![]() Picture 09 – Unload of luggage, put on protective clothing On the same day, this kind forest keeper took us with a 4WD Jeep a roughly 15 km long rocky and difficult-to-drive route deep into the forest until fallen trees and rocks made it impossible to continue driving. We were greeted happily by a forest keeper, called Sasha, well known to my two colleagues, who was given different kinds of tools and household goods as a gift (or on order?). Picture 08 – Main Street through Meteoritnyy The few people living there, work in the timber business. Picture 07 – Map with car route from Dalnerechensk to Meteoritnyy Once there, we had to drive approximately 85 km with a military truck to the village, which today is named on the meteorite fall of Sikhote-Alin: Meteoritnyy. Picture 05 – Map with train route from Vladivostok to Dalnerechensk Picture 06 – Train ticket from Vladivostok to Dalnerechensk Overnight trip by train to Dalnerechensk. In 1995 Vladivostok and the area north of it were all still military restricted areas. I was instructed to be as quiet as possible because foreigners in Vladivostok and the region usually do not have a residence and travel permit, even though the Soviet Union opened its borders a few years ago. Unfortunately, it had rained very heavily on the day and we had great time pressure, as we still had to get food somewhere and almost all shops were closed due to the naval parade. Picture 03 – Workers’ demonstration in Vladivostok Various workers demonstrations also took place in the city of Vladivostok that day. The number and size of the Russian Navy gathered in the port of Vladivostok was gigantic! Picture 01 – Russian Navy parade on May 09, 1995, exact 50 years after the end of WWII Picture 02 – Russian Navy ship, close-up All of Vladivostok was overcrowded with marines. Onward travel a day later, exactly 50 years after the End of the Second World War (WWII). I only understood that later, because we had to lug all our luggage to reach the Sikhote-Alin strewnfield for a few km through a swamp area with backpacks and carrier bags that cannot be passed by vehicles …Īeroflot Flight to Vladivostok, arrival there on May 8, 1995. There my luggage was “optimized” by my tour colleagues, which means that besides my protective clothing, a sleeping bag, my analog camera and some personal items such as some clothes and underwear to change, a Swiss Army knife and my toothbrush there was hardly anything left. ![]() Everything, from scheduling, flights booking, accommodation, etc., was organized by my two colleagues. Fortunately, I had to worry about almost nothing. The invitation and the tour itself were “semi-official”, that means without official approval, but probably with the knowledge of the authorities that search activities are taking place in the Sikhote-Alin area after years of silence again. A commercial search order of >250 kg explosion fragments (shrapnels) for a major international US customer had to be fulfilled, this is what I remember. Looking back to the mid-nineties: In autumn 1994 I was invited by my two Russian colleagues Petrovich and Sergej to take part in a short Sikhote-Alin tour in May 1995 due to our good contacts. To mention: the Sikhote-Alin meteor shower area is just over 50 km from the Chinese border and about 200 km from the Japanese Sea. ![]() The thought quickly developed in my head that I wanted to travel there and search for it. Torn, razor-sharp-edged explosion fragments and on the other hand smaller individuals with a gray-blueish fusion crust, flow-lines and regmagypts. I was amazed to see that there were two fundamentally different types of finds from the Sikhote-Alin meteorite fall. I bought my first Sikhote-Alin collection sample, an explosion fragment (shrapnel) with some 270 g, from an US dealer in about 1987 or 1988 and a smooth individual sample from another source at about the same time. “Sikhote-Alin adventure in May 1995”, summarized for the Meteorite Times magazine
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