Lasīt tālāk
27.Aug
4TH LETTER FROM MĀRIS OLTE
22 Aug
- 2008 -
Author
Māris Olte
Tanana is a town in Alaska with 800 residents. There is a supermarket and a cafe “Riverside Grill”. It isn’t open this year, because shopkeepers have a lot of other work. This is the right place, where to charge batteries and use WI-FI in the darker corner, behind tables. Now listen to me.
Day before yesterday Raimonds said that he hasn’t even dreamed that in such a peaceful journey, in which there are not even second category rapids, you can enjoy so much different impressions and adventures. We can agree with him. About one week ago we found bear’s skin and head, while the belly had gone with Injuns. The quarry was a couple of hours old, in the result at the supper we had a bear’s heart with rice.
Five days ago when we did 437 km on Jukon lowland and came ashore to smell the odor of civilization, a heavily armed man seen in this picture John – hunter and representative of Jukon forest laws – was responsible for two hours long puzzle called “Who stole our filming equipment?!”. End of the story was in best American movie traditions. Luckily, we are still filming and everything is fine.
Three days ago Raimonds did not have to fumble with body-less substances seen in the photo. We found a place, where we could catch huge lings like in paradise one day after it was created by God. After few hours we i had to clean female Chum salmon. Locals all roe gathered from fish intented to dog food throw back in Jukon! Our visit to Jukon fish wheel master was awarded with salmon mom. Caviar was splendid!
Two days ago in Rampatra town, that is full of car and tractor wrecks, we took pictures, and saddly didn’t meet the Post lady, which let us spend a night at her bureau. Two pensioners, that we met in the town, said that the remaining six villagers flew to Fearbenks with post plane to have a few days off.
A strong north wind was blowing yesterday. One of the two boats didn’t manage to oar into the relatively safe shelter. At the end we were drying ourselves for two hours, before we took courage to go out of the wind zone.
Now, after about 630 km of the ride, we are at the place where Yukon meets Tanana river. After a half day there are at least five fish caught in the local Injuns’ rough net. The water in river is so muddy, that you can only guess how much fish there are from the net`s twitching.
The state of mind is elevated, because this is one of the best moments when we can call our families back home and get some civilization bonuses in these villages. A lot of towns are proclaimed as alcohol- free zones at this area. After a few hundred miles ahead of us at the lower reaches of the river, alcohol is totally forbidden.
