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Live from Siberia - First sighting of wolf
Oct 3, 2004 18: 13 EST
The guys are cold. It's -3°C, snowing most of the day and a constant freezing cold headwind from the northwest, at times in company of wolfs howl:
"The whining sound of bats flying around the cot and the gruff voice of a rutting moose in the distance, is the final of an exiting finish of an otherwise freezing cold day.
We're approximately 110 km:s from Zyryanka and if the cold or the wind doesn't escalate and our strength doesn't vanish completely, I think we have everything under control.
That said, yesterday we got stuck in the cot, due to strong winds up to 12 m/s, since that made paddling impossible. The positive aspect of this though, was that I managed to shot another hare for dinner.
A grayish brown wolf stared at us
Just before 6 p.m today, an hour before dusk, we heard a howling just to the left of us. 50 meters away we saw a magnificent sight. A grayish brown wolf, who slightly amazed stared at us, before he hesitantly trotted off into the dense bush behind him.
We paddled as fast as we could up to where we saw him and investigated his movements. We noticed he had been lying down, when he probably had caught scent of us, but not being sure where we were or who we were, he stood up and started to howl to mark territory.
When we showed up silently in a canoe, he got silent, he didn't seem worried one bit, it took almost a minute before he hesitantly turned around and disappeared. The size of his tracks weren't too big and the rest of his behavior makes us believe it was a young male.
Another experience which shows that Kolyma is a true wilderness!
Over an hour to get the fire going in the stove
We're knackered again. We're slowly adapting to the cold, the raw wetness and it took us over an hour to get the fire going in the stove. Good firewood was scarce. Still, it could be worse. Wee got a hare going on the stove and we hope to hear the howling of the wolf again. We've also got two hares hung up in a tree just outside the cot and fish for drying, maybe we will have a howling visitor?
The start of this expedition didn’t go too well – mosquitoes, broken fishing poles, a rising river flooding their camp site, doctors judging them too fat to go, wife leaving...
This expedition will eventually take to land and the two will get a taste of what Siberia is really known for – bitter coldness. They’ve got a whole year ahead of them!
Husband and wife adventurers Mikael and Titti Strandberg, planned embarking upon an epic journey through Siberia stretching over 3500km. Joining them is a young guy, a great outdoor talent, and good hunter, Johan "Delta" Ivarsson. Before the expedition started, however, Titti decided to abort as previous medical conditions mean its very unsafe for her to be exposed to such cold for as long as they will.
Live image over Contact 3.0 of Johan and the wolf tracks, courtesy of the team.
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