An off-road winter expedition along Baikal-Amur Railway across Eastern Siberia

Baikal-Amur Railway, Russia, Siberia, second Transiberian Magistral


Explore the unknown and mysterious country – Siberia! This is an expedition aimed to get acquainted and explore such powerful and little known historical, natural and social phenomenon of the modern Russia as the Baikal-Amur Mainline (BAM) in Easten Siberia – Greatest USSR construction project, real Future Railway, which was supposed to unite Russia and America. It is a single-line railroad connecting primeval and infinite mountains in the Siberian taiga and gathering fascinating histories and fates of people, who dedicated their lives to it, like beads of semi-precious stones on a thread.

We travel to:

		Discover Baikal-Amur Mainline as a real construction site of the century, to see the courage and beauty of engineering design, and the great work of volunteering young communists who came from the entire USSR. To visit museums, meet the veterans of BAM construction, most interesting people who can show us the social side of BAM phenomenon like no one other. We will truly see and understand this part of Russia.

		Enjoy the beauty of wild Siberian nature, to see its both most well-known and most unexpected sides. High beautiful mountains covered with snow and surrounded by taiga and clearest rivers. Fishing where fish jumps out of water. Interesting geological phenomena, like a desert with SAND DUNES surrounded by mountains and taiga. Have you heard anything about this wonderful phenomenon?

		Talk to indigenous people and to see their life not in shows, but for real. There are nomad Evenk camps along BAM, and we will definitely visit them more than once. We will see how those people live.

		Touch the secrets of the history of the place, which is still little visited and covered by mass media. This was the very place where uranium for the first USSR atomic bomb was extracted, where rare elements were mined, the highest Russian mountain railroads were built and much more. What do we know about it? That’s right – almost nothing.

		Feel like a real explorer and discoverer! It really is a little-known part of Russia about which even the Russian peoples does not know anything…

Brief overview:


	• The organization fee covers: the work of the managers, leaders and field specialists, transportation in a specially prepared vehicle, comfortable accommodation along the route (hotels, camps, town centers, touristic clubs), an overnight in a warm winter expeditionary camp near the Evenk camp, visiting museums, meetings and excursions around industrial facilities, travel meals and insurance.

	• Time for the expediditions: only March

	• Starting point: city of Bratsk, the Irkutsk Region

	• Finish point: city of Tynda (or Blagoveschensk), the Amur Region

	• Duration: 14 days and more

	• Number of participants: 3-8 people

	• Price per person: about 4000-8000$ (for more details email us)


	Research: geography, history and peoples

	New knowledge and experience: a participation in a real travel with meaning – in an expedition, the history of the USSR and Russia, ethnography

	Activity: off-road drive, unity with the nature and yourself, bathing in hot springs, winter fishing, taking with interesting people, photography

Baikal-Amur Railway - second Tras-Siberian Railway, Russia, Siberia


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Map Baikal-Amur Railway, second Trans-Siberian Railway

Estern Siberia Expedition, Baikal-Amur Railway

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Expedition «BAM, the construction site of the century»

Siberian Expeditions Team

Baikal-Amur Mainline, or shortly BAM. What associations do you have when hearing these words? Young communists in taiga and weddings right on the railroad. Steaming locomotives before high mountains and picturesque bridge spans. But mostly — what is it, where and why was it???

Why would one try to conquer the taiga, these unscalable mountains, and to pick many kilometers of tunnels and lay cross ties among swamps and high ridges. Why build new cities and villages by gathering volunteers from the entire Soviet Union? What all those people believed in? What did they live for and what is left of their work?

ussia is a vast country with truly great past and no less great opportunities. And now it is as it is. No better or worse. And it worth traveling around and discovering. That’s what we offer you to do together with Siberian Expeditions

March is chosen for the expedition deliberately. The thing is the vehicle road along BAM is hardly passable, mostly because there are no proper bridges across rivers. Which is not a problem in March, and heavy frosts are already gone, with a unique atmosphere of a Siberian winter still being here

We will stay overnight only indoors: in hotels, and when they are unavailable (which is a regular thing on BAM, deep in Siberia), in touristic clubs, schools and city centers. We are awaited and will be welcomed everywhere: we will hear local stories and go sightseeing. It will be a genuine and live communication with people living according the laws completely different from those we are accustomed to in megalopolises. It is another mentality. Completely different one. The mentality without which Russia wouldn’t be Russia, and BAM wouldn’t genuinely be the construction site of the century.


