Ladoga is the biggest lake in Europe, as far as I know. It is a wonderful example of Northern nature. For me, it is an amazing masterpiece created by Mother Nature. The nature is typical to what North Europe can suggest, but the landscapes are quite different -- from plainy sandy southern coast to mountainous, rocky, wooded and skerry north coast.
This northern coast (also known as Ladoga skerries) is my favourite place to travel, we try to make a family trip there every year (5, 7, 10 days... how much it happens possible).
1991 was the 1st time I have been there on excursion (I was a silly student by the time!), and 2006 it was the 1st time when I travelled there with my wife. In 2006-2008 we used to take boat trips. The pics I use in this post, are from the 2007 travel. We have a big team of friends and rented two sail boats (with captains lended as a bonus, haha). But these details I guess are excessive for this story.
Let me show some beautiful landscapes of a northern nature that made me fell in love with it.
This feeling of onness with Universe is fantastic!
Granites that formed this landscape are very ancient - about 2-3 billion years. Glaciers have turned them into little plain mountains, smooth like a melted icecream -- which I love a lot.
It is unspeakable pleasure to step on those ice-cream smooth ancient rocks.
Its a slender and harsh land. The species diversity is small - very few plants can grow and successfully survive on such barren rocks. First of all, these are mosses and lichens, and also succulents. Speaking of trees, these are primarily pines. And in June, we witnessed gigantic fields of wild violets. Beautiful! I never saw nature being so slender -- and beautiful.
Разнообразие видов невелико - немногие могут расти и успешно выживать на таких бесплодных скалах. В первую очередь, это мхи и лишайники, и еще суккуленты. Говоря о деревьях, это в первую очередь сосны.
Once we witnessed an intresting sort of a 'rounded rainbow' - Halo. The 1st and last time in my life.
On one of the islands where our boats moored, we saw an amazing picture - a whole field of fluff from a blossoming willow. It was in early June, the stones and the ground covered with a white layer looked luxurious - like a blanket of snow!
На одном из островов, куда причаливали наши лодки, мы увидели удивительную картину - целое поле пуха от цветущей ивы. Это было в начале июня, камни и земля покрытая белым слоем, выглядела роскошно -- как снежное одеяло!
The blossoming willow's fluff. Real snow in June!
I still remember our surprise, I was enchanted by that sight, one of the strongest memories about that travel!
To be continued!
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| location: | Ladoga, Karelia, Russia | June 2007 | natural lighting |
| camera/lens: | Canon 350D | 50mm | raw-conv. |
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