Hello, my name is Ilya Kovyakin. I live in Magadan, Russia, and am ready to answer your questions about my homeland
These Romanian guys had a great motorcycle ride from Romania to Magadan last year. They made it through the Road of Bones and installed the memorial tablet dedicated to the Romanian exiles repressed in the time of Stalin’s regime. Good fellows! Not so many devote their expedition to the victims of GULAGs.
Here is a video done by Dan Popescy, of Romanian Motorcyclists Asociation. His website: http://euroasia2010.amoro.ro/
First questions are received via AskMagadan.com’s contact form. Great! It means the website started bringing results. So, here are questions:
«I need some information.. which is the better way to reach butugychag? from susuman or magadan? is it possible to find accomodation in susuman? from susuman (i’ve read there is a public bus to magadan) does it start every day? at which time?»
Answers:
1) It’s easier to get to Butugychag from Magadan. The point is that the camp is located on Tenkinsky Road considered to be the alternative to the Yakutsk – Magadan federal highway. It’s harder to reach the camp from Susuman. By the way, Tenkinsky Road looks much better.
2) It’s much easier to reach Butugychag, if you find (rent) an off-road vehicle with a driver as a guide. This year the rate for such a car was 300 USD per day. The price included a car rent, fuel, and food. I have good friends among guides, so you are welcome to ask about it.
3) There is a regular public transportation working between Susuman and Magadan. The way takes 14 hours and a bus is small (a minivan). Departure is at 11 am.
4) Two hotels work in Susuman. One is located near the bus station, the other on the territory of the training center of the Susuman gold processing factory. Not hard to find them.
Butugychag, Stalin Death Valley. Magadan Oblast, Russia.
This is the 2nd part of Alexander Perelygin’s trekking story about Butugychag Gulag Camp in Magadan Oblast, Russia.
The first one was Butugychag, Gulag’s most preserved labour camp in Kolyma. Part 1.
From the interview with H. Niyazov:
- I was not in Butugychag, God saved me. We considered them as a penal camp.
- How were convicts buried?
- They did nothing special. Just bestrewed deads with corpses with sand or snow, if they died in winter, and that’s it.
- Any coffins used?
- Never. No one thought about coffins.
- Why were dead convicts buried in coffins in on one of three Butugychag cemeteries and why were corpses’ heads cut off?
- That’s because doctors cut them…
- What for?
- Among prisoners, there were some rumours about experiments as a part of training.
- Was it done at Butugychag’s or somewhere else?
- In the Butugyachag camp only.
- When did you learn about experiments?
- Approximately in 1948-1949, just in the form of small talks to scare us…
- Maybe, when they cut off heads, convicts were alive?
- Who knows… There was a big medical camp. There were even professors among workers…
..Friday, local mass media reported that the Tenkinsky highway was washed out again and the Russian Emergency Ministry didn’t recommend any driving on the road. But I was already determined and there were no wish to step back…
I departed in the early morning around 6 am… That time I decided to go alone, as it would give me more speed up.
Mad Expedition: Driving 3 Landrover Defenders from the Pacific coast of Northern Russia to the Atlantic coast of Scotland
A PAIR of Gourock adventurers are gearing up for a gruelling 40-day mission from Russia to Scotland.
Gourock friends Stuart Dalrymple and Richard Robb are taking part in MAD 2011 – from Magadan to Ardnamurchan by Land Rover Defender.
They have been planning the charity expedition for more than a year, and will drive 10,000 miles along dirt tracks and crumbling roads across the most desolate terrain in the world to raise money for Ardgowan Hospice and the Alzheimer’s Society.
The pair will set off on 27 August, flying to London then Moscow before reaching Magadan in Eastern Russia, where they will collect the vehicles, which are being shipped in from Korea.
They are being joined by six pals including two Russian speakers, and will travel halfway round the world in three Land Rover Defenders, from Magadan and along the Road of Bones to Yakutsk.
This section of the trip sees them follow in the footsteps of road trip stars Ewan McGregor and Charlie Boorman, who travelled the route by motorbike in their Long Way Round TV series.
From there, they will head south before reaching the top of Lake Baikal while battling blistering temperatures of 40 degrees.
They will then make their way to Mongolia, before entering the stunning Altai region which is situated in the very centre of Asia.
The last part of the trip includes driving through Eastern and Western Siberia and on to Latvia, visiting Riga before setting off for Lithuania down through Poland and back to the UK.
Stuart, an engineer with Devol Engineering, said: «We’ll be travelling halfway around the world and will have to put our watches forward by 11 hours.
«We’re going through Eastern Russia, where many of the original gulag camps have been left.
«I’ve read up on the history, and 380,000 people died there.
«The road of bones is named after the 50,000 people who died making the road, possibly through the temperatures which drop to minus 60 in the winter. It is the coldest inhabited place in the world. They don’t send children to school unless it is above minus 40.»
Luckily the pair are travelling in the summer, but that brings its own problems. As well as battling temperatures above 100 degrees, the pair will be camping out under the stars – and hope to avoid the wild bears that live in the area
But they will be well-equipped with all sorts of medicines from antibiotics to saline bags.
The pair will be carrying freeze-dried ready-made meals, although they will also buy and eat local produce as they travel.
The Land Rover is equipped with fridge, freezer, large water tanks and hot water system for showers.
Stuart said: «My mum and dad said they would have been worried if I had done it in my 20s but in my 40s they’re less concerned.»
Richard’s son Nick will be updating their daily progress on Facebook. All money raised will go to Ardgowan Hospice and the Alzheimer’s Society.
For details, or to donate, visit www.madexpeditions.co.uk
On the way to the Butugychag gulag camp
This is not my personal story – This is a story of my friend named Alexander Perelygin. His blog: www.avp-life.com
At the place of Butugychag, 380 thousand people met their death. It is more than the total population of the mordern Magadan Oblast. It is the very place, where highly secret experiments on human brains were conducted. Indeed, it used to be the top secret spot on the map.
..I’ve heard much about this place, saw many photographs. I was pretty much eager to see it myself. So, in September 2010, I had such a chance.
We departed from Magadan in the early morning. By a lunch time, we already reached the 223 km of the Tenkinsky Highway. Picked our backpacks, checked and took still & video cams, and headed on the only available trail, where we eventually lost in 100 km. We didn’t stop, when we lost the trail, but continued our way, as we knew we would get back on the road in a ravine between bald peaks. It happened the way we expected.
