Salut les gens, long time no see!
J'entame tres fort avec un sujet qui me tient a coeur depuis longtemps: traverser le détroit de Bering.
Il y a sur le net quelques blogs de gens qui font le tour du monde a pied ou en stop, et qui se trouve fort depourvu quand vient le moment de traverser les oceans, et plus particulierement l'ocean Pacifique. Ces gens la veulent souvent voyager gratis, malheureusement, la mode du cargo-j'epluche-les-patates semble etre revolue... Mais ces gens la ne considerent jamais toutes les options, ils sont souvent au Chili et veulent rejoindre la Nouvelle Zelande en passant par l'ile de Paques... Soit enormement de kilometres. Les cargos existent bien sur, mais le prix est considerable.
Mais si on monte tout en haut sur le globe, il reste le detroit de Bering, et la distance a traverser devient ridiculement petite... Alors bien sur il fait froid, et quand on est du genre "aventurier des iles Fidji"... J'aimerai bien tenter cela un jour, de la Russie a l'Alaska, pour des raisons de Visa quasi evidente. Je cherche donc des temoignages de gens qui auraient tente de traverser ce detroit en trek sur la glace derivante, ou tout simplement en ferry. J'ai trouve un post sur un autre forum, cela a l'air d'etre assez excitant, jugez plutot:
http://www.biketrip.org/phorum-3.3.2c/read.php?f=2&i=774&t=488Citation
J'entame tres fort avec un sujet qui me tient a coeur depuis longtemps: traverser le détroit de Bering.
Il y a sur le net quelques blogs de gens qui font le tour du monde a pied ou en stop, et qui se trouve fort depourvu quand vient le moment de traverser les oceans, et plus particulierement l'ocean Pacifique. Ces gens la veulent souvent voyager gratis, malheureusement, la mode du cargo-j'epluche-les-patates semble etre revolue... Mais ces gens la ne considerent jamais toutes les options, ils sont souvent au Chili et veulent rejoindre la Nouvelle Zelande en passant par l'ile de Paques... Soit enormement de kilometres. Les cargos existent bien sur, mais le prix est considerable.
Mais si on monte tout en haut sur le globe, il reste le detroit de Bering, et la distance a traverser devient ridiculement petite... Alors bien sur il fait froid, et quand on est du genre "aventurier des iles Fidji"... J'aimerai bien tenter cela un jour, de la Russie a l'Alaska, pour des raisons de Visa quasi evidente. Je cherche donc des temoignages de gens qui auraient tente de traverser ce detroit en trek sur la glace derivante, ou tout simplement en ferry. J'ai trouve un post sur un autre forum, cela a l'air d'etre assez excitant, jugez plutot:
http://www.biketrip.org/phorum-3.3.2c/read.php?f=2&i=774&t=488
i again,
crossing the Bering Strait is to the best of my knowledge not exactly easy
(to put it mild). I have had the idea in the past. Living in Denmark (with some arctic experience from some years in Greenland) I was planning to go the opposite direction from Europe to the Americas overland through Russia.
Not surprisingly the tricky bit is exactly the Bering Strait. The idea of crossing the strait is not new - as in the example of the 1994 Overland Challenge to drive from London to New York:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/A388172
Of course the idea to drive/bike/walk across the ice sounds promising, but one has to take several things into account. Firstly the Bering Strait is a narrowpoint between the Arctic Ocean and the Pacific with a lot of current constantly moving the ice in a southwards direction at approx 2 km/h. Secondly due to the moving ocean current the ice is not a plain big white surface but jagged, fractured and uneven with "icehills" several meters high which needs to be climbed. Also open stretches of water form spontaneously and so on. Finally being slightly southerly compared to the rest of the arctic the Bering Strait is never really completely frozen outside of the January-February window where the arctic day is so short that no real activity can be done anyway. My best bet for such an ordeal is to travel from Russia to Alaska as the cape Dezhnez is located 35 km northwest of the Diomede islands thus enabling the adventurer to use the southmoving ice to his advantage -> moving straight east will effectively mean south-east added the speed of the ice. If one makes the crossing in late March around spring Equinox the daylight should last approx. 12 hours - in good condition (if) one person can traverse 3 km/h over rough terrain (I'd think :o) ) added the speed of the ice - the ordeal should be possible within 10 hours for the first part to the Diomede islands - the same method could (more or less) be applied for crossing from Little Diomed to Cape New Wales in Alaska (another 35 km) - so it might just work - but then again several people (more experienced arctic adventurers even) have tried this before and failed horribly and was rescued after weeks at sea. So this should be considered as well.
Sailing across seems are more likely option however - the Bering Strait is also notorious for it's weather even during the summer months - and even experienced locals are known to have disappeared during a crossing from the capes to one of the Diomede Islands - it's a treacherous stretch of water not to be taken lightly - but a challenge nonetheless