Moscow, RIA Novosti, Anush Dolukhanyan.

For some, the profession of a trucker is shrouded in romance, for others it is hard work. Showdowns with the provincial mafia, sleepless nights and survival hundreds of kilometers from settlements - all this is a payment for the ability to manage your time. The RIA Novosti correspondent spoke with the drivers performing the most difficult flights, and found out how much poetry is in their profession, and how much is prose.

ROMAN, route Moscow - Magadan - Moscow

The journey takes three weeks one way, the same time back. Among truckers, this is considered one of the most difficult and dangerous routes.

About the route

I have been a truck driver for 20 years and travel from Moscow to Magadan and back. On the way there is the Aldan river, through which there is no bridge. In winter you go straight on the ice, and in summer you get over by ferry. The bypass road is 2,500 kilometers of soil, rocks and nothing else.

For one flight to Magadan, it happens that ten tires go away. In summer, the rocks turn out with sharp edges and cut off the tire tightly. In winter, when it snows, you can get up for two or three days: you stand, there is no mobile connection, there is no civilization, there is no help. There are also frosts up to 60 degrees. If the car has stalled, started within 30 minutes - you will go. If not, you'll have to wait until it warms up.

About bandits

Chelyabinsk, Magnitogorsk, Murmansk are full of bandits. In Chelyabinsk, these are mostly drug addicts and children. The child runs up, puts pears-changeovers (a hose or cable that prevents the tractor or trailer from moving. - Ed.) and waits for you to get out of the car. Then teenagers come up and say: "You have to pay." In Magnitogorsk, drug addicts cut, ask for a thousand rubles and let go, and if not, the windshield and headlights are beaten.

Previously, I often traveled to Murmansk, where a racketeer named Ogurets operated. He was engaged in a typical "protection": when you arrive, you need to buy his business card for a thousand rubles, on which telephone numbers for emergencies are written. If your battery or spare tire was stolen from you, robbed, you call the bandits and tell them. They come, understand, bring the necessary spare parts, and then they themselves catch the thieves.

In 2015, I was robbed on the way from Finland to St. Petersburg. They opened up the car right away. In the back were mail and parcels from Aliexpress. Before Vyborg, everything was fine, but when I arrived for unloading, I saw that I did not have a lock on the gate, the customs cable was cut. It turns out that while I was driving, someone behind joined and unloaded some of the bags. The people never received their parcels.

About sleep

I was driving from Poland, I had to pass through Moscow, Sergey Semenovich (Sobyanin. - Ed.) made it open for trucks only at night, now we are suffering because of this. Then I fell asleep at the wheel on the way from Belarus to Moscow 16 times. Every time I woke up, I put a stick on a piece of paper. Once I woke up on the opposite side of the road, I was lucky that there were no cars.

After that, I try not to fight sleep, but if necessary, you can open the window a little, stick your face out the window. Music on the road certainly helps. It all depends on the mood: if it’s good, then Kadysheva won’t hurt either.

About the cafe by the road

Almost all truckers know in which cafes you can eat and which you should not. If you are driving along the highway, the cafe is large, the parking lot is large, but there are no cars, you can safely drive through it - rubbish. Sometimes, on the contrary, there is a small hut, but there are many cars on the side of the road, this is a sure sign - tasty, good and inexpensive. You can still safely go to cafes where there is a police car - they will not be poisoned.

About the "Internet" of truckers and help

Everyone has walkie-talkies in their cars, in Russia they communicate on Channel 15. This is such an "Internet" for truckers. Here you can ask how and where to go. For example, I arrived in Chelyabinsk, there are a lot of bandits there, you need to carefully and quickly get to the place. Shouted into the radio - the guys responded, met and spent

People the farther from Moscow, the better. Kindness and humanity remained in the regions, but in the capital everything is "on display". In Moscow, if you ask someone for water, they won't give it to you in life, but somewhere else - no problem. For example, not far from Kurgan, a spare wheel fell off my tractor due to vibration and our "good" roads. It weighs almost 70 kilograms, I rolled it to the car, but it’s unrealistic to lift such a weight into the body myself. He shouted into the radio, but no one answered. A man drove by, stopped and just helped.

PAVEL, Chelyabinsk - Petersburg - Svobodny

This journey took the hero a month, and he is still on the road. The total length of the route is 17 thousand kilometers.

