[Continued from: The Journey Northward - August 2]
August 5
The last 36 hours were absolutely wonderful! where to begin... We drove about 700km 2 days ago, and around 8pm we decided to look for a camping spot. How lucky we were!
[Aside] 2 F-16 fighter jets just flew over our heads! Freaking cool! Bodo has an airbase here. It's a NATO base. Loud planes.
So anyway, we found a campsite that first, had a toilet. Great. We continued further into the site by driving down a winding path, to find a small shelter with a fireplace. Even better. Though there was a multi-language sign requesting to not use the site for overnight camping, it was really perfect for overnight camping. So we decided to stay because really, it was close to 9pm and where the feck else would we go??
But first things first. Like all good men of the wild, before you truly settle somewhere, it's important to scout your immediate surroundings. So we found a small stream surrounding our site, so we followed it downward, where it led to a sweet 2.5m waterfall, then kept moving downward over large, flat rocks.
We continued to follow along the side of the stream then found now a large waterfall. Amazing!
Downward, downward. The path got shitty for a bit, dense foliage and muddy ground. But, eventually we emerged at a large stone beach, staring directly at the main river we were hoping to camp near for the purposes of freshwater bathing in the morning. So good. We found that only a 10 minute walk from our campsite.
The river was cool! 100m across, and where we were I can't imagine it getting deeper than 2m, but who knows; you couldn't go in deeper than 75cm or so, since the current was so strong even at such shallow depth.
Now, the whole time the sound of fast running water could be heard in the distance but we couldn't see down the river as a small rock island was obstructing the view. Thinking it might be another waterfall, we walked along the shoreline to investigate. No waterfall, but the water turned into beautiful whitewater rapids that went on into a valley in the distance.
What was perfect is that the sun was setting and this scene was so beautiful it couldn't even be captured on camera effectively, no matter how many different settings I tried on the camera. (I'm not really happy with my new camera, and how it really doesn't reproduce colours very well. Fuck megapixel counts, just get a Sony Cybershot and be happy... whatever)
Feeling so content with this, Andzrej and I returned to camp, where Piotr and Tomek were preparing camp and dinner. We had potatoes, carrots and Kielbassa sausage, in one of our cheap-ass sauces, but the dinner was pretty tasty. A few vodkas, a game of Risk and we went to bed. The sun never fully sets where we are now, but at midnight - 1am it's more or less dark.
Slept 7 hours of good sleep. No fucked up dreams which have been the plague of my existence -- getting a good sleep without torment is a gift from God. After getting up we put on our swimsuits and went down to the river with our soap and towels. Had a wonderful swim in a cold river. It was amazing just to lie back and let the current take you. We all bathed with suits, as none of us wanted to make an issue of our collectively shrunken manhood in this northern water. But that said, when you're camping there's no greater luxury than to wash your ass in the morning.
(to be continued, blog post only likes 5 photos per post...)
August 5
The last 36 hours were absolutely wonderful! where to begin... We drove about 700km 2 days ago, and around 8pm we decided to look for a camping spot. How lucky we were!
[Aside] 2 F-16 fighter jets just flew over our heads! Freaking cool! Bodo has an airbase here. It's a NATO base. Loud planes.
So anyway, we found a campsite that first, had a toilet. Great. We continued further into the site by driving down a winding path, to find a small shelter with a fireplace. Even better. Though there was a multi-language sign requesting to not use the site for overnight camping, it was really perfect for overnight camping. So we decided to stay because really, it was close to 9pm and where the feck else would we go??
But first things first. Like all good men of the wild, before you truly settle somewhere, it's important to scout your immediate surroundings. So we found a small stream surrounding our site, so we followed it downward, where it led to a sweet 2.5m waterfall, then kept moving downward over large, flat rocks.
We continued to follow along the side of the stream then found now a large waterfall. Amazing!
Downward, downward. The path got shitty for a bit, dense foliage and muddy ground. But, eventually we emerged at a large stone beach, staring directly at the main river we were hoping to camp near for the purposes of freshwater bathing in the morning. So good. We found that only a 10 minute walk from our campsite.
The river was cool! 100m across, and where we were I can't imagine it getting deeper than 2m, but who knows; you couldn't go in deeper than 75cm or so, since the current was so strong even at such shallow depth.
Now, the whole time the sound of fast running water could be heard in the distance but we couldn't see down the river as a small rock island was obstructing the view. Thinking it might be another waterfall, we walked along the shoreline to investigate. No waterfall, but the water turned into beautiful whitewater rapids that went on into a valley in the distance.
What was perfect is that the sun was setting and this scene was so beautiful it couldn't even be captured on camera effectively, no matter how many different settings I tried on the camera. (I'm not really happy with my new camera, and how it really doesn't reproduce colours very well. Fuck megapixel counts, just get a Sony Cybershot and be happy... whatever)
Feeling so content with this, Andzrej and I returned to camp, where Piotr and Tomek were preparing camp and dinner. We had potatoes, carrots and Kielbassa sausage, in one of our cheap-ass sauces, but the dinner was pretty tasty. A few vodkas, a game of Risk and we went to bed. The sun never fully sets where we are now, but at midnight - 1am it's more or less dark.Slept 7 hours of good sleep. No fucked up dreams which have been the plague of my existence -- getting a good sleep without torment is a gift from God. After getting up we put on our swimsuits and went down to the river with our soap and towels. Had a wonderful swim in a cold river. It was amazing just to lie back and let the current take you. We all bathed with suits, as none of us wanted to make an issue of our collectively shrunken manhood in this northern water. But that said, when you're camping there's no greater luxury than to wash your ass in the morning.
(to be continued, blog post only likes 5 photos per post...)
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