ARCTIC RUSSIA EXPEDITION

We drive for hours, although that fact that we’re driving off-road, stopping every now and again to negotiate our way around broken bridges, our modified route actually taking us in the sea, makes the distance seem longer. But just when I think that we must be coming to the end of the world, we come to a perfect little village of wooden houses clustered around an estuary, the older buildings beginning to sag back into the permafrost soil. When we pulled into a tiny wooden shack village and made our beds on reindeer skins in a big hut set in the earth I can honestly say that I have never in my life been anywhere that felt so unbelievably remote.

The Arctic Circle is the point where on the 21st of June, the longest day of the year, the sun doesn’t dip below the horizon. It was just a couple of days shy of the solstice but the Kola Peninsula really is the land of the Midnight sun and just like in the day, it seemed somehow unnatural. 

 From the coast we drove for two full days off-road through the endless forest, stopping only to cook shashliki over an open fire and to camp. It truly was an expedition and endless close trees without any landmarks to mark the distance and the perpetual sun making it impossible to tell the time, it was truly disorientating.

 For traveling in the desert they teach survival skills, but the same precautions must apply here; if you were on your own and got stuck, had an accident, or just something stupid happened like running out of fuel … in these immense forests it could easily mean death…you’d never get to go here without a competent guide with a seriously equipped expedition vehicle.

Our track was covered under a meter of snow so forward progress was impossible. The water had cut a channel through the snow but the banks were at least a couple of meters tall. I looked out the back and saw the 4x4s behind with the fast flowing water lapping over the bonnets. I guess that this is why it says on the website that snorkels are recommended.

About twenty minutes further on though and our way seemed totally impassable. An avalanche had dumped snow all the way across the river, which had cut a tunnel underneath. Spades and ropes were brought out and a technique devised which included ramming the snow with the truck and then slicing through it with a loop of winch wire as the truck reversed.

We dug, winched the cars along, dug some more and then finally broke through. And there it was; the perfect moment. This was the scene that defined the whole trip. The image to put on the folder of all the other photos. It was 3am on the Summer Solstice. In just a few hours the sun, which for us was high in the sky, would be rising between the Heel stones of Stonehenge, but here were we in Arctic Russia throwing snowballs at each other. No other words to describe it, just absolute magic!