Tag: Natthimmel

Sula Sgeir – or Sùlaisgeir in Gaelic – is one of the most remote isles to be found in the British Isles. Less than a kilometre in length and about 200 metres across including a headland, it is marked by high cliffs, frequently inhospitable weather, and remains uninhabited by humans for most of the year.

The island is most famous for its population of gannets, and (more infamously) for the annual autumnal ‘guga’ hunt for young  gannets by men from the Isle of Lewis, 70 kilometres away, where the bird is considered a delicacy.

I mention all of this because Sula Sgeir is the name given to the latest Nathhimmel region build by Konrad Rune and Saskia Rieko, this time additionally assisted by Art Oluja (Artistik Oluja) who has added a fantastic soundscape to the setting.

However, rather than focusing on the actual island of Sula Sgeir and its bloody and callous hunt, Nathhimmel’s Sula Sgeir focuses on an underwater environment through which visitors can engage in their own far more pleasant adventures: diving, swimming and exploring the ocean depths either freely or aboard a 2-seat mini sub or on a “jelly(fish) ride”.

The Landing Point is a small deck on an outcrop of rock rising above the waves and loomed over by a gigantic Moon. While this island is small, it does contain the skeletal remnants of a great dome standing behind it – a possible hint of a waiting mystery?

The deck includes givers for a swimming HUD, the “jelly ride” (which is a wearable vehicle by Art), and a rezzer for the mini sub. The latter is of Konrad’s design, and a neat little 2-seaters for sharing with someone or simply enjoying on your own.

Beneath the waves is a strange and haunting world, one in which it is very easy to take on the spirit of Jacques Cousteau when exploring its depths.

However you opt to go, once you are underwater it is essential you have local sounds enabled to add to the sense of immersion as you move amidst fields of tall seaweed, forests of twisted corals, and over an almost alien landscape of strange luminant aquatic plant life.

In the shallower waters, sunlight attempts to probes the water, shafts of light spearing down. Elsewhere it is possible to spot the red glow of ocean floor vents and the now quiet mouths of fumaroles gaping wide, the heat that may have once caused them to once belch clouds of mineral-rich gases long since moved on.

As visitors skirt jellyfish and schools of fish, the flickering, hazy light will eventually reveal the giant denizens of this world. A trio of giant manta rays appear to holding a council session; humpback whales slowly emerge through veils of shimmering, fading sunlight, whilst the ghostly forms of blue whales appear from within the forests of seaweed and kelp-like growths.

This is a place holding secrets as well. The humpback whales have their great heads dipped as if in mourning, the lifeless forms of two divers in deep sea gear with airlines detached and the visors of their helmets glowing eerily, floating before them, caught in a state of neutral buoyancy before they could reach the surface. What happened to these poor souls is open the question – perhaps they are connected to the secret hidden in deeper waters.

Then there are the glowing fronds and planets and the strange blue veins to be found in some of the rocks. What do they signify?

It is to the north and west where this ocean’s secret lays. Here, the the sea floor falls away sharply and sunlight is left behind. At first it appears to be an abyssal deep where not even the whales stray, leaving only the tall fonds and watery growths. But then, from between the growths comes a dance of light, a flash which demands attention.

Close on this lone point of light and it will reveal itself as an abandoned deep ocean structure, its domed roof mindful of the wrecked dome at the region’s Landing Point. Pipes run into it from the surrounding seabed, but what might it be? And what is it lying within, expanding and contracting slowly as if in respiration?  Those are questions to be answered by your own imagination.

For my part, I will only suggest that getting down to this strange structure is possibly best done using one of Konrad’s mini subs. Whilst a little choppy on the controls, they handle well enough, and going down into the depths of the setting in one definitely heightens the sense of mystery and deep-diving adventure.

My only other observations would be to make sure you obtain introductory notecard at the Landing Point – it contains a backstory touching on the mysterious nature of Sula Sgeir. Also, as if it needs mentioning, do make sure you use Nathhimmel’s Shared Environment when visiting, and for the best immersion, make sure you are running a PBR capable viewer.

I have never failed to be impressed by the designs Konrad and Saskia create for Nathhimmel, and this remains the case with Sula Sgeir. Fascinating, and engaging, it is a genuinely captivating aquatic environment given additional life by Art’s soundscape, and definitely not a destination to be missed.

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• Nathhimmel Sula Sgeir (New Mon, rated Moderate)

Over the last couple of months and for reasons I can’t really explain, I’ve been getting interested in the US and Canadian Great Lakes and parts of their history. Much of this has centred on the role of the lakes in enabling commerce, and the sad tales of vessels such as the Edmund Fitzgerald (perhaps brought to international recognition by songster Gordon Lightfoot, and the loss of which occurred 50 years ago this past November), the Carl D. Bradley and the Daniel J Morrell, to name but three of the largest vessels to go down on the lakes.

I mention this as a roundabout way of introducing the December 2025 Natthimmel build by Konrad (Kaiju Kohime) and Saskia, and which draws inspiration from the shores of Lake Michigan (although not, admittedly, any of the vessel losses which have occurred on Michigan and her sister lakes down the centuries; that was something my little mind just jumped to in visiting the setting, for the reasons noted above).

