We have finally arrived in Samoylov! We got here on Friday afternoon, after a five-hour boat trip from Tiksi, which we had reached by plane from Moscow (with a slight delay of 18-odd hours).
Our lovely blue boat being pushed into the water in Tiksi
The following day we boarded the boat again, this time to go to Kurugnakh Island, where we spent all day exploring the ice complex and the thermokarst lakes. While Annett and Birgit were retrieving the recorded data from several automatic measurement stations, I managed to take more than 2400 pictures of the shoreline of one of the thermokarst lakes. The photos will later be processed later, with the aim of deriving a three-dimensional model of the shoreline. They were taken from a small boat: Julia is a consummate and tireless paddler! I am also very grateful to her for pointing out and explaining so many features and processes to me. My first day was thus an exceedingly satisfying one, even more so as I had – my first taste of Russian sociability .
Julia paddling towards the makeshift moorage
Arctic Research 