The expedition of the Russian Geographical Society «The Cold Pole connects the oceans» successfully goes on. The 16th of July its participants reached a point of bifurcation on the Delkyu River. Here in a festive atmosphere the explorers established memorials of the Russian Geographical Society and of Rossoyuzspas (The Russian Union of Rescuers).
«There are a lot of geographically well-known and little-known places in Yakutia, - the head of the expedition, the Head of the Rescue Service of the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia) Nikolay Nakhodkin tells. – One of them is located at the boarder of Oymyakon Ulus and Khabarovsk Region, in the upper reaches of the Delkyu River. In the upper reaches it is divided into two branches: the Right flows into the Okhotskoye Sea, to the Pacific basin, and the Left – to into the Kuydusun River, then - into the Indigirka, which, in its turn, flows into the Arctic Ocean».
The bifurcation is a split of the riverbed, when the bayou fall into various large catchment basins. There are known lake and river bifurcation, but ocean bifurcation - the division of the river into two pools, belonging to different oceans – is a real rarity. The creek of the Delkyu River, flowing into Okhota, is named Delkyu-Okhotskaya, ant the other, through the Kuydusun River, flowing into Indigirka - Delkyu-Kuydusun.
The boats of «The Cold Pole connects the oceans» expedition. Photo courtesy Rossoyuzspas (The Russian Union of Rescuers)
«The «Frigate» boats, on which the expedition is going on, have proven good, all the participants feel good and are ready to go on passing the route, - the participant of the expedition Afanasy Nikolaev ransmits via satellite. - There are certain problems on one boat: the bottom was pierced while rafting, now the rescuers are repairing it. At the present moment, after some days with heavy rain, it is a pretty good weather. We hope that the high temperature will cause melting of glaciers on the Suntar Hayata ridge, where we are now. Then the water level will rise, and we will be able to move on – but now the Delkyu-Kuydusun River is staying severely dehydrated. In general, we are in cheerful mood, we are now planning to go down the Delkyu-Kuydusun River, and down the Indigirka River then.
At the present moment the expedition is ahead of the schedule by one day, in spite of the difficulties, caused by the high levels of water in Okhota and an abundance of debris on the river.
The trip started the 10th of July in Okhotsk of the Khabarovsk Region. For the time up the Okhota River and its inflows, the explorers took some water samples for phytoplankton and hydrochemistry. Besides, the members of the expedition have been studying the fauna of the northern territories. They managed to record some of places of nestling of Steller's sea eagles - birds of prey, listed in the Red Book of Russia.
The total length of the route - more than 2800 km. The route runs through the territory of the two subjects of the Far East of the Russian Federation – of the Khabarovsk Region and the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia). 16 explorers are going up the Okhota River on the four inflatable boats to the Okhotsk-Delkyu River – the place of the river bifurcation and further continue the path along the Delkyu-Kuysunskaya River, then up to the Kuydusun River and then along the Indigirka to the Arctic Ocean. The end point of the expedition is about to become the Arctic village Russkoye Ustye of the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia). The route runs through the outback, that is equipped with the necessary equipment, has a supply of food and fuel for the autonomous existence.
During the 30-days trip the participants of it will see reindeer herders` living space, and place of living of breeders, fishermen, miners as well. The explorers are planning to visit former airfield of the ferry route of Tomtor Lend-Lease, the Oymyakon village - Northern Hemisphere cold pole, places of paleontological excavations, natural parks.
Moreover, the scientific expedition staff is intending to describe inland waterway between two oceans geographically, to study the impact of climate and temperature the impact of climate and temperature on the state of permafrost and glaciers.
The organizers of the campaign are the Russian Geographical Society and The Russian Union of Rescuers (Rossoyuzspas). The project is being supported by the head of the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia) and by the government of the republic as well. The main objective of the tour – is to prove that there is inland waterway between the Pacific and Arctic oceans, and to determine the tourism potential of this route.
«We would like to make the expedition the most useful not only for the rescuers, but also for the scientific community of the republic, - Nikolay Nakhodkin notes, - to popularize tourist potential of Yakutia, to attract attention of the center to the problem of Arctic regions».