by Maitane Iturrate
August 8, 2013
Tomorrow, we are leaving Kytalyk. It seems that it was yesterday when we arrived by boat, but five weeks have gone. The last week has been specially stressing. As Angela Gallagher told us: “the last week, you will be running as chicks”. And that is exactly what I have been doing all week: running and running, trying to finish everything. Thanks to this and to Bingxi Li, my nickname among the people in Kytalyk and IBPC is “the crazy Spanish”. I haven’t been able to do everything I wanted, and I have lots of data for the winter. After finishing the measurements of plant traits at plot scale, I started with plant traits at individual scale. Now, I have an important “library” of leaf optical properties and plant architecture for all the species in my plots.
Betula nana branch from one of the ridge plots (Photo: M. Iturrate, August 2013).
Betula nana branch from one of the ridge plots (Photo: M. Iturrate, August 2013).
As today is the last day, I have to do something that I promised to the master student from the Netherlands, Judith. It is twenty minutes before dinner time. The air temperature is 13.7°C, and we are ready for it: swimming in the river Berelech (water temperature: 12.1°C). Before having time for changing my mind and while Judith and Inge are taking off the winter clothes, I jump into the water. First, the feeling of not having enough air to breath, then the feeling of thousands of needles in your skin, after that a throat as if you were eating ice, and then, just time to enjoy. It is really great. But it is dinner time, so after only five minutes, we have to go.
From left to right: Inge, Judith and “the crazy Spanish” swimming in the river Berelech (Photo: J. Limpens, August 2013).
The Kytalyk farewell dinner is great, even better than lunch (reindeer soup): Buckwheat with chicken, fish eggs with garlic and Lena’s famous fish pie. It will be weird not having any more this kind of meals or not sharing them with the same people anymore.
August 9, 2013
Leaving Kytalyk
It is one o’clock in the afternoon and we are still waiting for leaving Kytalyk. Our flight is at 16.20 hrs, we have two hours by boat to Chokurdakh, and the boat driver and Artiom are still trying to repair the fuel generator. We haven’t had electricity for the last two days. Finally, they decide to take the generator to Chokurdakh, so at 13.30h we are finally on the boat. We have contradictory feelings: we are really happy because in a few days we will be at home (and, in my case, enjoying the Spanish summer for two weeks), but, at the same time, we are a bit sad. It has been a great experience. I learned lots of new things and I have many new experiences. Everything here is magnified, especially feelings are really intense. Lots of work and little free time, but I don’t complain about that, it was really nice work for the first time with these tiny plant species. The only “problem” is the small progress of my cardigan.
Cardigan knitting progress in Kytalyk (Photo: I. Juszak, August 2013).
At last, in Chokurdakh. The trip by boat has been a bit shaking and uncomfortable, but we are again back to civilization. We have not enough time to enjoy it because we are a bit late for our flight, so just time for throwing our luggage in the back of the van and directly to the airport. The flight is not delayed, so after carrying our luggage to the plane and helping to load it into the plane, we take-off at 16.20h. This time, we get two window seats and nobody next to us. Unluckily, the weather is too cloudy to enjoy the views during the whole flight, only the last hour and a half is quite O.K.
Ready to land in Yakutsk (Photo: M. Iturrate, August 2013).
We land in Yakutsk after three hours of flight. Again, we have to help to unload our luggage from the plane. When we arrive at the terminal, a smiley familiar face is waiting for us. Wasja is waving his hands, as friendly as always. We made lots of plans for our stay in Yakutsk, including two showers every day, at least. But instead of going to the accommodation, Wasja brings us to Spasskaya Pad research station in order to dry my vegetation samples before leaving the country, so second shaking trip of the day, but this time by car!