MAD Idea
MAD 2011 is an 8 man mission to drive 3 Landrover Defenders from the Pacific coast of Northern Russia to the Atlantic coast of Scotland. On our journey of nearly 10,000 miles we will travel some of the most remote roads on the Eurasian continent. We will pass through the infamous gulag archipelago, along the road of bones, down the Lina Highway (aka Highway from Hell), along the banks of Lake Baikal (the deepest lake in the world), across the planes of Mongolia, through the Alti mountains, into Western Europe and home to the west coast of Scotland.
IN DETAIL
Our plan is to ship 3 110 Pumas to Magadan on the Pacific east coast of Russia, then fly out and head home. The direction of this trip was based on the thought that it will be better to nail the really tough stuff while the vehicles and crew are fresh and with all the really tough parts out East the decision was taken to ship them to our start point. The plan is to pick up some well known adventure routes and also some routes that are less well known outside these circles and indeed one that is so well known it has taken months of research to establish its existence and viability.
Leaving Magadan we will head out on the Road of Bones to Yakutsk, this was the road that Euan & Charly travelled with their bikes in the back of a Kamaz truck, their problem was being too early in the year and still suffering from spring snowmelt hence our August departure. Along this route there are many great places to visit including some of the most horrific Gulag camps of the Stalinist era, an abandoned city and Oymayakon, the “Pole of Cold” with the record of being the coldest inhabited place on earth at -72 C. Fortunately in August it wont be that bad but their record low at that time is -18, so winter woollies at the ready.
From Yakutsk we head south on the Lena Highway ( I have no idea how they can use that term for such a rough dirt road ) crossing the Lena River and onward to the town of Tynda. This is the biggest town on the BAM railway, the Baikal Amur Mainline was a huge project undertaken to link the Lake Baikal region with the Pacific coast. Our plan is to travel along the route of the old construction road for about 1200km to the top of Lake Baikal. This is where the road of bones will start to look like a gentle warm up, the big issues are rivers, bridges and bears. We have been in contact with a some guys who went through last year so with luck and a good tailwind we should be ok. It is however going to be a fairly demanding stretch.
Having reached the top of Lake Baikal, traditional wisdom ( maybe the wrong term ) would dictate that you head west then south to Irkutsk and around the bottom of the lake to reach the border crossing to Mongolia. However noting that there is a road over half way up the east side we set about trying to establish if the path shown on our old Russian Military maps actually existed today. What we located was the Bargauzin Valley, a 250km supply road built in 1974 after a mild winter stopped supplies for railroad construction using the ice road on the lake. We have only been able to locate two records of recent crossings by 4×4, and from the photographs and accounts we have read we will be looking back on the last legs as being a warm up. It will however cut a few days out our route and it is always nice to go somewhere new and less travelled.
From here we will head into Mongolia and a crew change opportunity at Ulaan Baatar, not to mention the fact that they have a Landy dealer!!! The trip across Mongolia will explore the open terrain of what is the world least densly populated country. Roads are few and far between and nomads still make up the majority of the population. We have identified some nice lakes, and sights to visit on our way through what my culturally be the most interesting part of the trip.
Exiting Mongolia at the border town of Tsagaannuur we will enter the Altai region of Russia, this area looks more like the Swiss alps and should be truly stunning coupled with the luxury of tarmac this will be a lovely region to explore. From here we head towards Eastern Siberia, through Western Siberia and onward to Latvia. We will have another crew change opportinity in Riga before setting off through Lihtuania and down into Poland. One of the co-drivers is from Poland (and speaks Russian) so we will be heading to his town for a brief R&R stop before pushing on through Europe to get the ferry back to the UK. Once back in the UK we will head up to Scotland, straight past home and out to Ardnamurchan. the reason for this it that as the most westerly part of the British mainland, and jutting out into the Atlantic it punctuates the trip so much better than just finishing in the driveway.
