Cape to Cape Expedition

Vankarem - Russia - (Ванкарем)

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3rd M   

27th March 2008

We have done another 100km today and reached Vankarem. Its been a bit of a journey as one of the tracked wheel centres developed a crack and then completely broke. This has rendered the tracks unusable so we took them off and put the wheels back on. We are fine driving so long as we can have a pull from the tank when stuck in deep snow. We have left the tracks (in the middle of nowhere!) and Oleg says he will collect them on his way back to Schmidta.

The other problem is the sea. The locals say it used to freeze flat and so was easy to drive on but for the last five years it has been freezing later and later and also its all lumpy as the ice thaws/moves/freezes again. There is a huge debate as to whether it is actually possible for the Land Rover to get to Uelen. Oleg says he could tow it but is worried that he will just pull the Land Rover in bits as the tank has no give - it would just keep going even if the Land Rover was well and truly stuck.

So we have been talking to a lot of people here. There is a guy working for the Wildlife Fund on Polar Bear research and he has offered us a place to sleep. Simon is there and I'm in the Land Rover as one of us has to be with it all the time. While we were using the tracks the Land Rover was overheating a lot and we ran out of anti-freeze to top it up and so now it only has water. The Webasto keeps the engine warm but as we have had a couple of occasions when the Webasto has stopped its not worth the risk as that would be the end of the Land Rover as the engine would completely freeze up.

We are going to have a discussion and make a decision tomorrow. The WF guy has said he thinks we could get to Eurmino which is about 200km from Uelen but passed there he doesn't know the conditions.

We have seen loads of dead walrus, some Arctic foxes and lots of huge Polar bear paw prints but as yet no Polar Bears!!

26th March 2008

We have set off at 4pm today and have done about 100km and are half way to Vankarem down the coast and then we have crossed an inlet following the shipping navigation buoys. The tracks (made and jointly designed by Protection & Performance ) are working well and we are making good progress through some deep snow and ice in places.