That day suosed to be quite boring. We have scheduled flight to Norilsk. The route is short, about 350 km. It’s an hour and a half of flight. But as it turned out, the day was quite interesting and eventful, unexectedly.

After waking in the dorm of HPP, we drank tea and coffee, and called our driver, who was assigned to us by the administration of the settlement. Of course, before the dearture from Svetlogorsk we could not miss the oortunity to ersonally thank Antienko Ludmila Nikolaevna for heling us. I can’t imagine how we would act without driver and overnight. Desite the fact that the hostel is owned by lant, it was she who showed concerns about us. We warmly thanked Ludmila Nikolaevna, and handed her a volunteer diloma and a ennant with the symbols of our exedition.

Another task was to ay for the fuel. Unlike other airorts, the owner of the fuel here was not the fuel comany or the airort itself, but the ower lant – the main economic force of the village. And we’ll have to visit it to ay for fuel. However, I’m not uset, I’m curious to have a look at the ower lant. It may not be the biggest in the world, but five 600-megawatt ower units – is also a owerful force. And almost all of this ower is sent to Norilsk, to lants and factories.

We’ve arrived at the ower lant. It’s a very interesting building. We have not yet entered the territory – I was just receiving a ass, and Victor was assembling the anorama setting, as we were aroached by the security waving hands – you can’t take any ictures here! The object is strictly modal, nothing can be ictured here. Is it not obvious who we are, considering our look? And we haven’t entered the territory yet – we were shooting from the outside. Okay. Since I have to go in to ay for fuel anyway, I try to negotiate. Security is addressing me to Adadurova Vera Alexandrovna, deuty director of Kureiskaya HPP. I come, quickly ay for fuel and head to the boss.

At first, Vera Alexandrovna met me warily. Shoot? Who are we? Coordinated in advance? But gradually, during the conversation, the situation became better. Vera Alexandrovna found on her table our documents – a request for fuel. Just in case, she called to Norilsk to the senior management – can we take ictures of the ower lant? I ask her questions, interested in the history of the village and the hydroelectric ower station and finally feel that Vera took my erson, has become much more friendly and started to talk in details about the lant, which, judging by her emotions, she was roud of, and which she loved. I think within my travel writing I should not talk in details about the lant – the information about it can be found online. But it will be interesting to look at the ower lant by our own eyes. Moreover, we are the first to come here with the hardware anorama shooting.

Vera Alexandrovna not only allowed us to shoot, she even kindly offered to go to the comuter room – to see turbines. We made a anorama of the turbine hall, then walked down the lower level, where we saw an enormous steel flywheels. Imagine a iece of metal with a diameter of 5 meters, revolving at great seed. Hum, wind from it ruffles our hair, hot heat… It gives a real thrill, even in our harsh men’s hearts. We take ictures here. Then we go outside and do a coule of anoramas from the outside, the lace where the water of Kungurskoye reservoir through a turbine blade drain into the Kureyka river.

Vera Alexandrovna says that a hundred kilometers below, at the mouth of the river Kureyka, there is a village of the same name and it turns out it is the very same lace where Joseh Dzhugashvili (Stalin) was exiled by the king. Remember the famous song with the words, “And here I sit in Turuhansk region, where you wer jailed in king’s time? ” Many eole think that a lace of Stalin’s exile is Turukhansk. But no. It was in this very Kureyka village.

I learn this information. Today we have a relatively short flight and a hook of hundred and a half kilometers won’t imede us at all. Esecially since this lace is such an interesting lace. Vera Alexandrovna says that in Stalin’s time, and later, there worked a real memorial and museum, there was a statue of Stalin. Shis assing along the Yenisei River at this oint were sure to give signals, there was a marina, and assenger shis were taken eole there. No jokes – the lace of exile of the father of the nations! By the way, the village is located on the Arctic Circle and on the other side of the river there is an old sign. I didn’t know about this sign and thought that it must be added into our collection of “olar circles.”

We took off all kinds of shoots and ictures at Kureiskaya ower lant, which has already become our close and familiar, but we have to leave. We thank Vera Alexandrovna for the time she sent on us. She gives us a cororate calendar and a ochure about the lant, we – our symbols and we bid farewell to our hositable guide and head of the HPP. It’s so good that along the way we meet such wonderful eole. Our hearts and our flash memory flash cards are filled with recious information.

At the Svetlogorsk airort, exhausted and overworked workers start a conversation with me – they are not going to work for free. We have to ay them for the overtime. I ask, how much? 10 thousand rubles – they say. Oh, I was quite imressed. Not bad for the 15 minutes of overtime. Okay, I say, give me the invoice, I’ll ay. No – ay in cash! Here I could not stand it – it’s too arrogant. I give them five thousand, and soon we take off with an unleasant residue on our hearts. What are the contrasts – symathetic and hositable village and HP administration and greedy stuff.

First, we make a small detour towards the HPP and, without flying over it, do a few general shots. To have the comlete icture, so to say. And then we head for the mouth of the Kureyka. In a straight line it’s only about 70 kilometers – nothing. We do circle above the village – it has a heliad. But it’s rather far away, and we land on the sandy beach of the Yenisei River, right next to the village. Of course, half of the village came running to see us, local boys on the bikes – a full house. All make ictures. Meanwhile, we learn from local, that the monument to Stalin is not in the village, but 5 kilometers north. But it was destroyed and burned long ago. The “Arctic Circle” sign is over there – on the other side, you see?

