'Northern Lights' by Nancy Campbell

As a Season's greeting, I offer this captivating and evocative poem by Nancy Campbell, an Arctic traveller and searcher who lives and works in Oxford but has done several artistic residencies at high latitudes - Upernavik, Ilulissat, Siglufjörður.

Northern lights 

Sometimes you can sense them,
Guðny says. In winter she wakes
at midnight to an intense silence
as if the town is stalking itself,
and she knows the skies will be bright
as butter. She opens the window
to feel the cold air rising from the snow
and sits on the low sill, half-
dreaming, watching the lights churn
over the hills, whisky gold in her glass.

When he's not working nights

Björn likes to borrow Guðny's car

and drive out of town. He believes

you can always see the lights better

in the next valley, but you have to hurry

before they disappear. On the cliff road

he'll switch the headlights off while his eyes

adjust to the dark. Down by the fjord

he stops, lies back on the warm bonnet,

listening to the heat shields tick.

 
 
When her husband's away at sea
Alice often walks to the beach
with her camera set to manual
and a spare battery. If the tide's out
she fixes a tripod among the small black rocks
which smell of kelp. Each time the shutter clicks
it captures new magnetic patterns. 
Back home she patiently scrolls
through hundreds of thumbnails,
deletes them one by one, keeping the best.

Far out on the North Banks

the floodlit deck of Sindri's trawler

is rich with fish. He heads for home:

the lights of his town are hidden

so it's good to see the aurora

soaring over those mountains,

and the slow sweep of the beam

from Siglunes lighthouse to the east.

A tiny satellite blinks above him

collecting data for the storm report.

Birna is tired, there's so much to do

before the family visits. As she hangs

glittering stars upon her tree 

the weather forecast promises 

perfect cloud cover, but tonight

she's got no desire to look outside:

the aurora will continue circling

the world, and someone else will watch

its fires dance, while she remembers

the nights long gone.

from:
Christmans Lights, 
Ten poems for Dark Winter Nights
Candlestick Press, 2018

The Kolyma, the last of the four great Siberian Rivers

(continued)


4. The Kolyma River

The Kolyma River forms from the confluence of Ayan-Yuryakh and Kulu rivers in the Kolyma Mountains, part of the Suntar-Khayata Range in southeastern Siberia.

It runs for 2 129 km, permanently winding along the mountainous and then flat tundra terrain as it flows nothernwards to the East Siberian Arctic Sea, at 69.5º N, 71.5º E.

Kolyma mountains

This is one of the most astoundingly beautiful wildernesses in the world, kept pristine by the limited presence of man. There are surely mines and dams and fuel-linked industries, but they are relatively confined to few locations near the infamous Road of Bones, between Yakutsk and Magadan. The mountainous sanctuary areas have been spared, and there lay the most precious Nature reserves, with glaciars, lakes and valleys.

Suntar-Khayata Range

The confluence of the two rivers in Suntar-Khayata happens near near Pik Aborigen, a peak at 61° 59' N, 149° 20' E.

Pik Aborigen, Пик Абориге́н

Few miles from its source, the Kolyma with Pik Aborigen in the background.

In its upper course the Kolyma flows through narrow gorges, deep canyons, with many rapids. Gradually its valley widens, as it flows more northernly through the taiga. The river is navigable upstream to Sinegorye, but the ice-free period is short: freezing lasts from late September until early June in the lower course. The breakup of the ice is accompanied by vast ice jams and widespread flooding.

 

Reindeer nomading, upper Kolyma

For the sparse population that lives in the basin, the river species are plentiful enough: sturgeon, Siberian white salmon, broad whitefish, Arctic grayling,  burbot. “For the neighborhood, this river is its daily bread”. Else, just moose meat - no vegetables here. This is one of the coldest rivers in the world.

 

The montainous region north of Magadan is crossed by the Kolyma Highway R504, also known as the 'Road of Bones'. The beauty of the landscape is amazing, one of the most magnificent Nature wildernesses in the planet; but it also has a very sorrowful and criminal story to tell, of gulags, of prisoners' forced labour and their massive death toll. Many were buried under the road pavement !

The sheer scale of the convict labour that was exploited is particularly evident in the hundreds of wooden bridges over rivers and streams, most of them now in ruins.

As the Kolyma receives an important flow from its tributary Indigirka river, in the proximity of Ust-Nera and Seymchan, it flows through landscapes which are among the most amazingly beautiful in Eurasia, as well as submitted to the most severe climate on the planet. In the area of ​​Ust-Nera is also located the Pole of Cold (Oymyakon) where cold has reached under -70ºC.

Right where the "Kolyma" highway R504 crosses the Indigirka river - itself a large and spectacular river-, Ust-Nera is a ruined gold mining settlement in the flat taiga region where most of the gold has been found.

The Indigirka at Ust-Nera, one of its few bridges

One of several ghost towns in the Kolyma basin.

