tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-57488397234439748582024-03-14T02:13:59.687+00:00Ultima Thule<b><i><p>
Ultima Thule! Utmost Isle!</p><p>Here in thy harbors for a while</p><p>We lower our sails; a while we rest</p><p>From the unending, endless quest</p></i></b>Mário R. Gonçalveshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10663310362534590729noreply@blogger.comBlogger371125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5748839723443974858.post-79556603663261756722024-02-12T19:05:00.004+00:002024-02-12T19:10:25.109+00:00The Legend of Kópakonan , the seal woman of Mikladalur(continued from the previous 'The Selkie Woman of Mikladalur, Kalsoy')Kópakonan The legend of Kópakonan (the Seal Woman) is one of the best-known folktales in the Faroe Islands. A Seal Woman is a local variant of Greek-European Mermaids - Ondine, Melusine, the celtic and norse Selkie, Rusalka, Lorelei...Seals were believed to be former human beings who voluntarily sought death in the ocean. Mário R. Gonçalveshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10663310362534590729noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5748839723443974858.post-2054721693890340812024-01-28T20:52:00.004+00:002024-01-28T20:52:40.861+00:00The Selkie Woman of Mikladalur, KalsoyI am absolutely fascinated by these sparse rural villages on the Faroe Islands, with their wooden houses painted in tar-based black and covered by grass roofs.Currently most villages there are served by roads and many have helipads, so the isolation is no longer what it was when connections could only be made by sea; the easier access shows, for example, in the rise of accommodation and Mário R. Gonçalveshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10663310362534590729noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5748839723443974858.post-29095745118462795862023-11-20T23:45:00.013+00:002023-11-20T23:55:56.228+00:00Inndyr and its medieval Romanesque church at 37º N, in GildeskålOn the Arctic coast of Norway sits a Romanesque church from the 12th century. Well, I had to show this remarkable rarity. Inndyr, in the coastal region of Gildeskål, is one of those many picturesque marine villages in Norway; founded and grewn off fishing, a little south of the Lofoten archipelago. The recently restored 'Tormodbrygga', a typical fishing pier in the small port Mário R. Gonçalveshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10663310362534590729noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5748839723443974858.post-58308184924652206412023-09-04T22:41:00.005+01:002023-09-05T01:10:52.035+01:00Seyðisfjörður, pretty village in East Iceland
Seyðisfjörður or Seydisfjoerdur is a town and municipality in Iceland's Eastfjords region, at the innermost point of the fjord of the same name.
Connected to Scotland and the Faröe, this is a typical icelandic village, with a tiny port deep into the fjord, surrounded by mountains and wild waterfalls.
Settled at the sandy bottom of the fjord, it's almost unreally pretty in the Mário R. Gonçalveshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10663310362534590729noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5748839723443974858.post-89392596493541703972023-03-31T13:22:00.003+01:002023-04-01T13:50:28.077+01:00Tsiigehtchic (Arctic Red River), a native Gwich'in hamlet in the Canadian ArcticThis time we are in the Northwest Territories of the Canadian Arctic.Tsiigehtchic (="mouth of the iron river") is a native village on the banks of the Mackenzie River, where it is joined by the tributary Arctic Red River. This is a strategic point on the Dempster Highway, the great northern highway to Inuvik; here the crossing of the river is still done by ferry.The natives of this region are theMário R. Gonçalveshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10663310362534590729noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5748839723443974858.post-46010577586731470382023-02-13T17:16:00.007+00:002023-02-13T17:19:33.171+00:00Oodaaq, island 83-42 and the flowers of KaffeklubbenThe island of Oodaaq, found in 1978, was little more than a gravel bank in the arctic ice, and was for some years considered the northernmost territory on the planet. It was located off the north coast of Greenland, and eventually disappeared in 1980, never to be seen again - these stony shingle banks are not permanent, they end up swallowed by floating ice, and then submerge in the ocean. Mário R. Gonçalveshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10663310362534590729noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5748839723443974858.post-51623549465124812472023-01-03T19:28:00.004+00:002023-01-03T19:28:57.673+00:00Mirrie Dancers, a ballet of light over Burra, Shetland"Mirrie Dancers" is how Auroras are named in the Shetland Islands. I've just received these images from 2023:These come from Burra, West Shetlands.Photos by Catherine MunroMário R. Gonçalveshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10663310362534590729noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5748839723443974858.post-3844508212531774142022-11-16T20:24:00.002+00:002022-11-17T22:56:32.000+00:00Fámjin, island of Suðuroy - café and church in a Faroese villageAny place in the Faroese archipelago could do great as Ultima Thule ! Fámjin is a small community on the west coast of Suðuroy, the southernmost of the Faroese islands. It sits on a narrow slope between lake Kirkjuvatn and a deep bay on the North Atlantic Ocean.A picturesque village on a remote - though European - location, Fámjin is a bit surprising for keeping so lively and demanded Mário R. Gonçalveshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10663310362534590729noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5748839723443974858.post-76587521451773553032022-10-30T17:07:00.004+00:002022-10-30T19:01:24.184+00:00Jäätee, the ice road to Kärdla in the island of Hiiumaa, EstoniaAfter the Viking era, as part of the Hanseatic League, Estonia has been occupied by Denmark, Sweden, Poland, Germany and lately Russia; permanently threatened, divided, fighting for independence, Estonia obtained it briefly between 1918 and 1940, then finally since 1988 - it's hard to believe how the country managed to keep its own language and national identity.Being a small territory, Estonia Mário R. Gonçalveshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10663310362534590729noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5748839723443974858.post-23629397164636469752022-10-20T12:14:00.004+01:002022-10-20T12:21:22.579+01:00Under the stars with Matt Gaw in Arinagour, Island of Coll
I discovered the hebridean Island of Coll while reading Matt Gaw's Under the Stars. I´m giving here a small excerpt of his adventures.
