Salvation story in Tundra
Russian tundra. Mid-summer feels like late autumn, it rains almost every day. But I am there to explore this misty place that people like to talk about in legends. There is a stone in before the entrance to the pass - I stop to talk with local ''spirits'' asking them to allow to walk in there safely. The plan is to walk for 5 days, the terrain is brutal - bogs that could be dangerous, small paths in the dense forest. The energy around the place is weird. Everyone can feel it - travellers respect these places as many people have died doing this pass or got lost out of the blue. The walk is around the lake. What can go wrong? You don't need navigation to walk around the lake. But it's not an easy place. The nature behind the Arctic Circle is simply treacherous. The area has only one connection through the mountain pass - to the small village that is engaged in the extraction of useful metals, and everything else in the area is an endless expanse that stretches for thousands of kilometres to the North Pole without a single settlement. Feels eerie. I walk for 4 days, and slept for 4 nights. Almost always in small rain. Crossing river at some point where I had to almost swim and dry my clothes in the water around 5 degrees. On my last day I met two guys who had been sitting in a tent in one spot for 3 days and did not want to move anywhere in this weather. But I wanted to get out. It seemed to be the easiest part of the hike and I've been there before. That day I wanted to go to the pass that leads back to the village, the path should have been visible, but because of the rain that went into the lake, everything was flooded and the paths turned into rivers. And I lost my way. I walked ankle deep in the water, trying to remember landmarks, the water was freezing cold. It started to rain. I walked for several hours, completely frozen and weak, and at some point I realised I was walking in the wrong direction. It was snowing. That was the first time I realised the fragility of man in the face of nature, when I felt a quiet panic and when I really was not just scared, but felt an incredible depth of helplessness. There was silence all around, just the water flowing soullessly over the stones, and my head was exploding with tension.