Red Lines and Drunken Gnomes
Toady is our last day in Russia. we are leaving Anadyr for Provideniya, Russia's most eastern airport, possibly the worlds most eastern airport. From Provideniya we cross over into Alsaka landing at Nome.
Leaving Russia we are delayed, customs do not arrive in Anadyr until 10:00 local, we are meant to be taking off at 9:30, this means we do not take of until at least 11:00. Having cleared initial customs we have one more customs to pass through. It is here that Peter is held up, supposedly the computer crashed and need to be rebooted. While waiting the guards told me to go to the helicopter and get going, i told them that we are a crew of two and that I was not leaving my buddy behind.
Finally Peter clears customs and immigration and we start up, we obtain clearance from Tower only for the Immigration and Customs guy by the helicopter telling us to cut our engines. we signal to him that we have been cleared and decide to ignore him. Tommy was not so lucky, he explained to tower what the Customs guy was doing and got delayed further only to find out that customs indoors need to tell the guy outdoors that all had been cleared!
We made it away before Tommy! Again we saw amazing scenery on our way to Provideniya. We did not really need to go here but because it is the last airport in Russia we thought it special. Not sure what happens in Provideniya but it is a small town. We landed were directed shut down and got out. Immediately we are told not to move to far. We are informed that we must remain inside the red lines surrounding the helicopter. We jump on and off the lines, playfully, to the disgust of a leather jacketed guard.
We had arranged fuel in advance here but there was some issue which we had to get Sergey to sort out via phone. Never found out what the issue was since they new of our arrival and fueling requirements.
We both needed to go for a pee so pleaded to be allowed to cross the red line, this they allowed but with an escort from the scary looking leather jacketed guy who never smiled.
All done we heading off for Alaska. We had already crossed the 180 East / West Divide but no the Time line. This was the trip where we traveled back in time, became younger and had a ground hog day, our ground hog day was June 2nd.
On contacting Alaska control, it was a relief, our first proper English Speaking (albeit American) controller for weeks. Nome is our first port of call in Alaska.
Nome is a small gold mining town, where they still gold mine! Downtown is one long street with loads of bars and saloons. We stay at the Nugget Inn, not a bad place. On our way we see a fight break out on the street, great, we are in the states! After dinner, I pop out with Tommy for a beer. Every one we see in Nome is drunk, very drunk! It is amazing all they do is drink and gamble with poo up cards (similar to scratch cards). we went to one bar were they just drop the cards on the floor and here there must have been at-least 3,000 cards discarded.
Later I place my hand in the Bearing Sea before heading to bed while the midnight sun sets.
Leaving Russia we are delayed, customs do not arrive in Anadyr until 10:00 local, we are meant to be taking off at 9:30, this means we do not take of until at least 11:00. Having cleared initial customs we have one more customs to pass through. It is here that Peter is held up, supposedly the computer crashed and need to be rebooted. While waiting the guards told me to go to the helicopter and get going, i told them that we are a crew of two and that I was not leaving my buddy behind.
Finally Peter clears customs and immigration and we start up, we obtain clearance from Tower only for the Immigration and Customs guy by the helicopter telling us to cut our engines. we signal to him that we have been cleared and decide to ignore him. Tommy was not so lucky, he explained to tower what the Customs guy was doing and got delayed further only to find out that customs indoors need to tell the guy outdoors that all had been cleared!
We made it away before Tommy! Again we saw amazing scenery on our way to Provideniya. We did not really need to go here but because it is the last airport in Russia we thought it special. Not sure what happens in Provideniya but it is a small town. We landed were directed shut down and got out. Immediately we are told not to move to far. We are informed that we must remain inside the red lines surrounding the helicopter. We jump on and off the lines, playfully, to the disgust of a leather jacketed guard.
We had arranged fuel in advance here but there was some issue which we had to get Sergey to sort out via phone. Never found out what the issue was since they new of our arrival and fueling requirements.
We both needed to go for a pee so pleaded to be allowed to cross the red line, this they allowed but with an escort from the scary looking leather jacketed guy who never smiled.
All done we heading off for Alaska. We had already crossed the 180 East / West Divide but no the Time line. This was the trip where we traveled back in time, became younger and had a ground hog day, our ground hog day was June 2nd.
On contacting Alaska control, it was a relief, our first proper English Speaking (albeit American) controller for weeks. Nome is our first port of call in Alaska.
Nome is a small gold mining town, where they still gold mine! Downtown is one long street with loads of bars and saloons. We stay at the Nugget Inn, not a bad place. On our way we see a fight break out on the street, great, we are in the states! After dinner, I pop out with Tommy for a beer. Every one we see in Nome is drunk, very drunk! It is amazing all they do is drink and gamble with poo up cards (similar to scratch cards). we went to one bar were they just drop the cards on the floor and here there must have been at-least 3,000 cards discarded.
Later I place my hand in the Bearing Sea before heading to bed while the midnight sun sets.
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