Sunday 20th June 2010
Sunday morning and for that matter, the rest of Sunday, brought back memories of NZ a quarter of a century ago I suppose. Then nothing except the dairies opened on Sunday. Perhaps it was further back that 25 years. But it was a time I can remember. Lower Hutt's main street would be empty on a Sunday.
Well, today I discovered that Kirkenes is the same as time past in NZ.
I could see from the hotel window that the town was quiet, but I went out to have a look. Where would I get lunch or what would I have for lunch. I had not prepared for this yesterday. Well, I wandered up and down the two or three short streets that have any shops. All closed as was the nearest supermarket. Ah, I thought, I expect that the little shopping mall would be open and there is a coffee bar there. No sir- all closed for the day.
So I filled in time wandering around the wharf area looking at rusting Russian fishing boats and a few that were not rusty. But that didn't take up much time really. This is a small town. I had intended to go to church in the big Lutheran building behind the main street. However, no service. Apparently they rotate around between a couple or three Lutheran churches because of a shortage of ministers to run each one every Sunday.
Around town there were obvious tourists wandering with maps and cameras out. I think they could have come in this morning on the coastal ferry. That arrived daily and leaves three hours later. It carried passengers but is essentially a working cargo boat, carrying cars trucks and goods essential for life in the north. There were a few sightseeing buses driving around at a crawling pace, I guess that was to make the tour seem longer? In the square visitors were occupying all the seats.
So that was the situation. But I had lunch. I went back to the hotel and got out an oat bar and a banana. I drew on my 'emergency' supply of Nescafe. Was I pleased to have bought this on Friday. And that was lunch. Later in the afternoon a small dairy type of shop opened. Nothing that I could use for tea though. No microwave meals in fact no real food at all. So I had a hotdog to keep the 'wolf from the door'. A brave and courageous hotdog I would think.
The rain came. Kirkenes only gets 300 mm or precipitation a year. Some of came today.
At 4:30 pm I was due to go on a tour up the Pasvik Valley. This runs right along the border for 200 kms. Right on time, Samuel Zurcher from Pasvikturist drove up in the mini bus. There were four Dutch folk on board and I completed the group.We headed off with a visit to the viewpoint to over look the town. Pity it was raining. We drove on out of town with Samuel explaining about the history of the town, about the iron ore mining and other points of interest. He pointed out a simple two bedroom double house (two units in the one building) for sale and suggested that you would need 500,000 Euros to purchase it. He rents an apartment of 50 square metres and pays 1000 Euros per month. So accommodation is expensive in Norway, just like everything else is.
As we drove up the Pasvik Valley we came up to the Long Fjord and drove along side for several kilometres. The fjord is 25 kms long. So on the other side of the road we began to drive beside the Pasvik River. Much of this was in the form of a hydro dam lake. It looked quite pretty through the birch trees. All the while we are keeping our eyes open looking for brown bears, moose, reindeer, lynx or anything. Partly to keep us happy I think, Samuel pointed out a group of 4 to 6 cows in a field. Oh; and a moose warning road sign. He was a friendly and informative driver guide. He had only lived in the area for three or so years but I was impressed with the amount of local knowledge he had. Of course he would have to build it up quickly if he was going to be a stand in driver.
Except for the fjord and river/lake, most of the rest of the landscape was tree covered. Much was the same as I have been seeing through my travels from Finland onwards. Height is shorter but the composition of the vegetation is fairly similar – silver birch, alder and others. By the time we reached the turn round point we had come into conifer forest. This is the western extension of the great Russian Taiga which runs right across the top of the continent from Siberia. I felt that it was rather special to finally be in this area. I have known about it from my days as a high school student, then in my university Geography courses. So to actually be in the Taiga did seem a memorable moment.
We called into an old Cold War look out tower, Tower 69. Here I was able to climb a series of steep steps or really ladder like stairs up inside the enclosed tower. At the top was a small viewing platform from which we could see 360 degree view of tress rivers and lakes and across the river, Russia. In the distance were the billowing tall chimneys of the Russian city of Nickel, where they are mining and processing – yes, nickel ore. On my trip into Murmansk I recall the area around the city as being all black and the buildings the same. Quite depressing. Daniel said that he had gone into Murmansk in winter and all the snow around Nickel was black. Fortunately the prevailing winds blow the pollution eastward and over Russia.
At the tower was a tiny gift shop, but more importantly a friendly happy young woman with excellent English. Her job was to cook up lovely waffles which we had with strawberry jam and cream. Also coffee. This was included in the tour cost. I enjoyed it. We also chatted and she thought I was the first New Zealander who she had met at the tower. She mentioned that she like watching NZ TV programmes which are running quite often on a new Norwegian channel. (Channel 4).
Samuel mentioned later that the young woman was his boss's daughter. He also showed us his boss's log house along the road. Big and impressive in a log cabin sort of way. It was double story and was on the lake front surrounded by trees.
In fact there were lots of houses of all sorts nestled in amongst the trees. Most are the weekend cottages of city dwellers. All looked in attractive spots. But there are around 3000 permanent residents scattered around the area, altho0ugh just where was difficult to say. They have a strong sense of community and even have their own supermarket – small but it was there.
We stopped at a special church, constructed out of logs and without the use of nails. It was something that the Russians wanted to retain when the boarder line was defined. So a small area of land around the church remains Russian. In exchange they gave Norway a much larger area of land on the northern shoreline. One of the Dutch men with us went upstairs and began to play on the small pipe organ. He plays be ear and natural ability. I thought he did very well. His partner, she explained that they were both widows and good friends, called out for him to play 'Count Your Blessings' which she said was a very special song to her. She seemed impressed when I added more of the words of the old Gospel song.
We stopped at the information centre which was attractively set out and had a quick 20 minute walk through the displays. It was not large and 20 minutes was about right, well perhaps 25 minutes would have been best, but it did depend on the amount of interest the group would show.
The border is still tightly controlled. Samuel said that there were about 200 border watchers on the Norwegian side but 2000 on the Russian side. We had stopped at a sign which gave the rules for being at the border. One was that you could not use more than a 200 mm zoom lens and no tripod. However, 200 mm on a digital can be quite different to 200 mm in a film camera. We also stood beside a border marker post on the lakeside. It was about 3 meters tall and painted in yellow. In the distance we could see another.
And so back to the empty bleak and somewhat wet town centre. The fast food van next to the hotel was closed but a couple others were open in the square just across the road, more or less.
So dinner tonight was a burger with fries (pom frites). It was fresh and not over cooked and it was filling. Coffee and a banana completed the meal.
It is 11 pm now and I am watching the evening sky. The clouds are lifting a bit but no real sign of the sun. Perhaps tonight will not be a viewing time.
The brightest aspect of the day was NZ All Whites holding Italy to a one all draw. How amazing is that!
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