About my profession

The work of a trucker is freedom: you yourself choose when you get up, when you start working, almost your own boss. A person has the opportunity to travel a lot, and they also pay money for it. It turns out almost the program "Eagle and Tails", only not so colorful. You can go on a flight for six months, or you can go for a month or two. I have been a trucker for seven years now, sometimes there is a desire to change jobs, but so far it does not add up.

This is the road. Everything can be here: from a punctured tire to a meteorite fall. Previously, cars were burned or stopped, money was begged for, but now there are fewer bandits. Of modern dangers, one can name rather reckless fools. There are a lot of motorists in the western part of Russia who buy a sedan with a lowered suspension and think they are tough racers. They do not follow any rules and get under the wheels.

Thefts mostly occur in unguarded parking lots. Once, while unloading in Yekaterinburg, they cut the awning on the trailer, climbed inside, took packs of xerox paper and took me away. Also, for example, drivers know that in St. Petersburg a car cannot be left anywhere and never unattended - there are a lot of car thieves. Sometimes they steal even with a co-driver inside, who fell asleep in a sleeping bag.

About roads

IN Lately road conditions have improved. They repaired the fifth federal highway, made the M7 from Ufa to Moscow. Although I often see meaningless works: the same bridge is reconstructed every year, although it is in good condition. This suggests that this is how money is laundered.

In the city of Kansk, a sign "No Entry" was installed on the federal highway for trucks, so you have to drive seven kilometers along a bypass road - a broken gravel road, where you can kill a car. Against the background of the fact that now high taxes are Platon, blocking the highway that connects the West and East of the largest country in the world is indecent.
From Ulan-Ude to Chita - the road is fifty to fifty. It is being repaired, but, to put it mildly, without a spark: the bridge can be repaired by two people with shovels and without equipment.

There is generally purely Russian nonsense. Three years ago, the M5 highway was repaired and semi-precious stones were covered under the asphalt as a pillow, and the locals came, dug them out and sold them.

About bribes

Previously, there was one traffic police post in Ufa, where there was a fare, regardless of violations. It was necessary to pay 50 rubles, you don’t show documents, they don’t check anything, they just ask for money, at least atomic bomb take it. All truckers prepared fifty dollars in advance so that there was no change. One day I forgot and did not exchange money. I handed out 500 rubles - and they gave me change, exactly 450, as in a store.

About cafes and travel

Now there is a very convenient application "Cargolink", where they mark where gas stations, parking lots, cafes are. Truckers write reviews, and you can focus on them. The best food is in cafes in the southern part of Russia. By the way, there are only two places in the whole country where barbecue can be cooked normally - the Ural cafe in Chelyabinsk and the village of Umet in Mordovia.

During the flight, sometimes you can stop by somewhere to relax. For example, on the road to Surgut there is the village of Vinokurovo, where there are hot springs. You can leave your car in the parking lot and swim for free. In winter it is very romantic: the snow is falling, and you are in hot water, when you go out - all in iodine.

About truckers in the 90s

In the 90s, a random person was not allowed to drive. Until 1996, when European cars began to be massively imported, everyone rode what was left of the Soviet era: old Volvos, Mercedes, KAMAZ trucks, ZILs. Then the drivers had to be silent about what kind of cargo they were carrying and where, even if relatives or the police asked. This can be explained not by the value of the goods, but by the fear of bandits: everyone had a lot of cash on hand, they hid it around the cabin so that the money would not catch anyone's eyes. Now, of course, everything has changed. All and sundry sit behind the wheel of trucks: former prisoners, romantics, even former pilots.

About sleep and favorite music

You can’t fight sleep at all, it can end sadly. But truckers still come up with all sorts of tricks, for example, they prepare cocktails: they dilute Coca-Cola with caffeine and drive 1,500 kilometers per day. You can’t do this - the heart can not stand it. If you want to sleep, it is better to stop.

On the road, music helps to keep the tone. I like some songs with meaning, and truckers often listen to chanson and pop music. In general, drivers especially do not like one-day songs, for example, Yegor Creed or Bilan - as they hear, they immediately switch the station.

About Muscovites
In the regions, the people are responsive, local residents you can easily ask how to get somewhere - they will tell, show. Not so in Moscow.