From Seymchan to Zyryanka, the Kolyma starts widening, splitting into numerous branches, and permanently undulating through the swampy tundra.

 

This is the Kolyma Lowlands.

Futher north as it reaches the village of Kolymskoye, the Kolyma receives addtional water from tributaries that frequently cause huge flooding. In its final course, the river level can differ up to 14 metres.

Kolymskoye is a small Chukchi village of reindeer herders.

Chersky

Chersky once was a strategic hub on the major supply route for northern Siberia. It was also the main base to support the Soviet Union’s Arctic expeditions and - most important ! - Moscow’s main military outpost in the area.

There were daily flights to Moscow and Yakutsk, the port was busy with barges and tankers; salaries were kept higher than in Moscow, though most labour in the mines was done by starving political prisoners transported in barges; many died of scurvy, maybe the most lucky.

Bur now the population shrank to 3000, ships and cranes are rusting, the airport ruined, the airstrip impraticable. Residential blocks were demolished or abandonned and left to crack under permafrost thawing.

Mounds of rubble, wrecked huge military installations and plundered storage facilities dot the area surrounded by the wild Arctic tundra. Chersky was a victim of democracy.

The only planes in Chersky are rusting on pedestals, decorating the squares.

Well,  the ugliness of man's transitory buildings versus the eternal wondrous beauty of wild Nature.

As it aproaches the Arctic Sea, the Kolyma flows smoothly through the flat tundra, creating multiple channels and islands that change unpredictably.

The Delta

The satellite view shows the delta of the Kolyma River with thousands of lakes.

The final breath: the Kolyma is hindered by a sandbar at its mouth.

Kolyma Gulf

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This was the last of the four Great Siberia Rivers. Further towards the east, another river flows in a large basin, close to the Bering Sea: the Anadyr River. But this is a story I leave for later on.

Ales Stenar, the Stones of Ale - a Viking memorial in Skåne, southern Sweden

This is probably the most fascinating and enigmatic pre-historic monument of Scandinavia. There, writing only started by the year 1000 under Christian culture. Without that skill, limited to runic stone carvings, Vikings left few testimonies of their era; that's why this is a preciously rare heritage, dated from about 600 DC.

The ship form Alignment stands on the green covered flat top of a high cliff.

Ales Stones (Stenar)
Scania, Sweden

Coordinates: 55° 23′ N, 14° 03′ W

It looks like a funereal vessel made of 59 obeliscs standing beteween the sky and the sea, in a pasturage on top of a steep cliff near the small fishing port of Kåseberga. Ystad is the closest town. Built by whom, why ? or what for?

The answer seems to be: quite probably a burial monument, maybe over an earthed grave, and dedicated to some Viking captain capsized with his ship and crew at this Baltic Sea coast; but some think otherwise: an astrononomical purpose (like Stonehenge), for the sun is perfectely aligned with the two extreme stones ('bow' and 'stern') at both solstices.

Datation is well established, between 500 and 1000 AC, during the late nordic Iron Age. But archeologists discovered that the stones stand on a much older funereal camera from ca. 5500 years ago. Maybe the alignment in the form of a ship's keel meant the transport of the underlying deceased to their eternal abode? But here, so far away from Caronte's bark ????...

Most of the megalyths are made of granite, except two of local sandstone and one of quartzite; those are probably not original, but later apports or substitutions. We can scarcely imagine how tons of boulders were lifted and dragged up the fields, up a steep slope, and finally aligned carefully and accurately with the celestial stars.

Why 'Ale' ?

The monument was known as Heds Stenar (Heesteena) in the 18th century ( and currentlu now by the locals), and there is a mention of Stene by the 17th century. The origin of the name is unknown.

The Swedish writer and film director Hasse Alfredson supported the hypothesis of Ales Stenar's astronomical purpose in 1970. With a simple compass he verified that the central line, main axes of symmetry of the 'ship', pointed to the sun at the solstices: in Summer, the setting Sun was aligned with the bow, in Winter with the stern.

Göran Lind, teacher at Lund University, declared in 1975 he had confirmed Alfredson ideas with more sophisticated equipment. Since then, several articles, some more esoteric than others, speculate about the geometric and cosmologic coincidences without full scientific evidence.

History's best treasures are frequently the ones we don't fully understand.

Hudiksvall, hidden gem on the east coast of Sweden by the Gulf of Bothnia

- This is also to express my solidarity with the Swedish population who suffered from violent wildfires this month -


Hudiksvall, at the entrance into the gulf of Bothnia, would probably not be the Ultima Thule that Pytheas reached. But being easily accessed by boat and in the shore of Arctic waters that freeze through winter months, enjoying long daylight in summer, and still being rich in History and heritage, Hudik has all that is needed to be Thule nowadays.

