This – another planet. Here the sun never sets. Here there are no sunsets and sunrises. There is not even nights. At night, the sun hangs above the horizon, as if hung powerful floodlight. And you can not sleep.
Day does not end or begin, so do not leave the impression that time has stopped. There are no trees. There are no plants familiar to us. Here is another land – it is broken down into polygons, polygons, if the drawing. Here another snow – he pressed the ice melts in the summer.
Here gulls cry differently, hysterically, and a cold wind whistles continuously. Here everything is different. Here, even the air is different, expanded, with the smell of ice water and it heavily, strained enters the lungs. Here the water is another piping-cold, like a thousand splinters dig into the skin.
It seems all the elements converge and collide here. On the river raging ocean storms, and on the banks of sandstorms occur, as in the desert.
Here are the other colors – rich, deep. Blue of the sky reflected on all planes and with bright horizontal light creates expressive color contrast. Indigo shadows fall on the earth, sand, on the leaves, petals, on the walls of houses and on the roofs.
This – another reality. And the more unusual it is, the keener senses perceive the slightest manifestation of this reality. I went in the evening and felt like Tiksi about space aliens studying the unknown new planet …
In Tiksi we flew from Yakutsk part of a small biological expedition on July 11. We met, as expected, and was taken to a hotel inspection of environmental protection. In the vicinity of Tiksi we worked two days, and then in a military helicopter MI-8 flew to Samoilovsky Island, where a few days later we were on the boat to smuggle Olenyek duct Lena Delta.
Bay view Tiksi. Ice still holds.
I went to take pictures of the village in the evening around 11 pm There is a particularly interesting time light for filming. Tiksi evening almost deserted, and the day a large number of residents we have not seen. Bypassing the village from the south-west side, I met a few passers-by.
Drew the attention of the paint and stucco buildings have not been updated for a long time, probably since the Soviet times, judging by the fact that the walls still bore the mural of Soviet propaganda. Many wall along its picturesque shabby reminded me of Venice. Right kind of North Venice, when you consider that in some places there was water in depressions, and piles were poluzatopleny. We were told that the house was painted with bright colors to distinguish them in a snowstorm in the polar night. Because of these rich colors village turned scenic, photogenic in low-contrast color. Another told us that winter tiksintsy often stretch from house to house rope that it was possible to wade through a blizzard.
There are a lot of abandoned houses. Empty eyes looked at us dark window frames without glass. Heaps of garbage and everyday items strewn in the yards without fences.
In Tiksi, as we know, it is worth the military part. Soon I wandered there, but I realized it only after both rusty dilapidated fence looming military uniforms and shaved heads recruits. In its neglect this yard does not differ much from the surrounding buildings, and it was hard to guess that this – a military facility. Next to the fence, I noticed a big melting ice and on the meadow near Pedicularis remarkable yellow. Placing the camera, I saw the corner of his eye, that instead of young boys on the other side of the fence there was an older man, with shoulder straps, so the officer. He stared quietly and watched what I was doing, then politely said, “Girl, there can not shoot it – military facility.” I assured him that rented quite different objects, and moved away from sin on the edge of the village. Fortunately, there grew unknown to me picturesque plants, which I did in Central Yakutia, nor Verkhoyanye nor Kolyma never met.
Soon from the military unit, from which I retired at 300 meters, the sounds of the combatant march. From a distance, it was obvious that the soldiers in khaki clothes go a rank in the yard. Soon they began to sing a song. And they sang, to my surprise, the song from the film “Ivan Vasilyevich Changes Occupation”. This song was the only familiar sound here, the phenomenon of past life, in our land. It sounded weird here, this song with Marusina “drip-drip” right on the spear “of favorite comedy here, on another planet with the midnight sun …
In the middle of the village of snow has not melted through. Near here and is part of the military.
Right in the village grows Rhodiola northern, Red Book medicinal species.
Tiksi outskirts. Subarctic tundra. The landscape here is slaboholmisty with meadows and debris spotted tundra.