I got lost once on Ryazansky Prospekt and decided to ask passers-by. First, he approached the girl, she was wearing headphones, tried to call out, but she passed by. Then to a young guy - he looked at me and went on without saying a word. I met an Uzbek, asked if he was local, he said "yes" and told how to get there in detail.

Hitchhiking is risky and sometimes even dangerous. Especially when you decide to go to one of the most severe regions of Russia - to Kolyma. The Lenta.ru correspondent hitchhiked from Yakutsk to Magadan, not being afraid of the lack of roads, abandoned cities and wild animals.

The track in the Magadan region is a proper name. The highway is called the federal highway "Kolyma". On her, as on a knitting needle, strung b O Most of the settlements of the region are those where at least some residents still remain. Asphalt and concrete are the first 50 kilometers from Magadan to the west. Next is the primer. Such that behind the thick clouds of dust from under the car in front you can not see anything. True, there are not so many cars 50 kilometers from the city. The farther from Magadan along the "Kolyma" to the west, the fewer settlements, the population itself, they generally become a rarity.

When there are more bears than people

Magadan for an independent traveler has long become synonymous with the phrase "end of the world." However, this is perhaps the most accessible of the "ends of the world" in Russia. You can even get there by hitchhiking. In Chukotka and Kamchatka, for example, hitchhiking is not possible. There is, of course, Vladivostok - but it's almost Europe in the heart of Asia. It is difficult to feel in Vladivostok that “civilization ends” somewhere here, but on the way to Magadan it is easy. But you don’t need to fly there by plane, but slowly (it won’t work any other way - the state of the road will not allow it) to approach along the Highway.

The route starts from the border of Yakutia and the Magadan region. But the Kolyma highway starts much earlier - from Yakutsk. More precisely, on the opposite side of the Lena from Yakutsk. The first 400 kilometers are Yakut settlements (in the sense of the ethnicity of their inhabitants), taiga, rarefied by glades-alas, then the Aldan River as a kind of transition to a more severe and wild world, the village of Khandyga and ... Civilization is almost over. Last major locality Yakutia on the "Kolyma" - the village of Ust-Nera.

On the border between the regions there is a police post "Artyk" (police officers live in other regions of Yakutia, they come to the post to work on shifts). This is where the track begins. Magadan is more than 700 kilometers from the post. This is one of those Russian highways where it is much easier to meet a bear than a car.

On one of the sections of the route, my colleague and I waited for a ride for 7 hours. It wasn't that no one was stopping, it was just that no one was passing. However, usually the waiting time of the car does not exceed two or three hours.

The autostop here is great. Unlike central Russia, every ride is ready to pick up a traveler on the highway. The main thing is to wait.

In these places there is no dense tall taiga, as in the Krasnoyarsk Territory or Kemerovo region, there are no mountains, as in Altai or the Caucasus. In the Magadan region, nature is like a teenager - it is just getting ready to become an adult, it has not yet developed. It is located on a conditional scale somewhere between the tundras of the Far North and the impenetrable forests of Southern Siberia.

Rounded hills made of crumbled stone rocks, as if poured by giants. Stunted coniferous trees growing in islands. But there is no shortage of water - streams, rivers, rivers, lakes, slowly setting the traveler up for the upcoming meeting with the Sea of ​​​​Okhotsk. However, bridges are not everywhere. Often you have to look for fords in rivers. Although it happens that there seems to be a bridge, it is still safer to force a water barrier to wade.

ghosts and living

The nearest settlement to Yakutia is the town of Kadykchan. It is well known to many who are dedicated to the topic: it is one of the most famous "ghost towns" in Russia. IN better times its population was about 10 thousand people, a rich town of northern miners, where coal was mined in an open way.

Photo: Laika ac / Flickr / Kommersant

When fell apart Soviet Union, the inhabitants of Kadykchan immediately felt the changes: salaries, food, transport connecting with the mainland - everything has sharply decreased. The state ensured the transportation of coal to Magadan and further by sea "through the teeth." In 1996, an accident occurred at the city-forming enterprise. The explosion killed six people. The city was settled. More precisely, they decided to resettle - the process itself stretched for ten years.

