32-year-old John Sedlackova of the city of Jihlava has spent more than two years in travel. A passionate traveler that has visited 16 countries, returned from the last trip in April. While traveling by car through Siberia she had met a lot of interesting people and gained unforgettable impressions.
iDNES: How did you start to travel and where to go in the first trip?
John Sedlackova: I travel since childhood. When I was little, my parents and brother traveled a lot on bikes. Once we got this to Austria. My independent travels began with a modest and affordable trips. Traveled to Czech Republic, I went to a neighboring country, and then they became more and more. For the first time in the journey for a month we went to 2015 in Central Asia.
– With whom do you usually travel? Moved to travel and where they stay overnight?
John Sedlackova: I was traveling with my ex-boyfriend, and now go with friends and current fiance. Most of all I like to travel in your own car, although I drive I’m not very good. But I love to be in motion and every time to sleep in a new place. I love to sleep in a tent and cook outdoors. During our seven months of travel we stayed in the hotel three times. But when this year we went to Siberia, on the contrary, each time enjoying a warm home and familiar with the local cuisine.
– How do you choose where to go? Your track record are very different countries, but I think most of you are attracted by mountains and untouched nature.
John Sedlackova: You’re right. In the mountains I ride the most. I like to find great places, visited by few tourists. But I also love finding something new and unusual. I like different not the most prosperous and inaccessible region. In 2018, we traveled to the Northern Iraq, and Venezuela, when there is economic crisis. At that time, in addition to traveler Witek Womack no one was there. And at the end of the year we went to Syria. But most of all I love to travel in Central Asia, the Middle East and Siberia.
– Tell us how and where you traveled last time?
John Sedlackova: the last time I went just to Siberia. In 2017 I spent two months there and wanted to return. I decided that this time I will go there in the winter, when temperatures can drop to minus 60 degrees. We came all the way from Prague to Kiev and from there to Irkutsk, Yakutsk, Magadan and back. Especially we were interested in several places.
I decided that I wanted to cross a frozen lake Baikal from the South-East coast to the Northwest. And we did it. We also visited the pole of cold in Oymyakon, the coldest permanently inhabited place on the planet. We visited a remote thermal springs and in other remote corners of Siberia. We got to the Magadan and back, that is, we twice drove across Siberia, and Asia, from West to East and from East to West.
– What impressed you most during your last trip?
John Sedlackova: Perhaps a trip on the frozen lake Baikal. We drove through the endless expanse of ice with a thickness of about a meter and discovered the most beautiful places in other times can only be reached by boat. On the shores of Baikal lake we swam in thermal springs under the open sky. All around us was snow, and the temperature was kept at minus 30.
– Have you come across a difficult situation?
John Sedlackova: Several times. Extreme cold is bad for the car. Freezing the fuel, thickens the oil and other liquids. Very quickly drains the battery, spilling the suspension. In the most severe frosts we had to find not only hotel for themselves but also warm the garage for the car. But when we could not find, had to leave it running overnight on the street. When it was a little warmer, we used only the fact that pulled out the battery every night and take it with him to the hotel and in the morning again I started the car. On the way to the so-called Road of bones in Eastern Siberia due to frost we have several times denied stabilizers and even broke two rear shock absorber.
– As you drive through the Siberian roads?
John Sedlackova: Workers in Siberia are working very hard and, given the local conditions, do an excellent job. However, the highways and roads remain very dangerous because is covered with a continuous layer thumb ice. Many machines, despite the experience of the drivers find themselves in ditches. We also several times entered, and the machine is now left few marks. But, fortunately, nobody was hurt. Most of all, the car came already in Europe when the Urals in the us drove one Russian who didn’t look in the mirror and didn’t notice that we’re passing.
– When traveling, you meet interesting people. So it was this time?
John Sedlackova: these trips can sometimes be a lot of interesting meetings. In one remote area in the North of Baikal with us was photographed drunk Russian, who had never seen foreign tourists. We spoke with fishermen who fish on the lake, and fishermen who go out in the sea of Okhotsk. Russian fishermen go in the winter on ice, make a hole and catch hole. Some live on ice for a few days, and some even the whole winter. They put up tents or a Yurt, stoked in the stove and since I live directly on the surface of the ice.
The pole of cold at the table we were drinking with the driver, a native of Dushanbe, capital of Tajikistan. I’ve been there twice, so we had something to talk about. This Tajik moved to Russia many years ago, bought an old “KAMAZ” and began working as a driver. At the time a week was a frost under a minus 40, and he repaired the engine. His truck was standing on the street on the side of the cabin was covered with a tarpaulin, and under him he pushed a little iron stove. How much he has yet to repair the engine, he didn’t know, but his face never went smile.
– And who else you met?
John Sedlackova: We met the “silver road”. This man for 25 years building and repairing the Kolyma highway or the so-called Road of bones. For his conscientious work for the benefit of the Russian Federation he received from Vladimir Putin’s silver medal.
In the Barguzin reservation we met with Irina Ivanova, who has been devoted to the protection of nature almost all my life. She moved from the vanity of Moscow in one of the most remote and isolated places on lake Baikal — the village of Davsha. In addition to research workers, there are only four remaining locals. The roads there. Summer in the village can be reached in a few hours on the boat and in the winter there is quite a long time, you can drive on ice. Irina Ivanova lives cut off from civilization for 34 years. And I can tell you long about dozens of interesting lives and stories.
– How many kilometers you hitting while traveling? How did the car?
John Sedlackova: During the last trip we did almost 36 thousand kilometers. The car has a few scratches, after a collision with another car dented the door, and still need to fix the suspension. But the engine and the wheels are still, fortunately, work.
