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Siberia: "I've had a great time so far and I doubt, that the winter will be any different"
Sep 22, 2004 11: 50 EST
Johan Ivarsson's has wrote up a two month summary on the duo's Siberia expedition. It makes you want to get right out there with them:
"We've basically been out two whole months in the Siberian wilderness, paddling our baidarka (canoe). We're getting closer to Zyryanka, our main goal for the paddling part of the expedition. Once in Zyryanka, we will have to wait there at least one month, until the ice is strong enough and there's enough snow to continue north by ski's.
It has been a dream come true
This first part have been a wonderful time, a dream come true to me. To live as a trapper, to survive on hunting and fishing. I have now seen that I'm capable of doing just that. What an enormous sense of freedom that gives!
Perspective on life
When I sit here inside the heated Moskoselcot, eating fish caught only an hour ago, and thinking back over the last couple of months, I realize that this time has given me a new, wider perspective on the secure life I've lived back home in Sweden. During this time I've experienced periods of hunger, a nasty, life threatening incident with a giant of bear only a week ago and the viciously fast and dangerous rivers during the start of our trip. All this have given me perspective.
The team dance
Even the day-to-day things to be done have gone through a complete overhaul since the start of the Expedition. In the beginning, it would take us over 4 hours to get everything sorted out in the morning, before the canoe was packed and ready for leaving. A time at least one of us got irritated on the other for doing something wrong or standing in the way. Now, however, we do those same chores in just over 2 hours and we both know exactly what to do.
The river dance
Another dramatic change since the start of the trip, is the way we handle the canoe and how we handle the big variety of water we pass through. For example, fast currents and whitewater, which in the
beginning was so frightening that we didn't know if we would dare to paddle through it at all, we now pass concentrated, but relaxed and easily without any doubts.
What can be more comfortable than this life?
These changes are only a few of all our daily chores gone through out here. Changes like better cooperation and stricter routines save lots of time and effort, and makes life much easier. And even if it isn't strange at all that this changes have occurred, it would be even more peculiar if they didn't. Still, it is remarkable how fast one can adjust to one another to make life easier and more comfortable. And indeed, what can be more comfortable than this life?
But with the winter comes the worries
Anyhow, the paddling is coming to an end and the arrival of winter and thousands of kilometers of skiing is getting closer. Even if preparations for the winter part of the Expedition started a long time ago, with pulling tires, a training aimed at the specific muscles one uses when skiing and pulling the sledges, and with nights spent in the tent outside in the garden during the cold nights last winter, it is now that the more exact planning of the winter is taking place. And therefore, the worrying has also begun.
And I ask myself
My biggest worry is the weight. The good thing with the canoe is the capacity it has to carry a lot of equipment. During winter we will have to pull this heavy weight ourselves. And we will have no help from the water or the currents to move forward, on the contrary, they pose a threat of weak ice. So the only thing we can rely on, is our own muscles and bodies. And I ask myself: "How heavy will the sledges actually be? Will we be able to move them at all?"
What I do know is that I've had a great time so far and I doubt, even if I know that it will be extremely cold and tough, that the winter will be any different.
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. . . Sure enough though, it seems the two are getting into the groove of things now and are even enjoying themselves.
Remember though that this expedition will eventually take to land and the two will be wishing for the hot and muggy days swarmed with mosquitoes when they 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, courtesy of the team.
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