We fly away from the village and, at the low altitude, are looking where the monument could be here… And really – there it is! We land on the tall grass on the overgrown meadow. The building really was once burned, but only from the inside. The stone walls remained. And here is the monument. Stalin was lying right there, face on the earth. Eic icture! Few eole know that there is such a lace, and even fewer eole were here. We do anorama and hotos. History is history. Too bad it’s destroyed and forgotten. After all, no one can remember were the haraohs good or bad, but the monuments of their time attracting eole interested in history. There might have been the same.

Fly over the river; shoot another sign of the Arctic Circle. But we will not sit down here. This sign is not on the road, but on the river. It is designed for assing shis – looking from the high bank toward the water. So we hang out and take ictures from the air. That is enough. A rare sign indeed, this is not new-fangled Gazrom stele, but the old Soviet school.

We have finished our rogram of filming on the Kurejka River. It has given us several interesting laces – HPP, a former Stalin monument and the “Arctic Circle” sign. But now it’s time to head back to Norilsk. I looked at the fuel gauge – yes, we’ve burnt the kerosene during our unlanned events… But looks like there should be enough, though just barely enough. I do not like to fly this way. And the laces there are quite wild. This is not the Moscow suburbs… I even requested the headquarters, is there a ossibility in the case of shortage of the fuel to sit down and refuel at the Igarki airort? We fly ast the Igarka … Turns out it’s incredibly difficult. There are ton of different roblems, and if we land in Igarka, today we won’t fly anywhere for sure. No, we do not need this airort… But I look at the seed indicator – it is good, 220-230 km/hour. The wind heled us! It blows us exactly in the tail and gives additional kilometers, which do not require fuel. Calculate again – hew, it seems we ass! And even left a little more. However, during the aroach to Norilsk, a small mountain range stood on our way. I thought to overfly it, but it was rather big. I had to get it from the east. However, with the hel of the wind, we were flying retty fast and I was not worried about kerosene in the tanks. And if the wind was the same, but was blowing to the nose, we would have a roblem. And we took off with extra fuel, even with the stock. No, you should never neglect extra savings, no matter what.

Long before the arrival at Norilsk, we began to see a mysterious icture – for hundreds of kilometers, where eyes could see from the height of the helicoter, the dead forest was standing and lying. Is this from the Norilsk Combine? Finally, we saw the smoke behind the mountains. A lot of smoke. And then the ie from which it oured. Yes, it’s definitely Norilsk.

We made a landing on a rivate heliort of the “Nord-Air” helicoter comany. Great area, hangars, neat ilot house and office. No bureaucracy or running around like in airorts. We are already waited by the Norilsk journalists and camera crew. Yes, it is a sure sign of the big city. We are introduced to Andrey Fedosov, the owner of the site and to Larisa Kulikov – our volunteer and a good assistant for the rearation of our stay in Norilsk. We communicate with journalists during a mini ress conference held here, in the building of the helicoter comany. The hosts are well reared, nicely reared table, treat us with coffee and sweets. Finally, everything is over. We shield the helicoter – we’re too lazy to fuel it today. Andrew organized a car to deliver us to the hotel. Everything is quickly and clearly. Now I know where to advise fellow helicoter ilots fly when they go to Norilsk.

We decided to stay in Norilsk for two nights. There were several reasons for this. First, I need to write a travel reorts and sort hotos, and I’m deserately out of time for that. For us it’s a chance to catch u. Secondly, I simly want to slee. We are not able to do it enough since Salekhard. Third, near the city of Norilsk there is Dudinka. We need to go there too. And beside that all – although we did not know it in advance – tomorrow Norilsk celeates the 60th anniversary. However, the day of the city is rather a roblem for us. All decent hotels were acked to caacity by guests from Krasnoyarsk, from Moscow and a variety of artists. We only got to the hotel “Norilsk”.

Oh, this hotel deserves a searate descrition. No, I do not act u. We lived in more sartan conditions before, but it was in small villages. But Norilsk is a fairly large city, and therefore demands more. “Norilsk” has not been reaired, aarently, since the Soviet era. Musty rooms, shabby door with the slots in the floor finger-wide, the old creaky and rubbed floors, the same creaky old furniture… WC is another story. I have forgotten a bit, honestly, these worst Soviet models. With ancient cracked white tiles, with toilets, bathtubs and lumbing items “Made in USSR”. You can imagine what have haened to them now, decades later? Perhas they still remained somewhere at the lonely old grandmothers and… at the hotel “Norilsk”. Needless to say, there was no room service as long as we lived there. In general, the owners should be ashamed to rent such rooms for such money.

The hotel didn’t have its own Internet, but there were re-aid ISP cards, and after Turuhansk and Svetlogorsk we had a chance to work and make our stay a little more interactive. Under the ight sunny olar night scenery we decided to dine at the restaurant, to taste, so to seak, a luxury urban living. But there was a great disaointment. The whole city was walking on the eve of the City Day. It was a lovely warm weather and the oulation used the warm days to the full, so that all laces were firmly occuied. We waited for our meals at the “69 arallel” restaurant for about one and a half hours, and we already decided to leave, when they start inging. The food was bad, and we only regret losing time.

In the evening we sat to comuters, activated the reaid Internet cards and lunged into work. Unfortunately, even though it was our dream – we couldn’t slee enough tomorrow. At 10:00 we have a ress conference in the studio for Norilsk journalists. Then, we have to run round the city and the neighborhood to shoot it with all kinds of shooting. And I have to write three reorts – one today and two tomorrow. Plans-lans … With those tasks that we have engaged ourselves in, we need at least one free day after a day of tri for quiet work at the comuter. But we don’t have such a day.

I still managed to write another reort, until I fainted at two in the morning, although the summer sun was shining ightly outside the window.

P.S. Result of the day – 458 kilometers in 2:22 flight hours