Arctic Summer, Midnight Sun

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But this time a real northern phenomenon – the Midnight Sun. Everyone (?) knows how and why it occurs and exists. But only a direct presence can provide that special feeling of something rare and peculiar. I had such a possibility during a mandatory military service in the then USSR for three years at the Kola Peninsula in Monchegorsk (Monchegorsk Air Base 13 miles northeast of town). The Arctic summer here was not too short (as further to the north): snow melted in May, autumn came in early September. The very real Midnight Sun was a few days around the Solstice, but the middle of summer was hot (well beyond +20 Celsius, though usually is mentioned +10-15 Celsius), dry and otherwise nice. All ambient – mostly swamp flora (after all it’s tundra, although not as severe as farther north) – prospered, flourished, grew and multiplied inscrutable volumes: small birchs / dwarf birchs (Betula nana, the first picture of the Latvian sample, the second one – from Greenland, but exactly the same as at the Kola Peninsula), mini-trees, mushrooms and cloudberries. At cloudberries (Rubus chamaemorus) we must stop in particular, because they are typical of the northern region and in the late summer berry-pickers brought them in big buckets. In more wet places perked up Cottongrass ('Hare' s-tail Cottongrass / Eriophorum angustifolium, Photo Elke Freese). While at the wood edges, ditches (for example, to our eternal extravagant latrines), small plains valiantly fought the wind rosebay Willowherbs (Chamerion angustifolium / Chamaenerion angustifolium). The only real horror was the mosquitoes: millions and millions of them and each one hungry like a million wolves.
Of course, it was a pleasant change from the long-long-long winter as such. To all that, however, came mentioned above the special sense of something mystical, something perhaps even cosmic. It was slightly surreal feeling. Although the sun circled the courts a few days, not disappearing from the sky, the natural human biological rhythm, however, requested the rest as normal. The nature itself became more quiet – rare bird voices disappeared altogether, butterflies and other insects hid. Only mosquitoes, these mosquitoes were on the watch: feeling the smell of blood (literally), they threw to the poor soldier like a black cloud with the sound of approaching jet.

This entry was posted in Arctic Summer, Outdoor Activities, Wandering and tagged Arctic Summer, flora in the tundra, fun outdoor, Midnight Sun, mosquitos, tundra.

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