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Blog Tundra Stories: Adventurous trip from Berlin to Tiksi
30 hours awake...Long trip from Moscow to Tiksi!
At the Yakutsk airport. Photo by Thomas Opel.First adventure already started at Tegel airport, when I realized that I've forgotten one of my backpack in Potsdam, outside the car! But, lucky me, my boyfriend drove back, found it and brought it to the airport with the speed of light :)
I started from Moscow Vnukovo at 17.10 on Monday, lost a night and was in Yakutsk at 5.50 local time. It was -6 C° outside.
The airport has changed a lot since 2010 â it became really nice and modern. Surprisingly, I met Hanno there, who had experienced an even greater adventure â his Russian visa became valid one day later than he arrived to Moscow! He had to spend a night in a waiting hall and to buy another ticket, that's why we arrived with the same flight.
AN-24 airplane. Photo by Martin ProkschLater we found our team in a hotel next to the airport, had a nice breakfast together (kind women at the buffet allowed me to eat for free, instead of paying 600 rubles). And then it was time to start our next step â flight by plane AN24 to Ust-Kuyga.
We put on as much clothes as we only could, to reduce the weight of our luggage. We looked like aliens in our red polar suits and huge rubber boots :).
Ust-Kuyga airport is really small, it is just an old wooden house, but nevertheless, we and our luggage were checked by scanner. Then we dropped into the helicopter and started to Tiksi.
I would say, that I liked the flight by helicopter more, than the flight by AN24. I even didn't notice how we landed, because I slept.
Tiksi. Photo by Thomas Opel.Tiksi under the snow cover looks very different than in summer â everything is white. We were picked up by our colleagues from Delta Lena Reserve, and in 15 minutes we were already at the flat.
After long walking through every shop, we visited our good friend, the director of Reserve, Aleksandr Gukov. He told us that exactly on April 16 the airport in Tiksi was open again. Good timing, I'll say! Afterwards, we cooked 'pasta a la Tiksi' for dinner (noodle with tomato paste, onion and garlic).
That was the last remembering from that day â I immediately fell asleep after eating. We have 8 hours jet-lag, I should remind you.
 Ust-Kuyga airport. Photo by Martin Proksch WSL Institute for Snow and Avalanche Research SLF, Davos |
 View from the airplane. Photo by Martin Proksch |