Tourists Float on Ice Floe in Arctic Lake

In August, the Lovozero Tundra (Murmansk Region, Kola Peninsula) can suddenly plunge you into an almost Arctic landscape: cliffs and dark water all around, with snow and ice still lying on a mountain lake. That is exactly where Daria Makarenko from Moscow and her friends decided to test whether a slab of snow and ice could serve as a paddleboard — and to try out the icy water. The trip was also special for her five-month-old Australian Shepherd, Joy, who saw snow for the first time there. Below is her first-person account.

Snow in August and Joy«s first snow

We found the ice in the Lovozero Tundra during a trip around the Kola Peninsula. I have been studying the Russian North for quite a while and travel extensively there: Karelia, Teriberka, Rybachy and Sredny, the Kola Peninsula. The more time I spend here, the more I understand how vast, diverse and utterly unlike the grey and harsh land it is often imagined to be the North actually is.

At some point we reached a mountain lake surrounded by cliffs, where real snowfields and ice were still lying in August.

The contrast is what strikes you most. You realize it is still summer on the calendar, yet an almost Arctic landscape stretches before you: dark water, enormous cliffs, fog, snow and ice. It feels as if a few hours of driving have moved you into another season.

Then we saw a fairly large slab of snow and ice on the water — and the idea came almost immediately: «What if we try using it instead of a SUP board?»

The place looks completely surreal. Huge grey cliffs and scattered stones all around, very dark mountain water, fog, and amid all of it — white, in places greenish, slabs of snow and ice.

This was not a thin crust of ice — rather massive snow-and-ice slabs had survived, some so large and dense that you could stand on them. It was on one of them that we decided to try «paddling» with an oar.

There was another very warm moment for me there. Joy travels with us — my five-month-old Australian Shepherd — and it was in the Lovozero Tundra that she saw snow for the first time in her life.

Usually a puppy encounters its first snow in winter somewhere near home, but Joy met it in August in the middle of the mountains. She ran through it, examined it, tried to understand what it even was. Since her earliest days she has had a rather unusual geography of first impressions.

How the ice floe became an improvised SUP board

It was completely spontaneous. No one came to the Lovozero Tundra with a plan to definitely swim in an icy mountain lake.

First we saw a large snow-and-ice slab and jokingly decided to check whether it could be used as an improvised SUP board. We took an oar — and the idea that had started as a joke unexpectedly turned out to be quite feasible.

Then came the urge to test the water. This is probably that very moment on a trip when you realize there may simply be no second chance like it. You are in the middle of the Lovozero Tundra, snow lies all around, it is August on the calendar, and you want not just to look at this place but to truly experience it.

The water really was icy. This is not even the usual cool water of a northern lake in summer — the cold hits almost instantly and very sharply.

So everything happened fairly quickly. In such water you certainly do not feel like a long swim: you plunge in, get your share of impressions and head off to warm up.

But in the moment, emotions really do override the cold. You are in the middle of the mountains, snow lies around you, remnants of ice float nearby — and the awareness of where you are right now seems far stronger than the physical discomfort.

This is probably one of the reasons we love such trips so much: sometimes a few seconds of a completely crazy decision turn into a story you remember for years.

In our group, spontaneous ideas during trips are already taken fairly calmly.

We generally travel in exactly this format: we are interested not just in arriving at a famous spot, taking a photo and leaving, but in exploring a place, turning off the obvious routes and finding something unusual.

So no one seriously tried to talk us out of it. Though a person with an oar on an ice floe in the middle of a mountain lake is quite a funny sight.

Showing the North that is hard to believe in

I film our trips a lot and talk about them in my blog, so the camera is almost always at hand. I am interested in showing not only famous landmarks but also everything that actually makes up a trip: the road, the weather, chance discoveries, animals, people and completely unplanned adventures.

Another heroine of these trips is Joy. She is only five months old now, but she already travels with us around the North and is gradually becoming a full part of my blog.

I like watching and showing these places also through her first impressions: first big journeys, first mountains, first encounters with wildlife, and now the first snow of her life, which unexpectedly came in August in the Lovozero Tundra.

For me, one of the main goals of the blog is to show people the true beauty of the Russian North. I have already been to many places here, but the more I explore it, the more I understand how many incredible places still lie ahead.

Sometimes we look at photos of Iceland, Norway or other far-off countries and think that is exactly where we need to go for the feeling of a real expedition. And then you find yourself on the Kola Peninsula and see before you a landscape whose existence is hard to believe.

I want to break the idea of the North as something exclusively cold, grey and unwelcoming. In fact, it is incredibly diverse: there are mountains, tundra, beaches, waterfalls, the ocean, utterly otherworldly landscapes — and even snow in the middle of August.

So of course we filmed the ice-floe moment. We did not even have to invent a plot specially for the video: when someone in August takes an oar and sets off across a mountain lake on a real ice floe, the plot has already written itself.

About tourists in the Arctic

Earlier we told the story of how a family from St. Petersburg arranged an active holiday in the Arctic.

Read about what struck residents of Kirov in the Murmansk Region. Travelers from all corners of Russia, as well as from other countries, come to the Murmansk Region and share their impressions.

The author of the blog «Travels Through the Backcountry» strolled through quiet Arctic settlements and showed atmospheric shots. We also told what impressed an artist from Yoshkar-Ola in the Murmansk Region.

A tourist from Novosibirsk gave recommendations to those planning a trip to the North, while a resident of St. Petersburg honestly described her journey to the Arctic.

A Chinese woman named Lulu came to Murmansk for the northern lights and described her adventures in a video. In addition, the Murmansk Region became a place of power for a photographer from Veliky Novgorod.

A resident of Arkhangelsk set off to discover the winter Khibiny Mountains. A tourist from Voronezh showed colorful photos from his trip to the North, and a family from Cherepovets came to the Arctic in a motorhome.

We also told how a photographer from Vologda reached the Murmansk Region in a 38-year-old car. And a Moscow artist, inspired by the Arctic, painted a series of canvases.