We landed in Novo at 3:40, we are on Greenwich meantime here, same time as in Iceland. We took some test driving and found out that there is a lot of blue ice here. Since we did not have special ice screws to put in the tires, we used original body screws and they worked all right. Victor, Andrei and the head technician showed us the way down to White Desert which is a tourist camp close by. We are located by the airport, 500 meters above sea level. White desert is 400 meters below, close to Novo Island and Oasis. We stay in a heated tent which is very comfortable.
We tried taking the cars up the steepest ice slope around, that used to be part of a route. The car managed this very well and could drive 45-55 km. Pr hour. It was very slippery though and the body screws we had put in the tires made all the difference.
We went back to the airport and had some more coffee. Then we drove down to Oasis and drove on some wide gravel road they use to drive the tanks on. This is probably the first time a car drives on those roads!
We always get supper at 19:00 in the food tent. We have a Russian cook that makes all kinds of soups and other kinds of food.
From here to Oasis are 15 kilometers. We can drive on 50-80 kilometers per hour so it takes us close to 15 minutes to drive. Until now old tanks from the soviet era have been used for transportation and the trip has taken 45-60 minutes. Travelling with us is therefore a great luxury for the people here.
Gísli Jónsson
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