Arctic Trucks

We arrived in Novo at 9 am this morning, after driving for 22 hours without a stop. We heard that the big freight plane was coming in to pick up a TV crew that had had some accidents and were cancelling their expedition. Since they were sending the big plane from Cape Town they decided to send the two remaining cars with it. We were a little worried because none of the filming equipment had been installed yet and we still do not know how that will end. We are happy to get the cars so quickly because this means that we have a lot of time to put in radios, GPS and other things that needs to be installed.
The four of us were all very tired and quickly fell asleep in our container. We have an 8x4 meter container and we are pretty comfortable, it is warm and nice. Everybody fell asleep and we barely woke up when the Russian freighter took a low pass over the area with a lot of noise.

Gísli Jónsson

Right now we are in 3.332 meters altitude which is similar to over 4.000 meter in other places of the world. The reason is that air pressure is lower here than generally.
We woke up at 8 a.m. to get things going.  Everybody is feeling better. The temperature is minus 25 and there is a little wind. After breakfast we decided to leave all the fuel here, total of 12 barrels, and return to Novo. It was 11:30 when we had finally finished unloading all the barrels and was ready to leave. It is very hard to work in this altitude, you work for a while but then you have to sit down and regain some energy. Everybody was feeling the thin air. The fuel stock is located 400 kilometers from Novo, which is close to one third of the total way from Novo to Start line.
When we headed back we found out that snow had totally filled up the tracks those 12 hours we had stopped. The tracks were not hard in the bottom as we had expected and it made a very little difference if you drove in the tracks or not. This could affect our fuel calculation for the way back.
We drove way faster on the way back to Novo, you could feel those 2400 kilos of fuel we left behind and we also only had 280 liters of fuel in the tanks. It took us 9 hours to drive those 200 kilometers down to ETL and when we got there we decided to use the time wisely and continue down to the area where we found the cracks earlier, even though it was evening already. The journey went very well and we could drive this part at 50-60 km per hour, compared to 20-25 per hour the first 200 kilometers. 
When we came down to the crack area the sun suddenly appeared through the clouds and the view was fine. We therefore decided to continue, but find a new route through the crack area. We drove a big circle and our intentions were to go back into our tracks on the other side of this area. But we also found some cracks here so we turned around and tried on the other side, but had no luck. There were cracks all over this area. We ended up with Kenny walking in front of the cars all the way through, sticking a bamboo pole down for every step.  We got through there without any troubles. It took us 7 hours to get through this area and now the time was 6 a.m. We still had 100 km to go to get to Novo, which is close to driving across Vatnajökull glacier in Iceland!  We were all very happy to have this behind us, the weather was beautiful and the visibility great. When we stopped some seagulls came to examine us. There are some very beautiful formations in this area, mountains that stand up through the glacier. We got some spectacular photos of this view.
We decided to continue. We could see that some bad weather was getting closer. On the way we had some snowstorm and the visibility was 0-10 meters. Everybody was getting very tired and even Kenny fell asleep in the car, which means that he too was getting really tired! We drove 40-50 km per hour and arrived in Novo around 9 a.m. Everybody at Novo were really surprised when we appeared from the blizzard on full speed. They were very impressed since they are not used to people travelling in that kind of weather. Andrei was so startled that he congratulated us with a handshake for this great achievement!

Gísli Jónsson

We woke up at 6 a.m. and I was not feeling too good. I had a bad headache and nausea. I realized that the altitude was starting to affect our body. I had not anticipated this but we had climbed rather fast. Deirdre, our doctor, had the situation under control and she knew exactly was happening. We left the camp but the driving conditions were not very good. The sastrugis are getting bigger, our speed was down to 15-20 km per hour and the car engines were losing power because of the cold. We had to drive in the fourth gear to get the automatic transmission to work normally.
During the day Hjalti got weaker and weaker but I managed to sleep a little while Kenny was driving but he did not seem to feel the altitude much. Deirdre was also feeling this a little.
In the end we put both the trailers on Hjalti‘s car so that car now had 14 barrels. Kenny and I forged the way. When the snow got even heavier we put tow from my car to Hjaltis car to help him with all the weight since the car was sinking into the snow and did not have the power or the grip to pull the trailers. The temperature was down to minus 24 and a little wind from the east. The wind always seems to come from the east here. The snow was soft, apart from the sastrugis which are very hard. The cars are losing power in the cold and we need find a solution to this problem.
We ended the day in location South 7405, East 1109, around 400 kilometers from Novo in the altitude of 3.300 meters.

