Fortunately we managed to catch some of the lost time back, although by now it is almost sure that my original estimate of 24 blog entries will still not be enough. Well back on the track we go and head deeper into the Central Siberian forests. Apart from few images by Sergey Volkov the Panoramio yields nothing and soon we have the border of the Republic of Sakha below us.
Under the Soviet era Sakha was known as Yakutia. Its surface area is slightly less than that of India but Sakha has less than a million inhabitants. The republic has three time zones.
The image above (by Ruslan Ahmetsafin) shows the forest tundra by a unnamed river. The permafrost layer a few feet below the surface prevents the tree roots to get a stable grip of the soil. Consequently the trees don't grow tall and during the winter the entire tree is frozen solid delaying the spring growth start.
The screenshot of Google Map page reveals the effects of the permafrost to the ground (click to enlarge). The surface contours are brought up like growth rings, when subsurface water freezes and thaws. The freezing expansion creates minute furrows in the peat surface, which in turn enhances the growth of certain mosses and lichens with typical color differences. River Morkoka is seen in the image.
This old track vehicle (image by Alexandr Vermenitsh) was brought to the wilderness maybe to act as a hunter's camping site. Or it just may have broken down there and never completed the journey back to civilization. I have not been able to identify the type, but it certainly looks like a military transport vehicle.
A short way to east the Morkoka merges with River Markha going south. Quite near the junction a deep hole is visible in the ground. We have found a treasure!
This aerial photograph (by skypointer) shows an open-pit diamond mine which is not listed in Wikipedia. The top diameter of the pit is about 500 meters and judged by the maintenance of the roads it is an operational mine.
The Sakha republic produces about 99 % of all Russian diamonds and it is estimated that about half of the world's known diamond reserves are here. From this distance we have no possibility to spot even a single diamond, so let us continue.
We cross the river Tyung and shortly thereafter the creek Dippa. Next is another proper river called Linde and its smaller sister Delinde. The terrain starts to descend little by little and the last giant river emerges from the horizon.
The Lena is again very much like the first of the large rivers, the Ob. A tangled network of larger and smaller channels covering a width of 15 to 25 kilometers. Although not as long as Yenisei, in the spring it carries more water than Yenisei and might rival even the mighty Amazon. It truly is an impressive sight and we are still almost 1200 kilometers from the mouth of Lena.
The flow is pretty slow since the river is deep and its level slopes only about two centimeters per kilometer.
A sight from one of the channels of Lena (image by Sergey Polovnikov). A fisherman's boat is tied to a sandbank. Although not seen here, on the eastern side of the river there are mountains in the horizon.
The Verkhoyansk Range is actually more prominent than the Ural mountains. Its highest peak is 2480 meters and the snowy peaks seen in the image below give it the appearance of proper mountains (photo by Danila La).
Compared to the Urals there are far less Panoramio photos available. However farther in east we see more mountains and a good deal of photo icons along them. The mountains belong to the Chersky Range where we find an even higher peak, the Pobeda. Before we reach them, we must stop at the valley of river Indigirka. There is the mining village of Predporozhniy. The village was founded about 60 years ago to develop gold mines in the surrounding mountains.
About 2000 people were once stationed here to work in mining and extraction of gold, but the operation was discontinued in 2007. However all people did not move and today about 200 miners still occupy the village and mine the gold during the summer months. I could not find any information, whether this is a private enterprise or run by a company.
A recent view of the village of Predporozhniy (image by Vasyis). Due to the long transport distances the people grow lots of vegetables and fruit on their balconies. Even though the community is very closed and they treat outsiders with due reservations, this is not a bad place to take a deep breath and plan for our final Russian stage to the Pacific Coast.
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