The Taymyr Peninsula [This installment of the travelogue is not finished. I've only managed to write a short vignette from this part of the trip, but I intend to add details about the politics of Lebed's Krasnoyarsk Territory, the political economy of Norilsk Nickel, life in the Arctic cities of Norilsk and Dikson, and the life of the semi-nomadic Dolgans of the Taymyr Peninsula.] The Taymyr Peninsula in relation to the Russian Federation,
and from a polar vantange point:
In the Arctic, there's rarely any salt, and in the case of domesticated reindeer such as the ones belonging to the semi-nomadic Dolgans of the Taymyr Peninsula in north-central Siberia, piss is the only readily available source of saltlick for the animals. The Dolgans walked directly into the herd and started pissing randomly in all directions. The reindeer went wild, frantically licking up the puddles of piss on the tundra ground. I saw some of the more prolific pissers among the Dolgans feed straight into the reindeer's mouths. Insecure about my virility, I resolved to piss longer than any bloody Dolgan could. When I began to relieve myself, the reindeer had already been in high-fever banquet mode, on the lookout for the next motherlode of piss, refusing to be satiated. Just by standing in the open tundra and unzipping my fly, I announced the second course as though I had been ringing bells. But even before I produced a steady stream, a dozen reindeer scrambled toward me and created an island of frenzy in the tundra, flaring their noses and often getting a bit too close for comfort. Aiming for their mouths, I showered them with their fix. In the desolate permafrosted tundra of the high Siberian summer, well past midnight but bright as noon, the reindeer greedily jostled around me and neighed in contentment as droplets of urine hung like dew from the fur of their snouts. One she-reindeer enjoyed my golden elixir so much that she wouldn't stop winnying. If only human females would give me such a vote of confidence. My fiance opted to wait till we got back to civilisation.
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