Here absolutely unusual flora, Arctic, and none of our familiar plants.
Dryad Point – beautiful, fragrant mountain tundra plant.
Willow, which in Central Yakutia us accustomed as derevets here only in the form of shrubs and herbs almost even. Willow klinolistnaya.
And it – creeping willow, she had beautiful bright pink earrings. In Central Yakutia no such willows.
Shaggy willow in the foreground. It’s such blooms bright yellow catkins.
Kassiopi tetrahedral.
After 2 days, as previously agreed, we were taken to a military helicopter on the island Samoilovsky.
Lena Delta – one of the largest river deltas in the world with a total area of about 45 sq km It consists of numerous islands, islets, canals and lakes, flooded during the flood, and constantly changing its shape. In the delta of three major channels, reaching the sea: the westernmost – Olenyek average – Trofimovskaya and east – Bykovskaya. After a few days we should go on Olenyek duct.
Kharaulakh ridge visible in the distance
Clearly visible from the top surface of the polygonal tundra. Polygons formed by earthen ridges, has a variety of polygons around pereuvlazhennoy depression. They are the same shape once lenses vytayavshih fossil ice. Tundra are very different, they have a complicated scientific classification. These polygonal tundra called the roll and they grow mainly marsh plants.
On the way to the island Samoilovsky we flew to the island of Tit-Ary left the cargo and people. On this island I’ll separately. Island historic and very picturesque.
Here is a small fishing village. In this booth dried fish. Here we only fed sturgeon, and then we could not eat them, refused)).
Top view of the range and on the Kharaulakh mainstream Lena.
Dark green spots on the slope – this last northern larch (scientific name – Cajanderi larch-Larix cajanderi), on their almost gone. And they are in the form of up to 1-3 m derevets or as creeping shrubs. About creeping forms larch I’ll discuss later in the photo report about Olenenskoy duct, where we found the most extreme point of their growth.
On the island Samoilovsky we were in the midst of flowering tundra. Nowhere in the world such violent picturesque flowering, in my opinion, no.
This island is known for the fact that there is an international hydro-meteorological station, which is now holding the Germans, and in 2010, he seems to be coming here for President Putin. Here we were greeted very warmly. We were told of the arrival of Putin, how seriously preparing for this the highest audience, as a master of furniture that once flew military helicopters and poured out the men in black and dissolved in the tundra, and they were not seen or heard the whole day. The fact that the Russian president has been here, also testified one large metal teapot when I went to pour a cup of tea, on its cover saw neatly pasted patch with the inscription: “Putin.” That is, this tea pot poured Putin personally)).
We settled in these tents. The wind was blowing, as always in the North, tents fluttered in the wind, and not only they)).
Night on this island, I woke up around 4:00 and got out of the tent. The sun was above the horizon and give oblique, soft, enveloping light. Upstairs fleecy clouds, and below stretched magnificent flower carpet. The light was wonderful, just for shooting, and I rushed into the tent behind the camera. This was the case when nature photographer graciously gives one of his best paintings.
In the North, the most difficult thing for a photographer – it midges and mosquitoes. They stuck to the hands as wool, bite your fingers without letting aim. They can ruin even the best job, preventing focus, getting into the eye, the lens.
And struggling struggling with this unbearable buzzing swarm, sinking knee-deep in flowers, sometimes literally crawling through the grass, I tried to capture this wonderful natural phenomenon …
Right visible Bath Weather Stations, which the Germans have broken us kindly. Left in the distance on the horizon – meteorological tower, visible on the right. Post – humpbacked outlier. Distant ridge for Lena – it Kharaulakh ridge.
Flowering tundra – it’s awesome in its beauty phenomenon that must necessarily see once in your life …
After a few days behind us came powerboat, so take away a hundred kilometers of storm Lena on Olenyek duct, where we had to spend about 10 unforgettable days. So to be continued …
Source: Dnevniki.Ykt.ru
Translation: Google