Entitled The Keepers of Twin Lights, St. Castoris, the region design appears to draw its inspiration from the paired lighthouses of St. Joseph, Michigan, where two very similar lights (now decommissioned) once guarded the entrance to St. Joseph River, some 190 km northeast of Chicago.

The river had long been a trade and transport route linking the Great Lakes with the Mississippi River prior to the arrival of European settlers as they muscled their way westward. However, they established a significant outpost at the mouth of the river at the end of the 1700s, starting a continuous presence there which led to the establishment of St. Joseph village (now city).

The two lighthouses that inspired St Castoris were built in 1906 and 1907. They are very distinctive in terms of both looks and location. Both stand on a long pier extending out into the lake (one of two piers extending out from the mouth of the river), with a raised catwalk running the length of the pier to connect both lighthouses with the land.

The outer lighthouse is of a tapering conical build topped by a distinctive 9-sided lantern room. The inner lighthouse is a little more distinctive: a square lower level with a pyramidal roof rising to an octagonal tower with its own external access via steel dog-leg stair from the pier (and via the catwalk).

Many of these elements are captured in Konrad’s custom models of the lighthouses within St. Castoris; the distinctive similarities (if you’ll forgive the term!) leading me to conclude that St Joseph serves as the inspiration here. Indeed even the frozen water spray hugging the outer tower is mindful of a 2010 snapshot showing much the same.

But again, it’s important to note that even if inspired by the lighthouses at St. Joseph, Saskia and Konrad’s St. Castoris is very much its own place; there is no beach or harbour entrance at what might be the landward end of the setting. Nor do the lighthouses stand on a pier of relatively modern construction, as is the case with St. Joseph.

Instead, St. Castoris’ lighthouses appear to be built upon a long, narrow breakwater formed by earth, boulders and rocks dumped into the water to extend a finger outward, one with enough soil present to allow lines of frosted aspen to march out on either side of the catwalk at least as far as the inner lighthouse.  And while the lighthouses of St. Joseph may have been decommissioned in 2005, the lights of St. Castoris remain active, sweeping out towards the horizon, twin beacons indicating the safety of land, while much smaller buoys cast the red glow of warning against vessels coming too close in error to the more dangerous shores and ice floes lurking there.

It is to one vessel in particular that the lighthouses call, and the story of that vessel and its master can be found in the setting’s introductory notecard available at the Landing Point, as always. This offers further insight to St. Castoris, and carries with it the faint suggestion that within its narrative, the story refers to an earlier age whilst also offering a subtle hint as to the wayward nature of the weather over the Great Lakes during the winter months.

As always with Natthimmel, Konrad and Saskia have created an engaging setting which sinks its roots into history and the physical world whilst offering its own uniqueness. Look for the places to sit that await discovery and enjoy!

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• Natthimmel: The Keepers of Twin Lights, St. Castoris (NewMoon, rated Moderate)

One of the places I always enjoy visiting in Second Life is the homestead region of Natthimmel, held and curated by Konrad (Kaiju Kohime) and Saskia Rieko as a public space, and which is regularly updated to (in general) reflect re-world locations. Sadly, I was unable to cover the September / October iteration of the reason, as for some reason – and despite my best efforts – the setting repeatedly refused to fully render on my PC.

Given this, and aware that Rieko and Konrad had opened their latest build at Natthimmel towards the end of October, I was determined to hop over to take a look as soon as I was able to spend a sufficient amount of time sitting at my computer in order to appreciate it. In this, I was doubly curious / keen to do so, not only for having been unable to write about the previous build, but also because of the subject Konrad and Saskia had selected: the British Maunsell Sea Forts of World War Two.

Maunsell Forts were offshore defence structures built in the estuaries of the rivers Mersey (to defend the port of Liverpool and the western industrial regions of England against bombers using the Mersey as a navigational aid) and Thames, where they performed the dual roles of trying to shoot down bombers attempting to reach London or east coast ports such as Felixstowe and Harwich or which would try to mine the coastal sea lanes, and offering a line of defence against any fast German seaborne raiders attempting to strike ports in East Anglia.

Of the two groups of forts, those within and offshore to the Thames estuary are perhaps the most famous, primarily because some survive through to this day, whereas those on the west coast were all demolished following the end of World War Two. It is the east coast forts which form the basis for the Natthimmel build.

These forts were of two types: four Navy forts grounded on sand bars between 10 and 18 kilometres off the coast, and three metal Army forts of a more complex design located closer to the Thames estuary shoreline. The Navy forts were of a simpler design, comprising two large concrete towers containing 7 levels each of accommodation and storage spaces, topped by large metal gun decks mounting their main armament of guns, together with the main control building, radar and officer’s accommodation. They were were the forts charged with both anti-aircraft and anti surface vessel operations and protecting the approaches to the ports of East Anglia as well as the Thames estuary.

