I'll Tell You About Magadan....

Wednesday, March 14, 2018
Magadan, Magadan Oblast, Russian Federation
"I'LL TELL YOU ABOUT MAGADAN" - SONG BY VLADIMIR VYSOTSKY
According to the Kolyma Modern Guide, Magadan is one of those special cities to which a visitor will always want to return. I expect this is not a surprising assertion. After all the book is all about promoting Magadan and the Kolyma....
Russian song writer Vladimir Vysotsky must have felt quite moved too when he wrote a song "My Friend Will go to Magadan" about his friend Igor Kokhanovsky who left Moscow in 1965 to live in Magadan. I am not sure however that Vysotsky was initially enamoured by his friend's decision. In fact he describes him as quite insane travelling to a city bursting with jails full of criminals and murderers. But he must have been intrigued by this incredibly remote city, even with its dark gulag past. He eventually visited his friend in Magadan then wrote another song about the city, the lyrics of which are carved into a sculpture of Vysotsky in Magadan's city centre: "I'll tell you about Magadan...".
Both our Russian Australian friends thought we were mad going back to Magadan. Perhaps we were touched by the city in same way of Vysotsky and his friend; lured by that certain attraction mentioned in the Kolyma Guide?
And so after our stay at Magtur Base Camp we were very much looking forward to our planned free day in Magadan. An acquaintance Ives from Magadan Tourisme who had assisted us with our first visit to Magadan in 2017, had offered to show us around the city for a few hours in the afternoon.  It was a real pity however, that due to our "extreme sports" injuries neither of us could barely move. Alan's broken ribs were painful and with my strained thigh muscles, I could hardly walk. We were just too sore and sorry to even think about walking and sadly, we had to decline Ives' kind offer. We would meet him briefly for drinks that evening.
Instead of returning to Magadan first thing as planned, we decided to spend a quiet morning at the Base Camp, followed by a short excursion later in the day in Magadan to purchase our Kolyma Guide book - and of course visit our favourite supermarket Megamag, now affectionately known to us as "Harrods of Magadan". We would spend that evening in Magadan before flying out the following morning to Bilibino, our first destination in Chukotka.
A RELAXED  START AT MAGTUR BASE CAMP.... 
It was very pleasant to have a late start and time to chat with Valentina, Misha and Alexei about life in Magadan. Alexei was an excellent interpreter who had the happy knack of making our conversations spontaneous and very natural. Interestingly he wouldn't say "Valentina (or Misha or Alan etc) says..........." as a reply to questions or comments. Instead he became our voices, answering questions or providing information if he was one of us. Watching him work with two groups of people speaking different languages was fascinating.
We then talked about our coming destination of Chukotka. Misha was worried. He had been there several times and had experienced horrendous weather conditions, including the dreaded Uzhak, the most severe type of blizzard known in Russia. The wind could as he said "Blow shipping containers around as if they were match boxes". "I think you will be in for some terrible and uncomfortable travel" said an unusually solemn Valentina. I thought about our travel agent Elena's concern for us travelling on the ice road from Bilibino to Pevek; a sudden chill shooting down my spine....
Valentina, a great animal lover, was also keen to show us "Cat Tragics" her cats, puppies and also a gorgeous little creature "Rafik" who was a member of the Mink family. We were pleased to change the subject from Chukotka..... The cats and puppies were of course all gorgeous. But I was intrigued by Rafik who reminded me more of a ferret in appearance. I had been bitten by a friend's pet ferret (on our local beach, can you imagine?) and had a healthy respect for their sharp teeth. Valentina assured me that Rafik didn't bite but he did manage to give me a friendly nip when Valentina was not looking. "God, I hope he hasn't got rabies" I couldn't help but think...
Valentina and Misha breed both Siberian Huskies and Maine Coon cats. The evening before, one of their bitches had given birth to seven puppies and Misha had been on duty all night to ensure their safety. We had wondered why our generator produced electricity had been turned on all night. And we wondered why Misha looked even more exhausted than ever that morning. By the end of our stay in Russia, the couple's bitches had given birth to some twenty four puppies! And understandably, Valentina was worried about how they were going to home them all.
FAREWELL TO MISHA AND THE ROAD BACK TO MAGADAN
Valentina was our driver for our trip back to Magadan. She was to spend a week working at her Magadan office before returning to the Base Camp. Alexei was returning home to take up his usual occupation of teaching English to school students.
We were sorry to farewell our friend Misha who stayed back at the camp to look after the property and the numerous animals, including the newly born puppies. Even though we could not speak each other's language we had established a surprisingly close relationship with both he and Valentina, and had enjoyed our stay at the Base Camp. We had talked about a possible trip for them to Australia and were excited about the prospects of seeing them again. We hoped it wasn't really saying goodbye....
On a brilliant sunny day, our journey back to Magadan was interesting not only to compare the route with that along which we travelled in the summer of 2017 but also just the other day when we experienced blizzarding conditions, and of course the blocked snow bound road. It was the prettiest drive with thick snow covering our road, weighing down forests and smothering the surrounding mountains. 
Fortunately our route had been completely cleared of the huge walls of ice and snow we witnessed just two days before. For the first time we met with a "snow blower", a large truck equipped with a huge grader and a blast blower to spray the dug out snow up the high side of the road. Essential to maintaining the life line road along the Sea of Okhotsk from Magadan to Talon, the massive machine was efficient and very impressive. 
Not far past the snow blower we witnessed a rolled truck, almost submerged on one side in a deep drift; a casualty of the recent blizzards and heavy snow falls. Fortunately, it did not appear that anyone was seriously injured.
