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I spent my summer vacation on Lake Seliger. For a whole month I camped in a tent, caught fish, gathered mushrooms, cooked food over a campfire, and ever so gradually lost the capacity of speech. The hilly island was bordered by deep water on three sides, but on the fourth a wide reach opened up. Over the summer, the grass on the island grew nearly up to my waist. My tent stood alone on a rocky, forested cape, from which I had a boundless view of the water and the distant shores.
Seagulls whirred over the island and the lake with their shrill cries. Far off in the water, a buoy swayed to mark the channel that local boats would use as they slipped past me and then disappeared beyond the horizon. I would fish on a steep bank over a backwater, or head down to a narrow, rocky gully to a sa
