Now, earlier this year, there was this intrepid hiker who got pulled up in Siberia for illegal entry. Karl Bushby started walking around the world in 12 years in 1998. He commenced his travails down in the far south of Chile / Argentina and, wearing through pair after pair of hiking boots, made it to Nome, Alaska, late in 2005. He prepared for the 45 mile hike across the Bering Strait to Russia in March. Karl, and a companion, managed to pull it off. With all the excitement of the new stage in the journey, the Eurasian continent, they had forgotten a tiny detail.
A visa for Russia.
Now, the Russians admire intrepid explorers, and have relaxed greatly in terms of bureaucracy and officialdom since the fall of communism in the 1990s. But, you can't just walk across the backyard unannounced. So, Karl got pulled over and told he was a naughty boy. Fortunately, he would be welcome to resume his journey in March 2007.
Want to know what the weather is like at Lavrentiya, where Karl will resume his hike? At the moment, it's cloudy with a daytime maximum of -2C / 28F, and a nighttime low of -6C / 20F. There is barely daylight. The region's capital, Anadyr', 500 miles further west, is going to see a dip in temperatures. They are also just below freezing, but by next weekend the mercury will stick at -20C / -4F in the daytime, and at -26C / -15F at night. Och, it could be worse. A little further west, at Verchoyansk, it's a little nippy with daytime maxima of -28 to -38 C [-18 to -36F] and nighttime lows of -31 to -40C [-24 to -40F]. Mercury freezes solid at -38C.
Anyone for an icecream?
Before I forget, I also found this website with images of life in that region, called Chukhotka and (in the case of Verchoyansk) Yakutsk. Fascinating.
The map below shows the far east of Russian, with Alaska just visible on the far right.
(Map drawn from this site)
I just finished reading a series of books about Russia from the early 1800's thru the middle 1900's. Most of the story in this 5 book series centered in and around St Petersburg. People who irritated the government, whether rich or poor...were marched off to Sibera chained together. I mean they walked for weeks thru winter, spring, summer or fall weather conditions. Needless to say, hundreds died along the way. Those that made it were usually exiled for life so had a tough time enduring the harsh conditions of the Siberian landscape. Thanks for this entry...it was interesting. I guess I shouldn't complain about our 40 degree temp today. Linda in Washington state
ReplyDeleteThis was interesting. It still amazes me that actually I'm fairly close to Russia. I used to think it was some far away land when we were kids.
ReplyDeleteHave a good day.
Pam
All I have to say is "Brrr!"
ReplyDeleteLori
Hi Guido, you may or not know that my SIL Slava is Russian and comes from St.Petersburg. He`s certainly told us a few things about his home country and we are going there next June. I`m glad it`s only for a week though as I`m sure I wouldn`t want to live there.
ReplyDeleteSandra xxxx
Very interesting....I was just going to say, Slava...Sandra's SIL is from Russia, but she beat me to it...have a great day...take care.
ReplyDeleteJoyce