Departing Aldan, Sakha Republic, Russia

Current Location:
Aldan, Sakha Republic/ Yakutia, Russia
N 58 ̊  36.519

E 125 ̊  24.233

June 11th 2012
Starting my 10th day
535kms completed since Yakutsk

I was finally able to depart Yakutsk early morning on Saturday June 2d 2012.
I covered my first 535kms in 7 days, progressively moving South on the rocky Lena Highway M 56 until I arrived in the gold mining center of Aldan.

Along the way, I was blessed to meet and share meals/nights already with some interesting characters such as: Leonid, the Sakha wood carver; Boris, the timberjack operator; Aleg, the stranded truck driver  and many more.

Even got the pleasure to operate a Forwarder Timberjack myself...
Quite a change from my bicycle, I must say!

Once I arrived in Aldan, I was welcomed by the Kokorin and Dudko families who took the time to show me the best of Aldan.
I want to thank Nikolai Dudko and Sergei Kokorin for having persuaded me to spend the weekend in their town, where I was able to learn more about their lives, families, crashed a wedding and even attended a multi-ethnic festival  to celebrate this "Meeting Holiday"  (Националбный праздник " Бакалдым")  with Evenks, Sakah, Kyrgyz, Ukrainians and Russians.

For the time being, I want to take opportunity of this great weather and ride south towards Neryungri, where I will hopefully take the time to sit down to write and post a few pictures to share a bit my ride through southern Yakutia...

Poka!