People continued to live in the half-empty Kadykchan with the district heating turned off. The name of the city, which is translated from Even as the Valley of Death, turned out to be prophetic. By 2010 there was no one left.

It seems to be familiar buildings - dilapidated, as on the outskirts of many Russian cities and towns. You constantly expect to see people, but they are not. Instead, silence, broken by some strange rustling. It seems that dozens of eyes are watching you - they are watching. The new local inhabitants are animals that have regained these lands and taken the place of people.

The doors to the apartments are open: inside there are calendars for 1997 or 1999, sideboards, tables and chairs from the general Soviet childhood, photo albums, rotten clothes.

The Kolyma region is famous for its prisons and camps. There really were a lot of them along the Route before Stalin's death. Then they began to actively close them, and in the 1960s they were destroyed so that no traces remained.

Today they are hard to find. In total, two abandoned camps have been preserved in the region. The closest to the Highway is Dneprovsky. Near the non-residential village of Myakit, you need to turn into the hills and overcome another 13 kilometers along the “zekovskaya” road. "Dneprovsky" was part of the Berlag system - the Coastal Correctional Labor Camp. It functioned from 1941 to 1955, the prisoners mined tin here.

Around the camp there are hills with mines and pits in which ore was mined, guard towers and rows of barbed wire. From the hills down, the ore was transported in wooden boxes. Downstairs, along the Dneprovsky stream, there was a crushing factory - everything was made of wood: prisoners' barracks, administration houses, the remains of household equipment. At the entrance to the camp is a wooden cabin "one and a half".

You can get to Dneprovsky either on your own and for free, or with an organized tour for a lot of money (renting an SUV from Magadan will cost 70-100 thousand rubles).

whales in the city

The locals are the complete opposite of the abandoned "ghosts" of the Route and its camp monuments. They have hospitality, responsiveness and, it seems, endless warmth. There is this in people and in the villages on the Highway, and in Magadan itself. It may happen that the locals will come to you themselves - they accurately calculate the visitors. So after a couple of days it turns out that you have a lot of acquaintances among the inhabitants of Kolyma.

"The next day, in the morning, loading began. They loaded the cars with a crane. Then we moved onto a barge. There was another car - a heavy one. The driver drove it somewhere. We pitched a tent on the barge and prepared for a long journey along the Aldan River, then along the Lena River and further to the Skovorodino station.We should have had enough food to reach the final point of the river journey.Finally, the tugboat gave a signal and our barge set off and went along the river.

The mood is good, everything is going according to plan. Along the coast there is an endless taiga.
A few days later, when we woke up in the morning, we did not hear the usual noise of the tugboat. The barge was anchored at the mouth of the Aldan River. It turned out that our tug had been recalled to film the ship that had run aground. We were not upset, we hoped that he would quickly return to us. A few tens of meters from our barge there was another one, the tug from it went there too.

We, as I said, are big optimists, but I gathered a family council and suggested that we start saving food. I did not find support, and they also criticized me for sowing panic. We, as always, prepared lunches for everyone, but breakfasts and dinners with our family. A few days later, the food began to run out. The men were also worried. All the time we listened to the river to see if we could hear the sound of a moving ship. The “skipper” told us a story that a year ago she had already wintered with her barge and now she always carries several bags of flour with her. It scared us a lot. We ran out of sugar, canned food and all other supplies. The “skipper” once a day fed the children with pies. The men fished, although there were only two rods, but reinforcements sometimes arrived.

The barge was not far from the shore, and our men went into the taiga in the hope of shooting something. They were afraid to go far, if a tugboat had come, they would not have waited long. Each time I persuaded them not to go for a long time. They found wild garlic in the forest. It was impossible to eat these green vitamins without bread, I added it to fish soup.

One night I woke up because I heard a splash. The boat was lowered into the water, and the whistle of the steamer was heard on the river. Our starving men swam closer and explained the situation, that we were abandoned by a tugboat, and there were children on the barge. They asked the captain if they had any extra food. They were very upset that they could not help us, but they gave us several loaves of dried black bread. They promised to report our plight. We soaked this black bread and ate it with wild garlic and fish soup, which gave everyone heartburn. My younger son, Valery, asked me: “Well, at least a small piece of white bread might have been lost somewhere?” I persuaded the children as best I could and encouraged the men. Two or three days later, the whistle of a passing steamer was heard again at night. He "slowed down" his course, waiting for the boat from the barge to get to them. This time we were given food: condensed milk, all kinds of bread, canned food, etc. My husband woke us up in the middle of the night, put the kettle on to heat. And the boys drank tea with condensed milk and white bread. They also warned us not to leave the barge, because They promised to send a tugboat. They continued to fish, but they did not go ashore.

