Explorer Mikael Strandberg

I got my first Manchester United jersey when I was 5 or 6 years old. My sister was married at that time to an English bloke who turned me immediately into a Manchester United supporter and he used to send me, as a Christmas gift, either number 7 or 11, a shirt number which belonged to the 5th Beatle, George Best. I have kept a close eye on them since then. But it took 47 years for me to make it to Old Trafford, a dream I shared with my brother and his son. Together we spent 4 days in Manchester, not the most exiting cities in the world, but it was a complete visit to Man Utd land and we quickly realized that we were not the only supporters who wished to have a feel for the club. Many Asians, like these Vietnamese ladies on the photo, had spent a lot of money to come and visit the Theatre of Dreams – Old Trafford. It also turned out the most dramatic of games!

However, I did have some time to read and finish my book about Wilfried Thesiger, who I consider as one of the greatest modern explorers, who, even though he wanted fame and recognition like all of us, he did a serious job to discover, explain what he saw and experienced and most of all did his very best to blend in with the locals and lifting their way of living to heaven. Like me, he didn´t understand the sporting aspect of adventure. he was genuinely a true explorer. A definition which, according to Consise Oxford Dictionary is somebody who travels to learn and discover, to inquire into, to investigate thoroughly. But, there is always a but, of course, there is always a backside to everybody, no matter how good we try to be, there´s always a dark side to everyone. We are after all, only humans. The saddest thing with Thesiger, if I am to believe Michael Asher, his biographer, isn´t that he was a misogynist and seemed to lack humour, it is the fact that he seemed to become very bitter in his last years. Just because he couldn´t accept that the world was changing in a way he thought was disgusting. Therefore, I ask myself, what in earth did he learn from his brief visit to earth? In my eyes, bitterness is the evil on earth, no matter what you have gone through. Life is too short to waste your energy on bitterness.

One guy who is not bitter is my very good friend Marcin Gienieczko, the fast and strong Pole, who have returned home from his Expedition to the Kolyma where he has done a fantastic trip! And, it turned out he fell in love with the Kolyma as well. Please do see his film on Youtube. I like this guy a lot, he is so full of spirit, joy and like all Slavs, he understands the backside of life as well. He will go very far in life. He sent me this piece this morning which gave me a lot of warmth inside:

I´ve alway felt a bit like an ambassador for the Kolyma Region. Very few people know anything about this the greatest place on earth. And during the years since I returned home from this the most fantastic Expedition of my life, I´ve had a few requests to help travellers who´d like to visit the region. One of them, the most persistent of them all, was from a young pole namned Marcin Gienieczko And he even managed to get me to come over to visit Poland as a special guest during his preparations and during his press conference. He is leaving for the Kolyma, to ski from Seimchan to Ambarchik Bay in three months, mainly by himself. A great feat. He is also one of the foremost young adventurers in Poland with a lot of smaller Expeditions on his back. None as big as the Kolyma, of course. So I went over to this grand country, my first visit ever, for a 5 day visit, which was just what I needed to gain some energy and ideas regarding my next Expedition. I met so many great people. The Poles, a Slavic people like the Russians, are a tremendous lot of people. They´re very generous, friendly, caring, interested, knowledgable and they´ve gone through many hardships in life, which of course makes better human beings. I feel like I have made some very good friends during this time, Grazyna, Daniel, Anja and of course, Marcin. I feel a lot for his Expedition and himself. Unlike far too many self obsessed young western adventurers, I think Sweden and the US are the worst, his own perfect self isn´t the major reason for going to the Kolyma, the people are. Mainly because there were a lot of Polish prisoners in this the worst Gulag area of all Stalins nasty and inhuman workcamps. Anyway, this is the story of my visit:

