Tuesday, 28 August 2012



Finally trees, photo: Max Heikenfeld, Alfred Wegener InstituteCan you remember ever been without seeing trees for six weeks in a row? Those of us, who boarded the plane in Moscow in early July towards Tiksi, have now been almost two months without seeing any plants that deserve to be called more than bush.

Few days ago few of the Russian scientists in our group borrowed a larger ship, in order to examine the runoff and the water composition of the river arms of the Lena Delta. It became a good opportunity for our group to take a trip to the town about 50 kilometers south, called Tit-Ari. The trip took roughly four hours and the modest weather on our way was quite impressive.
We saw spectacular cliffs on the adjacent mountains, which looked like layered petrified geology book, sometimes looming in pointed tips and reminding us of the Dolomites. It was a nice change to the usually flat landscape of the Lena Delta.

After having sailed for a while, we saw small groups of conifers clinging to the steep slopes on the hills outside the town. I would not call it a full-grown forest as people from Germany or from southern parts of Russia would describe a forest- but definitely something that could be called "trees". It actually reminded me a little of Christmas tree forests, which "grow" during December on Christmas markets.

We got, as the photo shows, carried away a bit by this scenery and some of us had quite enthusiastic reactions even. After we calmed down, we went on a search for gifts of nature, which can be found here around Samoylov. Some of us managed to collect large bags of mushrooms. Others started quickly fill their rucksacks with all kinds of berries, such as blueberries and redcurrants. Especially popular were the bright-orange cloudberries, of which Thomas has already told you about in the last posting from Muostakh. Once we found the right places, usually spotted on large surfaces with bright green moss, we could in a short time eat our bellies full. There were, however, still enough berries left to take home to the folks back in Samoylov.

 

Just before midnight, we took a speedy trip down the river again to our station, where we were expected, despite the late hour, with an excellent dinner. The following days were marked by culinary mushroom dishes and various berry desserts.

After all, the day we spent in "South" gave us very good memories because of the trees and berries and the very impressive landscape. This motivates us to carry on our scientific research for the last few days here on the island Samoylov.

Greetings from the treeless Tundra,

Max

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Main page of the English translation of the blog "Tundra Stories": http://page21.org/blogs/59-samoylov
Original German blog: http://www.awi.de/de/go/Tundra-Stories