February 8th
Somewhere in the taiga with a view over the Okotsk Mountains
Around -40 Degrees Celsius

Wow, where to begin……

The last 2 days have offered some of the best winter landscape scenery I have ever come across! It has been magical!

Right now I am really knackered and slightly run down. Vika is mending my down trousers which got ripped quite badly a couple of hours ago, when the taiga hit back at me and relieved me of some goose down. It has been a freezing afternoon after a very dramatic day. Our tent is still far too cold, due to a wood stove which isn´t doing its job, but such is life. It could be worse. We survive. It is all normal-na here!

Yesterday morning we started to climb up through the taiga. What we found were dense trees and deep snow with plentiful tracks from wolves, hare and mountain goat. We climbed with a certain sadness, because the reindeer which Slava was given as a gift, died due to the stress of being tied up. I always find out about these things a day later, due to my lack of Russian, and the Eveny look at these matters as an integral part of the ways of life. I am very fond of the four Eveny in the group. Always humble, kind, helpful and they never, ever complain. The night before yesterday for example, even if they all suffered from sore throats and colds, due to the freezing temperatures, they still gave us their wood stove and suffered our rotten one. When I asked them why, they seemed surprised, since in this part of the world, this is what people do for others. I also learned over these days, that the four are really, really poor and kind of travel around with what they have. They were the only one who said yes to bringing us along this historical route, which also passes their village of Arkan, where they rest once a year.

They have done this route 3-5 times. It passes through some mountain and winter scenery which resembles Antarctica. There are great open plains, surrounded by old rounded mountains and a slight wind. To see 36 reindeer pass through here is like a fairy tale! We climbed over a treeless plain pass and it was well into the darkness before we set up camp at the bottom in a forest where the reindeer can find their food. Before we reached camp, we passed through a dense forest, where we hit a tree and Bolot got thrown off the sled. When our driver Vika was fixing the sled, all the reindeer ran off and left us walking a kilometer to the chosen night camp. It was past midnight before we had set up the awfully cumbersome camp and fallen asleep.

We never leave before 1 p.m, since the reindeer need to eat. They are let free each evening and it takes time to locate them again the next morning, tie them to the sleds and then get going. In the meantime we eat something small twice, they call it tea here, and off we go. Today´s ride was the one we have feared since the start. Going downhill for an hour and sicksacking through the dense forest.  There´s no doubt, this was a dramatic descent but no accidents happened.  This was all due to the safe guiding of Slava, Yura and Tolya, who got hit by an antler and came down with a bloody face on the plain.

The most gruesome part for the reindeer, however, seems to be the many ice patches, where they skiddle along. It is very worrying.

The last 2 hours was really, really cold. The reindeer and some in the group want to hurry on and reach Vikas fathers camp, which is a couple of days from here. We are all kind of frozen. I understand the Eveny are tired, Vika especially who cooks so much and works endlessly. They have been out like this all winter, like the nomads they are.

I am full of admiration for their humbleness and character.

Time is soon midnight here.

This is a really amazing adventure and I am learning so much every day. I wish i had the strength to write more.