GILLES ELKAIM,
EXPEDITION "ARCTIC"

For the first time in the history of polar explorations the expedition "Arktika-2000" had the objective to cross the Arctic coast of Eurasia from the West (the Nord Cape, Norway) to the Dezhnev Cape at Chukotka, using the traditional means of travelling: on foot, by ski, on dog sleds and by deer teams. This unique expedition, with the length of the route of more than 10000 km, lasted four years. The leader of the project "Arktika-2000": Gilles Elkaim, a French journalist and a cameraman. He travelled solo the entire route from the Atlantic to the Pacific Oceans. The main part of the planned route passed through the difficult of assess Arctic regions. During four years Gilles Elkaim was sailing on a kayak along the rigorous north margins of the continent, or adapted to the winter Arctic, travelling by ski, dog sleds or deer teams.

The main part of the route passed over the Russian territory. The expedition started on May 30, 2004. After sailing 350 km on kayak, Gilles Elkaim crossed the Russian-Norwegian border and in four years, after replacing the kayak and the reindeer team for a dog's team, completed his journey in the Uelen settlement at the shore of the Bering Strait.

The first part of the route was finished in the Mezen settlement (Arkhangelskaia oblast) in September 2000. The explorer travelled on foot across the Kola Peninsula. After that Gilles Elkaim sailed over the White Sea: Gilles Elkaim passed from Kandalaksha to the Solovetsky Islands, and then – to Arkhangelsk and Mezen.

The second stage of the expedition started at the beginning of November 2000. In the conditions of the polar night Gilles Elkaim travelled over the wild and remote Arctic regions. The part of the route from Mezen to Naryan-Mar he overcame on skis, hauling sledges, loaded with equipment and foodstuffs. This stage was completed in spring 2001 at the Salekhard.

The explorer carried out the third stage of his expedition in summer and autumn 2001. He sailed on kayak along the Ob River and the Ob Inlet and reached the Nyda settlement.

The forth stage, which was the longest and the most difficult one, started in November 2001. Gilles Elkaim on skis and dog sleds crossed the south of the Taymyr peninsula. Travelling along tundra and ice of the frozen rivers, he arrived in the Ust-Olenek settlement at the end of August 2002. Here the explorer left his dogs and reached the Arctic port Tiksi by his kayak (the fifth stage of the expedition).

The six stage of the route started from Tiksy in November 2002. By spring 2003 Gilles Elkaim on his dog team reached the port of Pevek. The explorer did not want to part with his dogs and to sail by kayak that's why he made a stop for summer. Gilles Elkaim restored a ruinous home in the abandoned settlement Yanranay in the vicinity of Pevek, and lived with his dogs in this house till the next winter came.

In January 2004 Gilles Elakim again started his expedition in order to complete his grandiose four-year expedition at the Dezhnev Cape at the edge of the Eurasia continent.