I immediately recognised the worries, the stress, that comes with just leaving for a big Expedition, when Marcin picked me up at the airport in Gdansk. Winter was here, lot´s of snow and relatively cold. His jeep was full of gear, two dogs, Brenda and Fidel, and I hardly got in myself, we headed immediately, after picking up his girlfriend Anja and a stunner called Grazyna who we also managed to fit in to the car, before continuing for the Polish bush, were we spent a great New Year Eve! An evening with great food, too much vodka and no sleep in a log cabin in the forest belonging to Daniel, a great fella who spent 30 years living in Canada, which he missed a lot. A soul mate, no doubt. I am so priviliged to meet these soul mates all over the world. We cruised a village by foot, full of vodka, meeting laughing and celebrating people everywhere and during the night Daniel lost all his horses in a runaway, due to the fire works. So we spent next day looking for them and didn´t find any, really, but I got to see some of the Polish back country and it reminded me of Russia. A distinct smell of coal, half ruined buildings, flat and undulating fields and a penetrating cold.

From here we travelled for a few hours to a Sports Center, who was sponsoring Marcin with the hotell, preparations and the press conference and we spent many hours pouring over the maps and the equipment he had. And I have a few small worries, because he will be travelling in total darkness, minus 50 degrees temperature and his equipment is quite used from other expeditions, but then again, he is after all Polish, and they´re tougher then other Europeans, and especially Americans. Follow his Expedition on www.zewpolnocy.com

Next day we went through all the equipment again and I felt more tired then in a long time. I could feel Marcin worries. It was like he was draining me of energy and of course, I immediately picked up a nasty polish flu, which bedded me immediately. I had a dream that night, that Marcin lost all his fingers and I was stupid enough to tell him about this, and it made him even more worried. the cold terrifies him, which I can understand. Grazyna seemed to be responsibel for my well being and she took care of me as good as it is possible. And that is my major feeling from this visit, the love of this great people.

The third was the day for the press conference and my lecture. Polish TV, radio, sponsors and others were there, plus a lady, Tatiana, who was born in Zyryanka and had spent a big part of her life in Seimchan along the Kolyma. A real Kolymanian! She told the group of her own experiences living in this coldest inhabited place on earth. Very interesting. She felt like a sister to me. I will tell you in a seperate article about the lecture and the response. Another visitor to the press conference was a famed Polish polar Explorer and a guy writing for National Geographic, Marcin Jamkowski, who just spent a long time in the Sudan desert travelling by camel!

Next day, the fourth, I left with Grazyna, early at 6 a.m, after no sleep at all, to travel by car, train and taxi to the airport. Then back to a grey stockholm, hit badly with the flu, but feeling very inspired indeed and with a great longing to return to the Kolyma area again. Marcin is very priviliged!

Can you imagine this scenario? I am visiting La Bombonera, the homeground of Boca Juniors, almost 58 000 visitors, an atmosphere which is unbelievable. They´re playing their worst enemies, River Plate, with an old favorite of mine in midfield, El Burro Ortega, who is meeting Juan Riquelme, in his best moments, propbably the best player in the world. Nobody knows me. Suddenly I guy walks up, and says in English:
“I´ve read about you in Justin Marozzis book Faces of Exploration.”
I did loose my face there, my jaw hanging down in surprise! Turns out to be a friendly Brit, working for the MI 6, who loves travelling. And exploration. He has read about my travels in Geographical as well. Well, such is todays world, you never know what to expect from one moment to the other. Great!
Another thing which has evolved after the Siberian Expedition is all, and we´re talking quite a lot, people who wants to travel and explore the Kolyma region. The latest one is Marcin Gienieczco, a young pole, who wants to ski the Kolyma from Seimchan to Cherskiy. He has invitied me early January as a consultant of the Expededition, to visit Gdynia, his hometown, to be part of the offical media presentation of the trip. He sees me as a hero, the poor chap.
The good thing with all this, of course, is that all these fellas, yes, they´re all men, are very positive, outgoing and full of life and they inspire!
And, there´s always a reason for everything, don´t believe anything else, last night, I went to a meeting for oil prospectors, and they were talking about the sultanate Oman, and there…I just remembered a long forgotten dream to explore the Empty Quarter…well, well, here we go…I have strated to read my old books by Wilfried Thesiger again!