Gíslí Jónsson

We left our camps after having a breakfast and taking down the tents. We continued to ETL where we had been before. From there we used a route that I had put on the maps using a Google air photos and it turned out to be useful. We drove in the valleys as much as we could, since it is more likely to find cracks up on the hills. We did not have any trouble and we manage to drive at 20-25 pr. hour. The sastrugis are getting bigger and they throw the cars and the trailers to and fro. We decided to put down our tents 20-25 kilometers from ETL and have some dinner. Putting up the tents, heating water and getting ready for the night takes a lot of time, if we stop at 19:00 we are in bed by midnight.  We are starting to feel the thin air but in the cold you automatically struggle to keep warm and get heat into the body for the night.
Our camp is located South 7300 100, East 1047 720 and the altitude is 3.091 meter.

Gísli Jónsson

Today we left for the main trip to leave oil up on the plateau. The cars were loaded with 8 barrels each, total of 16 barrels. We also had 3 aluminum boxes with tools and spare parts for the cars. We filled the tanks of the cars with oil and left Novo at 11, two cars and two trailers. The first 100 kilometers were very easy to drive but we had to stop on a regular basis to rearrange the barrels because the straps loosened up in all the shaken.  When we got over the mountain close to Novo a crack opened underneath my trailer. We found a way past the crack but Hjalti trailer also fell down but we managed to tow the trailer up. We decided to find a new way through this area on the way back.
At 19:00 the crack area was behind us and then we put up our tents. The temperature is minus 20 and there is some wind. The cars are using 60-70 liters per hundred kilometers.  We are now 147 kilometers from Novo.
Hjalti and I got the bigger tent of the two we borrowed in Novo.  All our tents were left behind in London with a lot of our gear. The clothes we got from Cintamani in Iceland have really saved our lives. The tent we slept in is what we would call a good summer tent in Iceland. The one Kenny and Deirdre are using is very small and not much to look at. We can’t cook indoor and it is a bit cold to cook outside in minus 20! In the end it all went well and we were reasonably warm.
Our location is South 7154 East 1101 and the altitude is 2.072 meters.

Gísli Jónsson

We woke up at 7:30 and got a breakfast in the food tent. We used the morning to align the wheels of my car and then we went over the cars, tightened the bolts, measured the oil and so on.
Around noon I picked up two Russian scientists at Oasis. They were on their way to a Russian station located in the middle of the plateau. They were very happy to get to sit in the car for 15 minutes instead of 45 in the tank. They were able to look at view and listen to music instead of being in the terrible noise of the tank. Everybody is very impressed about the cars and they see a lot of opportunities regarding transportation in the area. We belief that a regular 38 inch Hilux could be used for almost everything on this area from the mountains down to the coast. 
The weather here at Novo is minus 6 degrees and rather windy.

Gísli Jónsson

We woke up at 12 o‘clock from a much needed sleep. The tour yesterday had been both long and hard.
We worked on getting the trailers ready for use. Andrei, which has been most helpful and fixed us up with everything we need, came and invited us to a sauna down at Oasis. We were very surprised to hear that they had a sauna here. The sauna was extremely hot and Andrei hit us with branch which I understand is a Russian tradition. He gave us a special treatment and this was supposed to be very healthy and good for you! Afterwards we went to the camp and met Vladimir who is in charge there. He gave us some freshly baked pancakes and a glass of vodka! We also got some fresh vegetables and salted tomatoes. Vladimir played on his harmonica and a seven string guitar and Andrei sang with him. We had a lot of fun and this describes the culture here, everybody is willing to make the stay here as easy and enjoyable as possible. I have not yet met a boring person here and the spirit is great!

Gísli Jónsson