Malin really likes cloudberriesDeciding on the exact location for this camp became a bit of an adventure when 10 tired hikers and 2 heavily loaded floats were supposed to meet up and agree on where in the humongous cloud of blackflies, spiced up with some mosquitoes, we should stop and make our home for the coming week. In the end we found a place with quite dry and relatively even ground close to a forest patch and with a small path leading down to the river. Although we were tired and some feet, legs and other body parts had seen more glorious days, the camp and a fire were put up fast and efficiently and we got warm food before crawling into our tents to get some rest and enjoy the thunderstorm in protection from the rain.

Peter and Martin in actionThe next morning we took it easy, got some lunch and then we continued working in the arctic heat for the rest of the days. We made two transects, one starting in the forest patch and another one in the willow bushes along the river, where the insects gave us a warm welcome. The other end of the transects were placed on the open tundra and in an area with thermokarst lakes (where we sometimes got some nice wind). The Germans and Peter Crittenden stayed in the forest patch, but they also crossed the river to have a look at the forest there. It was a lot of digging, hammering, drilling, measuring and picking plants while the sun was shining, the mosquitoes were biting and the thunderstorms built up around us, but mostly passed us without giving any refreshing rain.

Cloudberries.... Cloudberries.... .The water in our bottles was warm and we didn't have to worry that the food we brought for lunch would ever get cold. We started to run out of cheese and bread and what there was left started to look a bit suspicious. Luckily we still got our daily kasha (porridge) in the morning and soup in the evening and also some lunch, like porridge or (s)mashed potatoes to bring in a box or a plastic bag. We were short of coffee which is pretty bad especially for Finns and Swedes, but we made a call with the satellite phone to get some more of a variety of things brought in with the helicopter. Since the fishermen in our group continued to contribute to the food supplies we got boiled fish for breakfast, and once we even got it fried. Valerie (our cook, musician and wilderness-man) also made some great blinis, but we still had to wait for the cloudberries to ripen.

The greatest part of this camp was the Rogovaya River. Of course it was horrible to get undressed and dressed among all the small and bigger creatures that were swarming in the air, but to get into the warm, but still refreshing, water was just marvelous.

When it was time to leave we had managed to do everything we were supposed to. We packed our stuff, took group pictures and waited for the helicopter that, when it came, almost landed on us. We stuffed our mountain of equipment into the helicopter and left, some for the last camp and some for civilisation and custom-problems.

Author: Malin Ek

More photos here
http://www.carbonorth.net/image/tid/36