It is with extremely heavy heart that we have to cancel week 2 on the Varzuga system. Whilst the water in front of the lodge appears to grow each day it's not getting it's job done fast enough and putting clients in this situation would be the wrong thing to do. The river up above the village is still solid and whilst it will likely break this week it needs a good 5-6 days to clear itself of ice and drop back to a fishing level.
As with last week, the majority of clients have elected to roll over their fishing to next year (in which case we take care of all of their costs in 2018) or exercise their right to a full refund including fishing, charter, hotel, visa and flights. Everyone here is disappointed and deflated by the news but nature is a powerful adversary and no where more so than in the arctic circle.
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| Getting there but not quickly enough |
This is the first time in 26 years that we have had to cancel the second week of the season and our Russian friends continue to shake their heads as to the spring we have had - truly remarkable and we all hope it is a one off.
We are now regretting having rushed all our jobs earlier in the week. Whilst there are always things to do it's pretty much up together. We are therefore going to try to get someone to drive us out to the coast at Kuzomen for a picnic and a change of scene.
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| Lucy inspects the church spire production line |
Yesterday we headed to the village with "tomatoes" on the shopping list but in truth the shopping list is created to get everyone out and about and doing exercise. In the village we met up with Ivan, one of the young guides from Middle. He was loading up a hovercraft to take equipment up to camp. He greeted us warmly and seemed pretty jolly considering the conditions.
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| Ivan chats to Donna about middle |
Toby managed a bit of sledging on the steep slope from the school which conveniently has a good set of stairs to get you back to the top quickly.
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| Despite appearance he was really shifting |
We finally had a snow ball fight which seemed to centre round the park benches only just now above the snow.
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| Iona and Lucy look on as Donna fights back |
We had a delicious pork dish served up by Iona and then had another laughter filled night. It might just be cabin fever turning us hysterical but I am not able to distinguish this anymore. That said we were all in bed by 10 past 11 so hardly a big party.
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| A little fly tying last night |
More tomorrow when a fly might have had a swim in the river.
Jack Selby
