Feb 28 (edited) • Adventure Stories
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.
Suddenly I felt dizzy, stopped, looked around and decided that I had to keep going or I would freeze to death in a few hours. I knew I was about 10 miles from the village, and the fact that I was lost in this enchanted place was so ironic. At this time I had no navigation in my watch and my phone was of course out of battery after so many days.
At some point, through the mist and snowflakes, I saw the silhouette of a man trying to cross the newly formed river. He saw me and rushed to help. I told him I was lost and didn't know the way. He said he knew every stone in this pass and had been coming here for over 30 years. He was old, a very thin old man with a grey beard, dressed in light clothes. He took a kind of blanket out of his string bag and threw it over me. Then he took out a flask and a metal mug. And bread. He poured me vodka and told me to eat and drink.
Then he said that it would take another 5 hours to walk - but he knew the way. I silently followed him, almost unable to think of anything, I repeated to myself that I just had to go,just move one leg after another. Apparently this was how the shock affected my condition. It was a long walk. Then I found out that he was 72 years old and he is a scientist who sometimes walks through these mountains to the meteo station. He walked very slowly. But he walked. And he saved my life.
When we got to the village, a car and his son were waiting for him. Wet, cold and exhausted, I got into the car and fell asleep in a second. The next day I woke up in the small industrial town, not knowing how long I was sleeping. It was his son's house.
I looked in my passport and realised I had 32 hours left on my visa and 2000km to go to the border.
I don't remember this people's names but I am forever grateful.
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Salvation story in Tundra
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