Gaw stayed with his family in Arinagour, the wonderfully named main town, and from there he made night excursions watching the skies.
The treck to the beach near Arnabost, on the machair *.
The greatest revelation comes after a family excursion Mário R. Gonçalveshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10663310362534590729noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5748839723443974858.post-59824743417820794042022-10-12T12:29:00.001+01:002022-10-12T12:29:47.563+01:00World's largest waterfall : underwater wild Denmark Strait
At 67º 46' N, the 280 km wide strait between Iceland and Greenland is an infamous ocean stretch of revolted wild waters and thick blizzards, a route every sailor prefers to avoid. Alistair Maclean wrote in one of his tales:" (...) along the belt of the Arctic Circle itself, lie the most bitter seas in the world: and no part of it more bitter, more hostile to man and the puny ships that carry himMário R. Gonçalveshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10663310362534590729noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5748839723443974858.post-64634893814946067822022-01-02T13:03:00.006+00:002022-01-04T13:10:40.382+00:00Kirkjubøur and Saksun - Faroese historic houses and museumStarting 2022 on a northern Island !No palaces, castles or medieval towns are to be expected in the Faroe Islands; these were until half a century ago a quite backward place, seldom visited by fishing vessels; most communities lived on fishing and sheep herding, just above subsistence mode, under millenary traditions and ways of life; but that is also what makes the Faroe a large Museum as a Mário R. Gonçalveshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10663310362534590729noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5748839723443974858.post-18855949892684875282021-12-28T13:05:00.012+00:002021-12-28T18:12:46.687+00:00Point Nemo, the absolute nowhere land on EarthThere is abundant information on the web about Point Nemo. Still I found that publishing a short and nicely informative post might be of interest, and surely it has to do with Ultima Thule. I had promised the year of 2021 would not be finished without a new post, so here it is.The designation Point Nemo, a tribute to Captain Nemo, was assigned to the most inaccessible place on the Mário R. Gonçalveshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10663310362534590729noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5748839723443974858.post-55072606377598828262020-10-25T17:35:00.000+00:002020-10-25T17:35:01.693+00:00Symbister, Whalsay (Shetland), the northernmost hanseatic trading post
This is really an incredible place! Accessible only by ferry, Whalsay Island is one of the most isolated of the Shetlands, far into the North Sea at the latitude of Bergen in Norway.
Why on earth would anyone in the 16th century be interested in a port so far away ? Well, whales first of all. Whalsay = Whales Island *, and the trade with German Hanseatic towns was all about seafare. Mário R. Gonçalveshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10663310362534590729noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5748839723443974858.post-26473645556230335792020-03-04T17:59:00.001+00:002020-03-04T17:59:34.414+00:00Qaqortoq, a lively little town in southern Greenland
Qaqortoq is a sub-arctic town in southern Greenland, at 60º N - about 670 km south of the Arctic Circle.
Founded in 1775 as Julianehåb, the small port town has lived through 250 years of History, a rather long time for Greenland. The colonial architecture has provided the town with little gems:
Cobblestone stairways and iron bridges, a wooden bright red church and old houses full ofMário R. Gonçalveshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10663310362534590729noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5748839723443974858.post-41158369934753474952019-10-14T16:27:00.001+01:002019-10-14T16:40:10.638+01:00Fabulous Baffin Island Auyuittuq video by Will Christiansen
Will Christiansen is a photographer and filmmaker, owner of the online producer SKÝ FÓLK. He was in Baffin Island, the largest in the Arctic Archipelago of Canada (focused in several posts here at Ultima Thule) and as he walked he made this breathtaking film. Starting in Qikiqtarjuaq, Broughton Island, he spent a few days in Auyuittuq Park, one of the wonders of that arctic island, featuring theMário R. Gonçalveshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10663310362534590729noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5748839723443974858.post-1160715518016371362019-06-12T15:56:00.002+01:002019-07-03T00:18:33.576+01:00Castlebay, Barra: far-off but amazing hebridean Thule
Barra Island is one of the Outer Hebrides in western Scotland. Its main settlement is Castlebay.
A sheltered bay provides a unique and astounding setting.
Kisimul Castle and Castlebay
The island of Barra is a predominantly Gaelic-speaking island.