We reached the lookout where Michael had stopped during our summer of 2017 visit to show us the splendid views of the Magadan shoreline and the Sea of Okhotsk. Hugged by thick layers of snow, the views were possibly even more glorious than our first visit on that balmy late afternoon drive from Balagannoe to Magadan. 
Another site Valentina was keen to show us was a huge flat mountainous slope, just off the side of the road. It was, she said, her dream place to develop a ski resort. 
Here the snow was always thick and the slope was an ideal gradient for both cross country and downhill skiing. Clambering with a lot of difficulty (our poor sore bodies complaining bitterly) up a steep pile of graded ice and snow to view the scene, we could certainly appreciate her point of view. And knowing Valentina, she would probably achieve her dream one day.
Not far from Magadan city we stopped at a local ski resort called Snegorka (translates to Snow). A really impressive facility, it houses several beautiful ski runs (the longest being 370 meters and a vertical drop of some 55 meters), snowboarding and tube facilities. Valentina was enthusiastic about what she saw as excellent domestic and international potential for the resort. Located between Sokol airport and Magadan city, the site boasts an extended snow season from November to April, with the possibility of extending the period with snow making equipment. "And where else in the world, can you find a ski resort so close to a city and an airport?" she asked. When I said to Alan I had never thought about the possibility of skiing in Magadan, he snapped "I think we've had enough of extreme sports for a while.". Nursing my sore limbs, I guess he was right....
MISSION MAGADAN
Our mission for the afternoon was to buy the recently published Kolyma Modern Guide book we had seen in Valentina's office on our first day in Magadan. It is very difficult to find any information on-line about Magadan and the Kolyma and we were especially delighted that the book was also available in English.
Our mission was not an easy task. The office of the government  agency which sold copies of the publication was closed. It would perhaps be open in an hour or so, we were told. Valentina suggested that we might like to visit the local souvenir shop which we did. But buying souvenirs was not a possibility at that stage.  Our bags were so full of our heavy cold weather gear, we had difficulty in even carrying them. Valentina would hear nothing of it. To our embarrassment and in typical Valentina style she took control, buying for us some attractive indigenous Even beaded pendants which she said would "ward away bad spirits".
When we returned, the office was still not open. We were happy to give up but Valentina had a better idea. We would visit a special business exhibition which was being held in Magadan at the time. Surely we would be able to purchase a copy of the book there. Alan and I have spent a lot of times at exhibitions, staffing government stands or accompanying overseas business delegations. The thought of plodding around an exhibition was not appealing but buying the book certainly was.
Russian national elections were being held on the coming weekend and the entrance to the exhibition was lined with government employees advertising the event. Strangely, there were no obvious candidates campaigning.... Good natured staff plied us with bags of goods, containing brochures and leaflets we couldn't read, and blue plastic wrist bands the purpose of which, we had no idea. The people however were super friendly and it was all quite entertaining.
The exhibition was predictably uninteresting, filled with bored looking people staffing equally boring looking stands. It was all very familiar. One stand that did catch our eye however was the Master Fibre exhibit which displayed signage of "kangaroos crossing". Goodness knows who would need this in Russia! To our disappointment, the government stand did not have any copies of the English Guide. We finally agreed to end our search with Alexei kindly offering to sell his personal copy to us. He would buy another later, he said. We were relieved and very appreciative.
NAGAEV BAY AND THE MASK OF SORROW REVISITED
Valentina wanted to take us for a drive around the city. All this additional service was not part of our program and we knew she was being very generous. "But you must see Magadan in the snow!" she insisted. And it was so incredibly different. The very heavy snow really enhanced the city, making it look almost like a scene from a Christmas card. As our friend Mike Brown so rightly said "There WAS something magical about Magadan....."
Our drive took us to Nagaev Bay and the Port of Magadan, once the entrance for Stalin's wretched prisoners who would then be sent off to the gulags. To our amazement, the shores were totally frozen over. In the distance numerous ant-like black figures ice fished for smelt. The old houses, once home to prisoners before they left for the prison camps were almost submerged in deep ice. We could barely recognise what we had seen just months before in the summer of 2017.
Similarly, our visit to the Mask of Sorrow painted a very different picture. Again, perched high on Krotnoy Hill overlooking the frozen landscape of Nagaev and Gertnera Bay, it looked incredibly imposing and haunting. But still I think my favourite view of the sculpture was on our first visit in 2017 when we saw shrouded in a ghostly thick fog.
A VISIT TO HARRODS OF MAGADAN
Valentina dropped us off at the Golden House Hotel where our poor bodies enjoyed a piping hot shower. Both of us were aching badly and a relaxing sit down with a cold beer and some biscuits went down very well. A lie down and short nap was was appealing but we could not be in Magadan without visiting our favourite supermarket Megamag, "Harrods of Magadan". The walk there of just 400 meters was however surprisingly onerous. Late in the afternoon, it was very cold and recently snow cleared footpaths were icing over and quite treacherous.
Our visit to Megamag was short but enjoyable. It is a great store with a surprisingly huge variety of goods, including a great liquor section. We needed to stock up on supplies before our coming trip to Bilibino and as usual, we did so very well. It's amazing what you can do even when you can't speak the language.... The staff was friendly and helpful and in no time, we had what we wanted and headed back "home" to the Golden House Hotel.
We met with Ives for drinks before collapsing into bed for an early night. As we sat talking, we wondered if we would ever return again to Magadan. The city was for some reason was really addictive. As I dozed off, the strange lyrics to Vysotsky's song meandered through my mind:
"What's it for? 
Why just abandon your life at random?
The jails have killers by the score - 
That's where they crammed 'em, that's where they crammed 'em
He'd shrug - '(that's what) people say, there's more in Moscow anyway'
Then (he'll) pack up everything he can - 
For Magadan. For Magadan...
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