February 25th
Camp at Uyega, an abandonded pre-Soviet weather station
Around -30 degrees Celsius

The last three days have made apparent the harsh reality of life out here in the taiga. It is among the toughest I have ever come across.

I am still awake in the early morning, feeling slightly cold, but right now I am just sleeping in my undies. I am sure the great Norwegian polar explorer Borge Ousland is smiling if he reads this; I talked to him before leaving, asking him to update me on the equipment to choose since it had been more than 7 years since I spent any time in the Arctic, but yes, Borge, my sleeping bag was probably too cold this time too!

However, freezing a bit keeps you on your toes. Before leaving, I communicated with a new friend of mine, Dr. Ken Kamler, about extreme cold and he mentioned that in the best cared for and reasonably humane gulags during the Stalin Atrocities, very few of the prisoners had colds, flu´s or any such illnesses, due to the extreme cold. (This was the case in the worst one´s, of course, like the one´s I visited along the Kolyma where 100,000 people worked and were beaten and starved to death). I will write more about the tests done on this trip as regards to the extreme cold and everything related to this once I am back from this Expedition. I will also discuss other items of discovery on this highly interesting Expedition, since one always needs a decent amount of time, to make an assessment. I have learned throughout the years, that one very often makes serious mistakes, speaking out about life when tired. And, yes, I am tired after a demanding trip! I miss my wife and girls more than I ever thought possible!

The last three days have been a real roller coaster trip. It has felt like I have been sitting on one of these mechanical bulls which one can find at some bars in the US of A. One fights desperately to hold on, until impossible, and you get thrown off! Yesterday I rolled off the sled three times, one time with two reindeer running over my back!

Let me tell how impressed I am by the reindeer! It was less than 8 months ago that I crossed one of the hottest deserts on earth together with Kensington The Camel and Tanya Holm, who´s intelligent chatty company I have missed a lot on this trip. Camels, well, with Kensington being an exception, can be mean and bite and kick. Reindeer however are so docile, kind and even when I ended up in front of them, having been thrown off the sled due to Slava´s aggressive driving, they kind of hardly touched me with their hooves.

Everyone is eager to reach Arkah, which will be the end of our trip. This is where Slava, Tolya, Vika and Yura Grigorovich live. It is quite an old settlement. Since this is the end of their trip, that means it is the end for us as well. For this reason, animals such as humans, are eager to get there quickly. In these last days we have furiously traveled over steep hills, dense under growth, thick taiga, big stretches of snow free ice and we are no more than 3-4 days away. But this speed is hard on the reindeer, so we are resting at least one day here in this abandoned, ruined former Soviet weather station.

Egor is leaving us today. A snow mobile arrived last night from Arkah with two big personalities, one of them Slava´s brother. They will soon take Egor to Arkah. It is 10:30 in the morning now, so he is leaving in 30 minutes. He has to sort out some serious business problems. This is sad for the rest of us, of course. He has done a superb job of organizing this Expedition, and without him it wouldn´t have been possible. He is also a great promoter of the region and its people. His aim is to promote tourism travel by reindeer in a few days, which I agree very much with.

We still have a very hard way to reach Arkah, but we plan on being there by this weekend if all goes well, and so far it has. However, every time we have a rest day, it ends up being 3-4 rest days. We will see! I want to go home to my wife and girls now. A month is too long. Far too much!

However, I feel extraordinarily privileged and happy to have experienced what I would say is one of the most interesting journey´s I have ever done!