		Rodion, the head of the journey

		Has 8 -years experience in organizing expeditions. A member of Russian Geographical Society.


		Evgeny, the driver of UAZ Farmer («Filya»)

		An experienced traveler around Siberia. One of the drivers in the Great Siberia Journey. A paraglider pilot and motorcyclist.


Why you should take this journey with us:

	You will be taking part not in a tour or a trip, but in a real expedition,with its objectives, uncertainties, research and its unique atmosphere. You will feel like a hero of the childhood books, Indiana Jones — this is the very authentic adventure tourism, which almost no one can offer in Russia.	You will discover a surprising unknown Russia.. We will not only show you beautiful scenery, but also give an extensive amount of knowledge and a possibility to meet most interesting and striking people

	You will get a unique life experience. No one returns the same person from this expedition: there is a reassessment of values in life; there are interesting and reliable new friends, even the eyes of the travelers become wiser and happier, and lool different.	You are not a customer, you are a part of the team. We will explore and change the world together. As a rule, the expedition is just the beginning — we can work together on the received materials or carry out further joint projects.

Day 1. Bratsk. The journey begins

Meeting at the airport (the flight S7 121 arrives in Bratsk at 8:10 am local time). If the road and weather are fine, we will drive into an outdoor museum «Angarsk village» and further onto the road to Ust-Kut across the giant dam of Bratsk power station. We will be surrounded by bald peaks and Siberian larches. Overnight in a house. Lunch in a cafe, dinner cooked together on a stove. Rally: 350-400 km.

Severobaikalsk. The expedition along BAM.

Day 2. Snow-covered frozen Baikal

We will start towards Baikal yearly in the morning. Mountains after the pass grow visibly higher, and the scenery will be more impressive. In the afternoon we will drive to Severobaikalsk where we will visit a museum of the BAM construction history. Later we will drive along the snow-covered Baikal and picturesque cape tunnels to Nizhneangarsk where we will spend the night in a hotel. Breakfast cooked on a stove, lunch and dinner served in cafes. Rally: about 560 km.

The Evenks, Siberia. The expedition along BAM.

Day 3. Dzelinda hot springs and
Cold Evenkiyskoye

In the morning we will drive through Cold Evenkiyskoye village where we will visit the local history museum and talk to the Evenks — indigenous people of Eastern Siberia. We will then drive to hot healing springs Dzelinda where water temperature varies from 40 to 50 centigrade. BAM goes further along the impressive Verkhneangarsky Ridge of more than 2500 m high. In the evening we will arrive to New Uoyan village.

Devil's Bridge. The expedition along BAM.

Day 4. The longest tunnel in Russia and Devil’s Bridge

We will continue our journey early in the morning by going on excursion together with Russian Rail Road engineers to inspect a 15-km Severomuisky tunnel — the longest Russian tunnel — and Devil’s Bridge — a unique engineering structure, which is the landmark of BAM. We will spend there a couple of hours. Later we will drive across the pass and to Taksimo village, where we we will be going to stay in a hotel or in a rented flat. Rally: 233 km.

Day 5. Kuanda — the golden section of BAM

In the morning we will go to the museum, and then drive to Kuanda village where a high monument is placed near the railroad station as a symbol of BAM connection. We will have a stop in Kuanda or drive to the Evenk nomad camp if they can be reached from the road. Rally: 77-100 km.

Balbukhta passing loop. The expedition along BAM.

Day 6. Balbukhta and the Kodarsky pass

We will drive along the legendary Balbukhta passing loop and head to the picturesque Kodarsky pass. Then we will descend to Chara basin. On its north there is one of the most picturesome Siberian mountains — mount Kodar — standing in a continuous and unscalable wall. We will drive to Chara village and spend overnight in the touristic center. Rally: 160 km.

Chara sands in winter. The expedition along BAM

Day 7. Chara sands — dunes in the snow

We will have a short trip to a unique natural phenomenon — the Chara sands. It is a real desert with sandy dunes partially covered with snow — a view one can see only in Siberia and only at BAM. In the evening we will arrive to a touristic camp on hot springs. There we will rest, have a bath in the springs and stay overnight. Russian steam bath will also be the same evening.

