Well, after a long 12 years break I went to my mother’s motherland, to Zhigansk. It’s located to the north from Yakutsk behind the polar circle. A long time ago I’ve already flown there by plane. And once I reached Zhigansk by the steam-ship down the river Lena. This time I decided to ride a bus. I'm not sure what make was the vehicle, but our "bus" looked like this:

960 km and 29 hours of a trip is before us.

Up to the northern border of Viluisky Uluus the surface which we moved on still looked like as a road. Every now and then roadside 24/7 tea-shops occured where a traveller can have some hot course, have a rest or make a phone call.

At the border of Viluisky and Zhigansky uluuses, as it’s demanded by a tradition, everyone left a gift: someone offered a pie (pirog) from his snack, others put a coin, some simply tied a strip of a ribbon.

Further, the road practically became only a direction where a vehicle had a chance to pass one day. No more tea-shops. However, small cabins intentionally built for travellers occur instead. The cabins feature a pig-iron oven and wooden plank beds. In some of them one can find even a teapot.

The only village in 200 km from the bordeer is Bestekh. It looks like a god-forsaken hole (I hope, Bestekh’s inhabitants will forgive me), however they "listen to the world" through a satellite aerial.

People in Zhigansk do not lag behind a civilization too. Houses are not radiant with magnificence, but everyone has a "dish".

"Good fellows ahorse" dash the streets there. In Zhigansk snowmobiles outnumber cars about 10 times.

Northern people keep their dogs outdoor. So even this dalmatians has to stroll about the streets.

This is my cousin strips reindeer’s paws for my future high fur boots.

And after a while they will become similarity of one of these products:

There is a local lore museum in Zhigansk (museum of natural history). Small but cute. Some displays, including bones of a mammoth, were not located on an exposition, and been temporarily heaped in a corner.

Nevertheless, the main sight of Zhigansk is the nature. Every morning I went down to the river to admire the dawn and the boundless white smooth surface.

If you go to taiga you can have a lot of fun.

Next summer I'm going to go to Zhigansk again - to have a ride on reindeers, to fish, and to silently behold surrounding beauty, merging with the nature.

Svetlana Kobyakova
Yakutsk
2006

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