Day 1. Running wild from the smoky air of the megalopolis.

 The trip to the north where Europe’s longest river is boasting its greatness was not planned which is what I adore: no expectations, no waiting, no planning. So I put a tent into the boot of my car and left Moscow early morning. The road was almost free so the stifling city air was left behind quite soon.

 It is not my first time here on the islands still the reminiscence about my previous trips have become quite dull and dim. And the new impressions make the memory flash and tremble because of the greatness of what has been left behind.  After three-hour driving I arrived at a small village with a quay where I was supposed to leave the car and continued my trip to the islands on a boat. A sturdy sunburnt chap was waiting for me on the quay, a typical Russian fellow a bit grey-haired but still robust and young in the heart. He met me with a shining white smile and put my things into the boat.  His boat was equipped with a reconstructed car engine from Russian Zaporozhets and its sound was spreading over the surface. It frightened a flock of gulls resting on the transparent water of Russia’s mother-river and they flew up and filled the air with their calls.

  

 The time stops here. Its run can’t be estimated with seconds and minutes, its only measure is your own feelings and emotions. 

 Cowberries and blueberries were covering the island and the shadow from the pines was favouring me with the wished cool. Finally the tent was set and the warm waters of the river touched my toes. What can be better than a touch of such a magnificent and enormous organism living its own life through epochs?

 The sound of the fire burning and turning logs into ash, the calm rumble of the boats passing by, the whisper of the pines striving up and up to touch the brim of the sky.  I am sitting now on a log near the water and feel the inspiration the landscape presents me. It washes out all the troubles, problems and dark thoughts. It grants reincarnation and makes you forever young.

Some people say that a day or two can change nothing in your life. Indeed. Go to the native and you’ll fall in love with what it gives. Calmness. Harmony. Love.