Magadan sits on a bay of the Sea of Okhotsk at the end of a very long road, and the sense of being at the end of the world is very strong. The town was founded in the 1930s as the base of Dalstroy, the Soviet agency that ran gold mining and forced labour camps in the Kolyma region, and for the prisoners who were shipped here, Magadan was the gateway to a world of cold and hardship from which many never returned. The scale of the suffering is difficult to take in, and a memorial on a hill above the town, called the Mask of Sorrow, a giant concrete face with tears made of small faces, was designed by the sculptor Ernst Neizvestny and unveiled in 1996.
The city today has about ninety-five thousand people, and a quiet, resilient character. It is a port and a base for gold and silver mining, and its streets, lined with Soviet-era apartment blocks painted in bright colours to combat the grey winters, climb the slopes above the harbour. The sea is cold and the air smells of salt, with gulls over the fish port. A regional museum covers the history of the area, the gold rush and the camp era.
The road that leaves Magadan is the Kolyma Highway, built by prisoners in the 1930s and 1940s and later nicknamed the Road of Bones, after the many who died building it. It runs more than two thousand kilometres to Yakutsk across mountains, rivers and permafrost, one of the most remote roads in the world. It is mostly paved near Magadan but turns into gravel and mud farther on, with long distances between fuel stops, and bridges and river crossings that are sometimes out of use. It needs serious preparation and local knowledge.
For a gentler outing, the road to Ola, along the Okhotsk coast, runs east through hills and small fishing settlements, with views of the sea. In summer, salmon fill the rivers, and the villages smoke and salt the catch. The weather can be foggy and cold even in July.
Fuel and services are in Magadan, and it is wise to fill up before leaving town. Summers are short and cool, with the best weather from July to early September. Winters are dark, long and snowy, with strong winds.