around Susaman. Hopefully we can find out more shortly and leave in a day or two as the weather is looking better up here.
We have the video for the news interview so hopefully can post that shortly.
Keep going, looking forward to more.
