The night passes quietly. My bear alarm doesn’t go off. The past day was extremely strenuous and the horror of the repeated dangerous situations in the white water is deep in our bones. Hopefully this day will be more relaxed.

Nachdem wir am Ende des letzten Tages in einem kleinen Fluss mit viel totem Holz gelandet sind müssen wir endlich wieder den Hauptfluss finden.

Slowly, but at least without any significant challenges, we find our way out of the hell of the forest. The mosquitoes attack us in swarms, so we have to keep the protective nets stretched over our hats.

We are still on the branch of the Tara-Sala and only know approximately how far away the main river is. According to the map, our body of water runs parallel to it.

When the forest thins out and everything becomes a little clearer, I climb a hill and explore the area. I see a wide valley with gravel and small veins of water.

A main river can only be guessed at, we can only guess whether it carries more water than our branch.

In the distance I even see two naleds – year-round ice fields. These ice fields can be treacherous. It is possible that our river flows under such a naled. Before that, we must have gotten to safety on land in good time.

We decide to stay on our arm, which has now become a little bigger. It’s still not enough for paddling.

We toddle for hours and hours; We often have to pull with all our strength over the large pebbles through which only a trickle trickles.

At least we manage to cover a little distance by paddling in the afternoon.

If we could kayak through the river we would be in Batagay-Alyta in two to three days.

But if things continue like today, we will need over a week, and in ten days we have to get a plane that will take us to Yakutsk so that we can take our plane home two days later. It’s no wonder that a plane only takes off from this small village once a week.

Will we make it on time?

Finally we reach an ice field. We have to be extremely careful that the river doesn’t suddenly make a bend that leads under the ice.

But then we are surprised in a different way. From the distance, a single reindeer runs at full gallop across the ice towards us.

Shortly before the end of the naled, the animal stops and prances back and forth in front of us. As we slowly drift along, it trots a little further in a crouch, as if it would like to join us. Then it turns and runs away.

We notice how hazy it is today. And then I notice the smell of smoke. There’s a big forest fire somewhere. The wind is coming our way, so the fire seems to be ahead of us. As if we didn’t have enough to worry about…

The smoke is getting thicker. Soon we can only glimpse the sun. A forest fire is a great danger. If we drive into the middle of a fire, the river won’t help us either. The smoke is already making it difficult for us to breathe.

Unfortunately, it’s slowly getting evening and we’re tired from all the toddling. We have to take a break. Luckily we find a gravel bank that is far enough away from the forest. We pitch our tent and hope for the best.

We run the risk of getting caught in a forest fire.

I don’t sleep well. Everything smells like smoke. And I’m alarmed about a possible fire around us.

As bad as the previous day was, today is just as good. The weather is clear and there is no sign of the forest fire anymore.