The east coast of Sweden borders the waters of the Gulf of Bothnia, an arm of the Baltic Sea. Those are very cold waters, iced during winter, and well known to the old Norse sailors.
Hudiksvall is nested deep into a fjord of the same name - Hudiksvallsfjarden, along the country's east coastal road.

Hudiksvall, Gulf of Bothnia, Sweden

Coordinates : 61° 44′ N, 17° 08′ W
                      (sub-arctic)
Population:  ~16 000

The town was founded in 1582 by King John III. At the time, fishing and the trading of furs, skins, iron, copper and wood products were the main sources of income, and the city flourished through the 18th century.

The fish business was of great importance until the mid-1800s. During the 20th century, the processing plant has grown relatively slowly and lost its prevailance.

The city's later expansion is mainly due to the timber trade; Hudiksvall developed in the latter part of the 19th century to one of Sweden's leading export ports for timber.

Fisktorget, Fisherman's Square, is a good point to start in the center of old Hudik.

Close by is the Sundskanalen and Möljen, with red boathouses aligned on the two sides of a canal that used to allow boats from the inner lagoon Lillfjärden to the large fjord.

Fisktorget and the Möljen.

Möljen means pier or quay.

The canal now connects Lillfjärden lagoon to the sea. It is 500 meters long. In early times Lillfjärden was the harbour of Hudiksvall, but the connection to the sea was silted up and in 1615 the harbour moved to its present location. Fishermen continued to use the old harbour and until the 19th century they built boathouses along the canal where they landed and sold their catch. Today they are mostly used for shops, restaurants, and only a few for storage.

The warehouses complex was completed in 1800 to provide storage. Until 1938 it was also used as a Market Square. It is paved and decorated since 1995.

Hudiksvall  is also known as Glada Hudik, a term that originated in the 19th century as word spread of its friendly hospitality and its lively social life.

Möljen is especially captivating, even bewitching, at twilight under snow.

In a summer day, it's the best place for a drink.

Also at Fisktorget, an old Phone Box still remains from the Swedish network, Rikstelefon:

But Hudiksvall has history and heritage scattered all around; let's start in the Old Church Street:

Home Bakery, Stora Kyrkogatan

The Church of St. Jakob

Building works began in 1643, and were completed in 1672. During the Great Northern War, when the Russians burned cities along the northern coast of 1721, the church received a cannonball shot through the porch window. It was the biggest single disaster in Hudiksvall's history. The local people will never forget that.

The most tragic disaster in Hudiksvall's history: in 1721 the Russians attacked, and the city was burnt in the ground.

St Jacob's tower spire has been chosen then as Hudiksvall's representative image.

The Culture House is the place for most artistic events.

http://kulturhusetgladahudik.se

Storgatan, the main street in the shoppping area, opens with two iconic statues:

Harlekin and Pierrot, Storgatan

Throughout all the town, statues decorate the urban space helping to a more human and artistic atmosphere.

Other smaller residential streets display the typical nordic charm:

Tullgatan

Lillfjärden Park

On the northeast side of the old inlet, now a lagoon, is the town's large public park.

At Kärleksstigen (Love Trail) in Lillfjärden Park stands the famous Povl Söndergaard's Statue of Modern Youth from 1935.

In the Lillfjarden Park there is also a very nordic beautiful Rosarium (at 61º N, remember !).

During the 16th century, after Hudiksvall was founded, Lillfjärden was the innermost part of Hudiksvallsfjärden, and the city's harbour and center. But larger boats could no longer get there and the city moved to the current location.

Today, Lillfjärden is a small lake that has been flooded by Hornån, whose final stretch to Möljen and Strömmingssundet since the 19th century is stoned and is called the "canal" but increasingly evolves into a flowing watercourse.

Still in the park, the small Theater, which was the first built in Hudiksvall.

The wooden theater was built in 1881.

The theater has retained most of its original interior and furnishings. The lounge is in pink, reddish-brown, with gold-plated wood.

The Railway Station

The station building in Hudiksvall opened in 1888

An elegant design that has been kept as new.

Sångartempel på Köpmanberget

The Sanger church temple at Köpmanberget.

After 16th century texts, at this elevated site people spanned the ocean after waiting ships. Five cannons defended the city from the Russians' ravages, though without great success... In the early 1900s, the city's craftsmen and merchants created a kind of public park, and in 1910, the Sångarförbund's singing temple opened on the hill. It was well-known architect Frej Berglund who designed the wooden pavillion.

Inside the dome, listening in silence, the singing voices from the past still resound...

The singing temple is owned and managed by the municipality of Hudiksvall.

Hudiksvall is a small but vibrant town, deserving to be visited for its pleasant and quiet ambiance as well as for architecture and history.

Lillfjärden by dusk.

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Recently this region of central Sweden has been devastated by wildfires, almost unbelievable at such latitudes. I wish to leave a word of solidarity, support and friendship to the nordic friends who suffered from the tragedy.