March 10th 2011 Enisey River

Between March 4^th and 9^th the expedition traveled close to a thousand kilometers on the Vankor-Neft’ ice road and reached Dudinka.  The vehicles traveled on the ice road at the speeds of 10-15km/h, covering up to 200 km daily. The ice-road runs over the frozen waters of Enisey River. The Hydro dam in Krasnoyarsk had recently been drained and under the snow of the ice road, we encountered water, which did not, however impede our progress, as the light weight of Yemelyas spread over the large surface area of their soft tires prevented them from sinking through the snow, as the large and heavier Ural trucks, which were stranded waiting for this water to freeze, before they could continue along the ice road. In Dudinka the expedition was greeted by the head of the regional headquarters of “Nornikel”. The good man – Igor Borisovish Uzdin. Both “Yemelyas” were parked in heated garage and the crew – on board of the ice breaker ship “Dudinka”. Today, March 10^th we are repairing one the shafts of the rear axle on “Yemelya-4” and treating two of our young mechanics – Andrei Vankov and Aleksey Zaitcev, both of whom caught cold. For our more experienced adventurers and athletes Vasily Elagin, Vladimir Obihod, Sergey Isaev and Vladimir Yanochkin, the process off acclimatization to the harsh Siberian temperatures seems to have gone over easier. Afanasiy Makovnev is still waiting for our passports with Canadian visas while maintaining correspondence with communications officer for the Canada Border Services Agency - Stephen Hoyt.

Translated from Russian by Ilya Kovalev