2004-08-26 - Great fishing
24 Aug, 04
Overcast, occasional rains, 6°C to 18°C, light winds from pretty much all directions, camp pitched on an island at N 62°30´05.6 E 151°41´31.3.
All counted, we caught 16 fine graylings by flyfishing during a mere couple of hours yesterday. Only flies with green colors seems to do. This morning when we checked the net, we had caught 3 big graylings, half a kilo each, 2 big whittlings and 2 big pikes. We salted and grilled the heavenly graylings, fried them in oil and woked them together with onion and pasta for breakfast. Heavenly taste! The whittlingfillets we rubbed in oil, lemonpeppar and garlic and grilled them hard and ate for lunch together with mashed potato. The bony pikes, we gave to the local birds. Which we will continue to do until times get harder again!
The fishing during these past 3 days on this Paradise Island, have been far more successful than expected. We´ve probably even been able to put on a few needed kilos of lost weight again! The hard work up until now have for sure taken 7-8 kg of those 16 additional I put on before leaving and maybe all of Johans. He´s well thinner, although healthy and muscular, but constantly hungry. This situation we´re experiencing when we at times work very hard and get far to little to eat, is not new to me. I´ve already mentally and physically adapted and in comparison I suffer very little. Physically. On top of that, I can with no doubt at all, say that my of experts criticized experiment with 16 kg;s of extra weight/fat, have been a winner. If I compare with my former Expeditions, I handle the cold better and suffer from hunger much less.
In reality, all of this first part of the Expedition, is thought to be part of preparing for this extreme winter to come. First of all, we slowly adapt the Russian-Siberian culture and ways to think and behave, which will help us a lot when times get harder. Secondly, we work up an almost perfectionist way to handle our equipment, where to find firewood plus learn the geography of the region and the workings of this environment. And by living and working outdoor all the time, we raise our tolerance to handle the extreme cold by the day.
Many people believe that it is possible to physically store resistance to cold, but this is scientifically and biologically impossible. There´s no doubt that people have different levels of metabolism which gives them different degrees in how to tolerate cold, but the big real difference is how well a person can learn to adapt to cold and tolerate it. It can´t be had genetically with birth and it can´t be stored over many years in the cold, as I´ve heard many people believe. In fact, 2-3 weeks after we return back home from the Expedition, we will have lost all of our tolerance and have to start all over again! For example, a chuckchi of this area, who have handled this extreme cold all his life, would suffer the same consequence if he came back with us to Sweden! At this stage though, meeting him here, his tolerance to cold will be better, but we will be able to get the same resistance in this short space of time. Such is the human body! Especially if we can keep our extra fat! Therefore we will probably stay for an additional fourth day and catch a few more graylings!
The reason for me breaching this subject, is due to all the emails we´ve received. This is what we´ve learned during our research in to cold up until know. Before we encounteer the extreme cold... |
