We are alone. In the middle of no man’s land Siberia. In Yakutia. In the land of the Evenen. In one of the most remote and lonely areas in the world. From the Evenen reindeer camp we reached the Tara Sala river on horseback, a day’s ride away. After our plan to paddle along the Sobopol to the Lena failed due to lack of water, we had to make a new plan.

This river seems promising at first. At this point it is deep enough that we can even fish. But if it turns out that the river is not navigable by kayak, then we have a big problem. Getting to the next settlement with all our luggage and the boat would take weeks.

Nothing Must happen to us. Nobody can find us here.

We set up the boat and can actually tow and paddle throughout the day. We make our way, but the water is treacherous.

We were actually prepared for a calm, large river that we could just float along. But the Tara Sala seems to be white water!

This river seems promising at first.

Then it happens: we capsize on a branch in the water. Luckily everything is packed waterproof. After a shock we move on.

Shortly afterwards we come to another place with a high current, where another tree lying across the river forces us to get out.

Three streams with high currents come together at this point and when we try to reach the other accessible bank, the boat tips over in our hands and lies upside down in the water. It’s good that everything is stowed away watertight and secured.

With the last of my superhuman strength, I pull the tilted boat out of the main current into a bend where we can turn it around in peace. Together we decide to bring the boat to the other side using a rope.

This succeeds. We can get in and sail through the strong current. Nevertheless, we hit a dead tree with nasty, sharp roots somewhere else and are happy that the boat only gets a few scratches. Then we enter a tight curve in a very difficult place that pushes us hard against sharp rocks – here too we are lucky and nothing happens.

We capsized again!

We often have to get out and tow because the water becomes too shallow. Often the river splits and we can hardly decide which of the small arms to pursue. Once we are out of luck and we only notice late that this arm does not immediately flow back into the Tara Sala. The arm is getting tight and more and more dead wood is bothering us.

We have to trudge through one place with a lot of adrenaline because thick branches are lying across and the water behind them has formed a deep, furiously bubbling cauldron. We hardly have time to recover before the next challenge is already waiting for us.

Half a forest seems to have ended up in the water here and forms a real dam landscape. There is no chance of driving through here. We trudge as far as we can, then we have to unload everything and carry luggage and the boat over dead, collapsing wood and treacherous mud. We manage, but we’re completely exhausted.

We take another smaller, harmless-looking branch, land in a meadow surrounded by bushes and present ourselves to the mosquitoes as their main course. We check our belongings for losses or wetness. Unfortunately we lost two out of three water bottles and a few other things got wet, but nothing bad happened.

It’s late and the annoying little vampires are making our lives so difficult that we have to take all the defensive measures we can. Mosquito net for our hats, long clothing and neoprene gloves.

I had lost our mosquito repellent due to a mishap two days earlier.

I build a bear alarm out of a safety line, a cup and a tea infuser.

After a campfire and spaghetti, we crawl into the tent. We hope to be able to reach the main river the next day without any further breakneck action and just relax in the deep water in the kayak.

Unfortunately our wish is not fulfilled. In addition to other dangers on the river, there will also be a forest fire in our way.