Castlebay (Bagh a‘ Chaisteil), the main village on the island, got its name from Kisimul Castle, propriety of Historic Scotland. The Mário R. Gonçalveshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10663310362534590729noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5748839723443974858.post-12649612193647767402019-04-19T19:55:00.001+01:002019-04-20T13:11:48.998+01:00Súðavík, remote in the remotest far North of... Iceland!
Now heading for the the remotest area in Iceland: Westfiords (Vestfirðir), a large Arctic peninsula with a coastline heavily indented by dozens of fjords surrounded by steep hills. Communications by land are difficult, roads are extremely winding and most of the time ice-covered.
Súðavík lies in Álftafjörður, one of many fjords subsidiary to the Ísafjarðardjúp, a larger fjord, almost a Mário R. Gonçalveshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10663310362534590729noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5748839723443974858.post-22770148665916893672019-04-04T18:58:00.002+01:002019-04-04T18:59:32.525+01:00The gorgeous Arctic Fox, celebrated as 'Mikkl' by Christiane Ritter
I have published here some time ago my sympathy for the arctic ermine or marten, a gorgeous little animal. Leonardo painted one in the arms of Cecilia Gallerani (Dama com l'Ermellino).
But the Arctic fox is equally gorgeous, mainly in the height of its winter coating of pristine white fur.
This thick fur protects the fox to below -50ºC, which is quite necessary because foxes don't Mário R. Gonçalveshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10663310362534590729noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5748839723443974858.post-25040489715812269312019-03-14T17:39:00.000+00:002019-03-14T17:39:41.178+00:00Concordia Station - France and Italy together in Antarctica
Dome C and Concordia, on Antarctic's East Ice Sheet.
Here, not far from the South Pole, as in the International Space Station, humanity behaves in a friendly and cooperative way that we'd like to see also at home, which is Europe in this case.
France and Italy have built a common house on the southernmost iced territories of the planet, living together in harmony under -30 to -80º C on the Mário R. Gonçalveshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10663310362534590729noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5748839723443974858.post-90929711826018883042019-02-20T17:06:00.001+00:002019-02-20T19:09:11.568+00:00Siglufjörður, a fishing village at 66º N under Northern Lights
Iceland is a country in progress. From a remote half-unknown island, a desolate treeless land of volcanoes, canyons, torrents and waterfalls with a few small fishing villages along the coast, Iceland has been changing rapidly into a modern country where the savage Nature is a plus to civilization; the coastal settlements are now coulourful and pretty, culturally eventful, displaying all modern Mário R. Gonçalveshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10663310362534590729noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5748839723443974858.post-25796208835052081332019-02-03T12:32:00.000+00:002019-02-03T12:32:47.527+00:00Port of Ness (Port Nis), hebridean 'Thule' with a unique temple to St. Moluag.
Port of Ness (Port Nis) is a village on the Isle of Lewis, one of the
Outer Hebrides in Scotland, at the end of the road leading northwards from Stornoway. It's very dispersed, a string of villages along the road like a linear settlement that extends for three miles from Cross to the harbour, with an extension to Eoropie.
The wee port was constructed in the early 19th century.
Port Mário R. Gonçalveshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10663310362534590729noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5748839723443974858.post-56410123928060191532019-01-20T19:06:00.002+00:002019-01-20T19:06:31.621+00:00Lake Jack London, in far eastern Siberia's Kolyma Mointains: probably the most beautiful in the whole world
The grandest beauty sometimes arises where you least expect. In this
part of Siberia, a century ago, lame and squalid prisoners of the gulags were punished
with forced labour by a regime that did not tolerate dissidents; they built here the "road of bones" on hundreds of skeletons
- a repulsing ruin of the Soviet regime that still winds through a
deserted and frozen landscape of rivers and Mário R. Gonçalveshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10663310362534590729noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5748839723443974858.post-68113282122616553442019-01-01T15:10:00.003+00:002019-01-01T19:01:05.609+00:00NASA quoted Ultima Thule !!
Wow ! NASA called the very very remote cosmic stone visited by its probe New Horizon, launched in 2006, as 'Ultima Thule' ! What an honour to this Blog ! :)))
Named technically as Kuiper Belt Object MU69, the asteroïd-like object beyond Pluto, in the outer edge of Solar System, deserved the special nickname reserved to new discoveries in farmost regions of the known world.
The faint light isMário R. Gonçalveshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10663310362534590729noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5748839723443974858.post-4809004821858395652018-12-24T19:45:00.002+00:002018-12-24T19:45:15.688+00:00Illustrated Selected Poems by Robert Frost: a most beautiful book gift
This 2017 edition by Sterling (New York) of Robert Frost poetry, with woodcut illustrations by Thomas W. Nason, is one of those rare books you cheerfully keep forever, a pleasure to handle and slowly turn the pages.
A Patch of Old Snow
There's a patch of old snow in a corner
That I should have guessed
Was a blow-away paper the rain
&Mário R. Gonçalveshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10663310362534590729noreply@blogger.com0