(48) Darkfall

For 50 nights, the sun hasn’t disappeared below horizon. Even last night, it was still sliding just above the water surface and shining through the branches of pine trees. But further south I get, lower the sun goes, and inevitably there will be one night, when it’ll fall down too deep below the roots in the earth and all that will be left will be torturing darkness. It was one beautiful polar day, with no worries of evenings, with no burden of nights and all the problems connected with them such as cold, gloom and the necessity of hiding in any kind of accommodation. Now, I will have to learn to live with darkness…

[cetsEmbedGmap src=http://maps.google.sk/maps?saddr=Rv886&daddr=68.47554,26.04396+to:67.50646,27.70798+to:65.39342,29.5726+to:Lentiirantie%2FCesta+912&hl=sk&ll=67.339861,33.354492&spn=15.671347,41.616211&sll=69.172326,30.882568&sspn=1.783563,5.202026&geocode=FYreKAQdsBPWAQ%3BFZTaFAQdOGaNASmTSJcWJYHNRTEfDlgNTGAr8g%3BFRwRBgQdTMqmASlFd3m2rjwtRDF819COCHUiDg%3BFQzT5QMd-D3DASlR4MpBngMpRDGKc9Wbr98dYg%3BFVLr1wMd9K3FAQ&mra=dme&mrsp=0&sz=8&via=1,2,3&t=m&z=5 width=650 height=600 marginwidth=1 marginheight=1 frameborder=2 scrolling=no]

…there aren’t many roads in the north. 400km on gravel… 3 times fixing flat tyre, infinite forests…

 

…shallow lakes and eternal storms…

 

 

…hundreds of hills and hundreds of valleys, how far does the road goes down south, it surely is far…

 

 

…when more than two reindeers are standing on the road, they are reluctant to let me go, then I have to stop and wait till they move on to graze on the grass…

 

 

…not happy times for them this time of year, they are being harassed by insects, they are nervous, jumping on the road unexpectedly… it is just like in the book “Memories of Sallivaaran”, they really do graze against the wind…

 

 

…how much the reflection on the lake can tell… it tells us what is on the other bank and gives us an idea of how far it is, even if we don’t see it. The reflection of an object can tell us a lot, but the object itself remains hidden. Just like people do, they might be such reflections. Who knows where the original is… high above, like the trees above their own reflection?…

 

 

…and where are those people? Far south chasing their daily rush and hustle?…

 

 

…the fourth white night in finnish forest…

 

 

…the fifth day on the gravel road…

 

 

…and suddenly a wide tarmac, trace of civilisation…

 

 

…now I can go faster, everything goes faster…

 

 

…riding south towards the modern world…

 

 

…it started on that day. First, the forest got darker to take away the power of vision…

 

 

…then the lake went black…

 

 

…it is getting dark, the night is coming.

I was standing in front of a shop in a small village carrying my fresh bread. People were walking down the street, young girls admiring dirt bikes of their peers, the lady from fuel station let me get some petrol, then locked and went home. Everyone went home. It got cold. The night blocked my way forward, there is nowhere else in the unknown world I can go tonight. I sneaked out from the sight of people and made my bed in the grass by lake…

 

…a dishevelled reindeer came to me, “stop snuffling, I need sleep” I said… he kept digging and raking, finally he got scared of something and ran away. Such was the end of polar day last summer.