Finally, after two weeks of inactivity, a tugboat arrived. I picked up the barge and with cheerful horns we set off towards Yakutsk. Everyone perked up."

As is often the case in Russia, the most terrible sometimes coexists with the most beautiful and amazing. This is if in a nutshell to define the Kolyma federal highway.

What is a federal highway anyway? This is the most important transport artery that connects the key cities of regions or regions. In other words, this is an important road. Very important. So, for example, Kolyma connects Yakutsk and Magadan. And even though we're talking about two largest cities Far East, asphalt on the federal highway is almost completely absent. At the same time, I declare with all responsibility that this is the most beautiful road I have ever traveled in Russia. The views opening on both sides of the grader make you constantly stop the car, go outside and stick to the endless taiga expanses. Today's post is about...

I have already traveled along this track in winter with Tema during ChukotEtnoExpa. At that time, all the locals told me that it was better to go in the summer. Finally, we were able to compare.

So, the first 100 kilometers from Magadan on the highway there is asphalt. Moreover, if closer to the city it is more or less normal, then it starts such that it would be better if it did not exist at all. The whole road is in waves, ruts and pits:

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A small ford. Don't worry, he's not on the track. We ourselves decided to play pranks and drove around the main road:

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After 100 km comes the grader. The speed limit is 80 km/h for cars and 60 km/h for trucks. Yakutsk is 1860 kilometers away. And here the main trouble of the whole route begins: endless, tiring road dust:

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You have to keep a large distance between the cars in order to somehow drive:

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But you can determine the distance to the nearest cars by eye:

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Cars instantly gather dust and lose their presentable appearance. However, there is no one to show off the next 1800 kilometers. But you can practice wit:

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It is very difficult to disperse with trucks. They are very heavy, clumsy, and because of the dust it is completely impossible to see who is riding behind them. Imagine what it's like to overtake in this case? Perhaps at this very moment someone is driving in the opposite direction with him. This is one of the disadvantages of traveling on the highway in the summer:

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Locals drive Japanese SUVs with big wheels:

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The most common occurrence is a punctured wheel:

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At some point it began to rain and the dust stopped. There was an opportunity to go quietly and admire the beauties:

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Kolyma is a gold-bearing region. Many rivers are torn apart in search of precious metal. I will talk about how gold is mined in one of the following posts:

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There are many abandoned or semi-abandoned settlements along the way:

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Apparently, those who mined gold used to live here:

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Now all the houses are empty and there is not a single living soul nearby:

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On the way we meet a lot of funny names. Pass "Grandfather's bald head":

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"Gavryushka". These funny names were given by geologists who came here to look for gold. Well, what - there were no local protesters, as you understand:

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Over your behavior!

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Abby Road in Magadan. Suddenly I came across a small asphalted area with markings. A small one is two hundred meters:

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The name of the federal highway comes from the Kolyma River. A little later we will drive to Sinegorye and visit the Kolyma hydroelectric power station:

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Most road track passes through the mountains. There are a lot of passes, and they are all of insane beauty:

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See what colors. I collected a few landscapes here, but there were so many of them along the way that I will probably make a separate post:

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As for gas stations, only one thing can be said: there are few of them. Fortunately, we had a supply of fuel in cans:

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Well, frankly, not BP. And there are no shops with sweets here:

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Fuel is stored in huge open-air tanks:

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Even worse than gas stations, the situation is with hotels. There is one in Susuman, but we did not have time to get to it on the first day. Because of the dust here, 300-400 kilometers a day is a good result, you can’t count on more. I had to spend the night in tent camps:

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Breakfast of a Magadan tourist: caviar, squid, crabs:

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Our team. I forgot to say that this is another Land Rover expedition, which takes place for the 15th or 16th time (I confess, I have already lost count). Traditionally Land Rover Expedition is an excellent company, great cars and exciting adventures! There are many posts about Kolyma ahead!