Life Of The River Ghosts

careassaktart(69)

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Life Of The River Ghosts

People were always living of Nature & what Nature provides no matter how much we think that we can separate & detach ourselves from the Mother Nature - it is just an illusion. We are ever-connected! As we developed technology which in multiple different way easies our lives, we abandon some areas or depopulate & move to other places, populate & affect them.

The river's name is "Rječina"

Rječina is the biggest river in my area, around Rijeka & Kvarner region, North-West of Croatia. It is a very important drinkable water source for the local communities but also the source of electricity with only 1 hydro power plant installed & runing. There were many watermills installed & running in the past of which only 1 survived exactly in Martinovo selo where one of the dams is built & you can see it on the upper & the photo under. The mill is on the right from the strong waterfall towards the stream is turned to & now it's just a museum. Rječina is still naturally pretty preserved ecosystem with life still thriving in & around the river cause all the manufacturing & industry moved away closer to the sea & Rijeka port, where this river ends pouring itself into the Adriatic sea.

There is a man-made barrier in the river which make the stream slow down & also turn into the wanted direction. In this example these barrier have lost their purpose cause there is nothing the serve for but at least they make nice waterfalls.

I the last 5 years I have started coming more often to Rječina in search for edible mushrooms & plants & since than I have explored the area pretty well but I believe there is much more to discover! I was never attracted to swim in this river cause it is always extremely cold, till this year.

Threat

This summer there was a nice event held on the river shore for the occasion of warning the interested public about the crazy project that the local government is reawakening & thinking of building the huge second dam to collect more drinkable water & make more electricity. It is called (capitalist) greed.

This is the place where the art-activist event was held & it is also the place where I like to come for a swim. Usually, the stream runs much faster here but at the moment I took the photos the water level was low & the stream was slow.

The industrial project which would completely destroy the ecosystem & sink some beautiful traditional villages on the shores of the river was planned 50-60 years ago, in the time when Croatia was part of Yugoslavia. The reason why it was not built than is because there was no need to - the same reason is today! We don't need it! We have sufficient energy already but have only this one river pearl which we would loose in case of building the dam.

Just look how beautiful it is!

Solution

Anyway, there are some similar examples recently made in Serbia & Bosnia where the government managed to destroy few rivers until the people found the way how to stop the destruction. Both in Serbia & Bosnia the government captured the similar size rivers into the huge pipes with turbines which produce a small quantity of power & the projects are totally not payable & not efficient. Finally, the people, the activists & even the scientists in Serbia lobbied & protested to stop the further destruction & succeeded. I'm not sure if they also managed to reverse the process, break the pipes & let out the few rivers which were already captured but you can probably do your own research if you are interested.

In Bosnia, I find the example even more interesting! Recently, I went to Visoko, Bosnia to check out the biggest pyramids in the world & met with a friend-colleague that I haven't seen for more than 10 years. His name is Ivica. While we were catching up, he introduced me with his youngest daughter & they played the traditional Bosnian wooden flutes together for me. This was very touching & special. A sight that can hardly be seen in Balkans anymore. Anyway, at some point I mentioned the rivers in pipes in Serbia & Ivica told me that they did the same bullshit in Bosnia but than people started protesting & managed also to stop the further destruction. The way how they do is fascinating: On the protest, women stepped 1st forward against the police & the security guys at the site where they wanted to start digging with heavy machinery. The men stood in the background, behind the women with all their mobile phones recording the police & security guys trying to use force against the women & remove all the protesters. But the women didn't back down so some of the enforcers kicked one of the woman & everybody recorded it & later on published around the internet. This immediately stopped all the projects.

The women are very powerful in this world & they can make men stop doing all the shit we do to each other & the planet. So, girls, be brave & save the world, please!

Back To Nature

In the last 2 weeks it was very hot in Croatia. I usually use this time to have sun & sea baths, enjoying the seaside. But also the beaches are overcrowded with tourist coming from all over the world so I wasn't fond of this idea. Also this summer Adriatic sea is strangely dirty & polluted & too warm for my taste so I carefully choose where & when I go for a bath. Fortunately, nearby the place I live, we have this beautiful river which is much colder & cleaner than the sea this year & I've chosen it for a refreshment. Actually, I went there 2 days in a row. 1st day I had forgotten to take my camera but the 2nd I took it & made some nice shots:

I started the shooting trying to catch the Sun beams piercing the forest all the way down to the river surface.

Actually, I wanted to catch the river haze appearing at dusk.

Finally, it came down in all of its magnificent appearance!

I managed to create several great long exposures.

I also turned the camera around to shoot what is behind me...

...& captured the haze slowly move away in the distance.

The spirits of the river are staging a show almost every evening above the surface performing the gentle, cold, spooky, whitish dance so attractive to my eyes. The ghosts of the past, of so many people who used to live of the river, generations, farmers, fishermen or lumberjacks, children playing or lovers loving, maybe also their cattle & shepherd dogs, wild animals, bears, wolves, deer, fish, frogs & snakes... I just hope the river will keep flowing & never become a ghost itself, just the far memory of the future generations. I hope it will keep staging this ghost dance!

The upper photos I made with Nikon Z6 & the self-portrait below I made with Nikon D800. For all I used Nikon AF Nikkor 35-70 mm.