Snow Storm Hinders Round-the-World Travel of Women's Motor Expedition

The snow storm in the north of Chukotka (Russian Far East) has upset the schedule of the international women's round-the-world motor expedition.

According to the information received on Monday from the government of the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia), the head of the expedition, Oksana Novgorodova, reported during the latest communication session that all the five members of this extraordinary travel felt well and were full of optimism.

The local authorities had sent a cross-country vehicle to help the expedition to break through the snow drifts and reach the township of Provideniye from where a charted plane of a private airline will bring them across the Bering Strait to the town of Nome on Alaska.

The international women's motor expedition started a month ago, on February 3 on two Gaz off-road vehicles in Yakutsk, the capital of the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia). It has already covered about 3,000 kilometres along Yakutia and Chukotka. Initially it was planned that on February 27 the expedition would arrive in Provideniye where they would leave their vehicles and would fly to the North American town of Nome on Alaska. But the weather upset their plans.

In the United States the travelers will ride on leased vehicles to New York and from there again by plane to London. Then, on leased automobiles they will cross Great Britain, France, Germany, Switzerland and Scandinavia and will return to Russia - to St Petersburg and then - to Yakutsk.

The aim of this expedition, as Oksana Novgorodova said before the start, is to attract the attention of the world public to the problems of the North and the Arctic where indigenous small ethnic groups live, to establish contacts with women's organisation and ecologists, and to make their contribution to the development of international tourism.