Location: Yakutsk river port

Two days prior to the start of navigation on the Lena River, at the height of preparation for summer cruises to Lena Pillars, I went on a visit to the Demian Bednyj cruise ship captain Oleg Borisov. A very hospitable man.

When he saw me with a camera, he got perplexed, “My god, I am not in uniform. Not in full dress. Otherwise…” Yeah, indeed, why is the captain not uniformed daily, but only on a voyage?! “Now we are intensively preparing the vessel for navigation. Going through check-ups by sanitary-and-epidemiologic service, fire safety service, and others…” That way he was trying to explain, why he was not dressed up. Whatever it might be, I took a photo of him. He was in a casual checked shirt and slippers…

Frankly saying, it’s blogger’s habit to bring a camera along. Pictures may come to my help, when especially I have no wish or time to write… But in this case it is my great pleasure to type a few good lines about people, who love their work and live for it.

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It is 11.63 light minutes from Earth and called 2607 Yakutia minor planet. Click the image to enlarge.

Discovered by: N. Chernykh
Discovery site: Nauchnyj, Crimea, Ukraine
Discovery date: July 14, 1977 (33 years ago)

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On the way to Namzy. The Lena River's flood. Photo by Ajar Varlamov.

Ajar Varlamov is awesome as usual. When the Lena River flood started [it was on May 20, 2010], he travelled from Yakutsk north to Namzy. He didn’t make it to the final destination. He was stopped in the village of Tulagino. The rest part of the so-called Namzy highway, the 2nd existing asphalt road near Yakutsk, was totally flooded by high waters of the Lena River.

An unpleasant accident happened to Ajar. When he stood on the brink of the asphalt road in the area of the flooding, suddently the ground under his feet disappeared and he fell in cold ice snow water. Fortunately, he was saved. Praise god. So… take a look at his photos of the current flooding… Btw, two his Nikon cameras got broken

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More new photographs of the Lena River flooding in Yakutsk are upcoming with every update. Stay tuned. Check the last set.

The part of Yakutsk - Pokrovsk road between villages of Oktemzy and Tekhtyur is overflooded. May 19, 2010. Photo by 777.

2010 Spring Lena River Flooding. That’s a big event in Siberia’s Yakutia, indeed. We, all locals, follow the last flood information. Emergency and other services are on alert. The flood is already here. The river flows fast.

Yesterday, May 19, the part of the Yakutsk-Pokrovsk road between Oktemzy and Tekhtyur has been already flooded. It means the town of Pokrovsk is totally disconnected from Yakutsk for next two weeks.

Further, watch, how the Lena River flows through a live webcam. Check river pictures and the river map. In the course of the work day I will try to update this post with more flood information on the Lena River, the longest river in Siberia. Stay tuned. Read the rest of this entry…

Here are my announcements of big international events in Yakutsk for June 2010. Initially published on the Twitter account @yakutia.

- Khabarovsk-based Japanese Centre will hold the seminar on the development of tourism, timber & construction industries in Yakutsk on Jun 2-3UNDP & the Northern Forum will held the seminar on climate changes in Yakutsk on June 2-6, 2010. #climatechange

- UNDP & the Northern Forum will held the seminar on climate changes in Yakutsk on June 2-6, 2010. #climatechange.

- 13th University of the Arctic Council Meeting will take place in #Yakutsk on June 1-5, 2010. #Arctic http://bit.ly/aOZih

- 2010 NORD EXPO International Trade Fair to be in Yakutsk on June 1-4, 2010. http://bit.ly/cGp6Cp

- The 9th International Symposium on Cold Region Development (ISCORD) to be held in Yakutsk, Russia, on June 1-4, 2010 http://bit.ly/bl02kp

- Our Yukagir Mammoth is coming back to Russia from Shanghai. Non EXPO2010-related events, incl. the mammoth exhibition, were canceled by Shanghai City Hall.

- Yakutia-based travel companies & local authority will arrange the East Ring of Russia conference in Yakutsk on June 24-26, 2010. It seems they want to create another Russia’s Gold Ring.

Follow event updates on Twitter.

Omg, I am already missing a magic winter in Yakutia. Take a look at my favourite Aikhal-based photographer Ruslan Ahmetsaphin‘s winter photographs taken in the areas of Aikhail, Mirny and other settlements of Western Yakutia. It is the land primarily famous for diamonds, but it is also the land of amazing cold Siberian nature – enigmatic forest (taiga), icy rivers, crispy snow, glowing stars, and fantastic Aurora Borealis.

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A winter photograph of the Verkhoyansky Range, Yakutia, Siberia. Photo by Sandro.

Resource: Russia . Travel across the country on Facebook.

Kolyma in Yakutia by Alexander Mekheda

Eight years ago I made the website for Guerman Arbugaev, director of the Arctic Travel company. Unfortunately, it doesn’t exist anymore. The site owner failed to renew the domain name arctictravel-yakutia.com. By the way, it was my first website about Yakutia done in English.

Praise god, I saved some of its content, including Yakutia nature wallpapers. Here I am posting them. You may download and use them free for your computer desktop. The collection is small, but it is based on the works of my first favourite photographers, Evgenia Arbugaeva (Central Yakutia, the Lena River), Alexander Mekheda (Yakutia’s Kolyma) and Nikolay Zavodsky (South Yakutia, mainly the area of Peledui).

See further 17 nature photo wallpapers. To download, choose the tumbnail, click on the right mouse button and use the function “Save the link as.” Read the rest of this entry…

The Winter Road Documentary Poster

This is the video preview of Nikolay Evstifeev’s documentary “THE WINTER ROAD. The Land of Fierce…” about the sever work in Siberia’s Yakutia. Here you can see how hard ordinary people’s work can be in the toughest part of Siberia.

The documentary film won The Best Directing Award at The 17th Saint Anna Film Festival and The Best Cinematography Award at The 29th VGIK Film Festival. Btw, Anton Safronov was a camera man.

The documentary is about Yakutia, the sever land of truckers, gold miners, hunters, oil & other industry workers. Extreme conditions are revealed in every capture. Survival at minus 50 degrees Celsius, ice roads on rivers, people’s attitude to nature, wild life… and PEOPLE without false manners and any compromises.

Young documentary filmmakers traveled winter roads in Yakutia, Siberia/Russia. They met many ordinary workers, who appeared to be real heroes of daily life.

“This film is very sincere! This is a real big documentary!” said Michael Porechenkov, the chairman of the 29th VGIK Film Festival jury, a famous Russian actor. Read the rest of this entry…