An abandoned road to Cheeneyskoye mine. The expedition along BAM.

Day 8. Cheena is a new Chara. An abandoned and
the highest mountain railroad in Russia

A there-and-back drive to Cheeneyskoye iron-ore deposit where vanadium containing titanium magnetite ores were mined. It was one of the world’s largest mines delivering such ores. We will drive along the Russian highest mountain railroad (about 1,650 m) which rails are piled with stone blocks and twisted and bent by a recent earthquake. It is a real abandoned railroad with great bridges, mountain galleries and tunnels. The mountain scenery here is picturesque. In the evening we will drive back to Chara village and spend overnight in the touristic center. Rally: 70 km.

Day 9. The highest railroad point

We will charge the highest mountain pass of BAM — the Udokan (1,310 m), which is the highest point of the entire railroad. There will be endless Siberian taiga around us with high snowy peaks over us. We will drive by the snow-covered Leprindo lakes to Khani village. There are no hotels there, so we will spend overnight in the school.

Days 10-11. Endless Siberian taiga and
ancient rock drawings

We will drive further east along BAM through Siberian taiga and mountains. Our next stop will be at the bridge over the river Olyokma, where ancient rock drawings, pertoglyphs, can be found on one of the rocks. We will stop either in Olyokminsk or Neringi village. The next day we will drive to the final point of our expedition — an unofficial BAM capital city of Tynda. Overnight in a hotel.

Tynda railroad station. The expedition along BAM.

Day 12. Around Tynda — the capital of BAM

Most buildings are similar on BAM, but not railroad stations. They are all like shrines here, each is unlike the others. Same, the railroad station in Tynda is a unique building from many points of view. The building has a complicated kinked form symbolizing a bird silhouette. This is the highest building in the Far East with its 48 m. In 1984 the design of the station took 3rd place in the international architecture contest in Sofia, Bulgaria. After looking at the station, we will go to the BAM history museum where we will hear about everything: about BAM labor camp, the Evenks and a tragic and heroic fate of BAM builders, and why BAM can be rightfully called the construction site of the century. Summarizing the results.

Winter fishing. Siberia. The expedition along BAM.

Days 13-14. Reserve days

We plan a couple of spare days to our schedule due to expeditionary character of the journey and unpredictable weather conditions of the East Siberia. Perhaps there will be places where we will want to stay longer: spend more time in hot springs or master the exciting winter fishing as they in Siberia practice. Everything will depend on us. Let this unique expedition become a truly unforgettable journey for us all.

P.S. You can order an individual expedition to the Siberian taiga, with regards to your personal itinerary. Write to us about it, we are pleased to create for you an unforgettable journey!

Organization information:

• Time for the expediditions: only March
• Starting point: city of Bratsk, the Irkutsk Region
• Finish point: city of Tynda (or Blagoveschensk), the Amur Region
• Duration: 14 days and more
• Number of participants: 3-8 people
• Price per person: about 4000-8000$ (for more details email us)

Expedition vehicles:

Two minibuses with heating specially prepared for winter conditions — UAZ 2206 and UAZ Farmer («Filya»). They have high off-road capabilities, fitted with inverters to recharge camera and video equipment.

Journey partners:

	For SPONSORS: Would you like a tv-story from the expedition on behalf of your company and with the advertising of your products? Contact us and we will tell you about possible terms of cooperation.

For mass media: For mass media: if you want to publish a well-written story and beautiful pictures about the journey, just contact us.

The organization fee includes:

• the work of the managers, leaders and field specialists,
• transportation in a specially prepared vehicle,
• comfortable accommodation along the route (hotels, touristic camps, town centers, touristic clubs),
• an overnight in a warm winter expeditionary camp near the Evenk camp (1 night),
• visiting museums, meetings and excursions around industrial facilities,
• expedition meals (cooked in turns).
• meals in the cafés and canteens

The organization fee does not include:

• Flight (rail transportation)

Wishes to participants

An inquisitive mind and kind temper, as well as the readiness to partial lack of personal comfort are strongly required.

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I want to go to this expedition!

What should I do next?

Siberian Baikal-Amur Railway is waiting for you!

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Rodion, Expedition Leader & Travel Consultant

— or just call or text me at any time!

skype: rodionzhitin, WhatsApp: +79137688731

or ask me questions in my Facebook

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