The Army forts were more complicated in design, comprising seven metal towers atop metal legs. Five of these were built around a central “control tower” and mounted anti-aircraft guns, with the remaining tower slightly offset and housing searchlights for illuminating enemy bombers to the guns. Connected by elevated walkways, the towers of the Army forts saw extensive action throughout the war, claiming over 20 Luftwaffe bombers shot down and, later in the war, around 20 V1 flying bombs.

For their build at Natthimmel, Konrad and Saskia present interpretations of both styles of Maunsell fort, with six Army-style towers linked (or partially linked) by their raised catwalks, some of which sport both single quick-firing guns and what might be taken as rapid-fire Bofors guns, whilst another appears to be the main command tower. They are joined by a structure resembling the more off-shore Navy style fort, this one acting as the searchlight tower.

Whilst not strictly historically accurate, the combining of the two styles of fort in this way allows visitors to explore them both with relative ease (allowing for the partially collapsed catwalks between some of the “army” towers!) from the Landing Point. The latter takes the form of one of the resupply moorings located at the base of some of the Army towers, and offers a link between the accessible Army fort elements and the slightly more distant Navy element.

Caught under a night-time sky which helps evoke their wartime operation, the forts at Nathhimmel are presented in a way that both also evokes the original purpose through the inclusion of their anti-aircraft guns and the beam of a searchlight splitting the sky, whilst also referencing their abandonment and decay following the end of the war, with the Army towers rusting away, their catwalks looking none too safe (or completely collapsed!), the Navy tower also looking strangely industrial in its deserted state, whilst the machinery and systems within their aging walls is clearly well past any practical use. It’s a haunting and captivating presentation.

I also like the fact that, as with so many of Saskia and Konrad’s builds, Nathhimmel: Maunsell opens the door on a period of history that might not be widely known, encouraging people to take a peep inside and perhaps find out more about the location being presented through their own research.

In the case of the Maunsell forts, doing the latter is particularly worthwhile, as one of the Navy forts – Roughs Tower (formerly HM Fort Roughs) – has a very colourful post-war history commencing in the 1960s and extending right up pretty much to modern times. It encapsulates the so-called “Principality of Sealand”, armed assaults by both civilians and a band of Dutch mercenaries, hostage-taking, a ransom demand, a so-called “government in exile” (itself allegedly mixed up in laundering drug money!), and much, much more. All of this you can lean about by looking up the “Principality of Sealand”, Major Patrick Bates and Alexander Achenbach, alongside the broader history of Guy Maunsell and his sea forts.

Just be sure to do so after you’ve visited Nathhimmel: Maunsell!

Slurl Details

• Nathhimmel: Maunsell (NewMoon, rated Moderate)

Konrad (kaiju.kohime) and Saskia Rieko are back with another iteration of their Nathhimmel Homestead region. It’s a place I always enjoy visiting as Konrad and Reiko offer imaginative takes on places, myths and events from the physical world, and I’ve covered it on numerous occasions in these pages.

For the latest iteration of the region, Rieko and Konrad have turned to mythology of South America – specifically that of Viracocha (aka Huiracocha), a creator deity originally worshiped by the pre-Inca inhabitants of Peru, and later appropriated by the Inca.

The stories and legends surrounding Viracocha highlight his role in the creation of the universe, the Sun and the Moon, and humanity itself. According to tradition, after forming the rest of the heavens and the earth, Viracocha wandered through the world teaching men the arts of civilisation. As such his character is complex, blending elements of a god of creation with those of a wandering deity who brings knowledge to the people – and while he came late to the Inca Patheon, the cult of Viracocha is regarded by some as having been more important than the cult of the Sun god.

Given the complexity of his role in various mythos, Viracocha had a long list of titles, such as the Old Man of the Sky, Lord Instructor of the World and the Ancient One, and went through multiple transmogrifications. Legend claims he created peoples then destroyed them before recreating them and educating them before dispersing them across the land. As a wanderer, he journeyed widely teaching and instructing before departing across the Pacific Ocean – and as Kon-Tiki, Viracocha was said to have brought Inca culture to Polynesia.

With Vira Cocha, Konrad and Saskia present a personal take on the legend, complete with their own telling of the tale, which can be obtained at the Landing Point (click the Info sign).

The setting presents a landscape surrounded by mountains and water, suggesting a lake island – perhaps one on Lake Titicaca, where Viracocha is said to have created the the Sun and Moon – and indeed, a huge Moon, as if freshly-made, sits low in the sky. Carrying a sub-tropical jungle feel, the land forms a U to enclose the water that also surrounds it. Paths offer a route around the land, carrying visitors to various points of interest.

The latter are many and varied and offer a series of unique elements to the build. Statue-like rocks stand as echoes of the legend of Viracocha creating people from stone. Then there are pod-like structures raised on stilts; they are not of an Inca design and their smooth surfaces and looks give them an other-worldly – or at least a futuristic – look. Mixed with these are very contemporary elements – surf boards, the wreck of a truck converted into a beach shack, modern-looking wooden decks offered as hang-out spaces; all of which combine to give the setting a sense of mystery and welcome.

Hints that this is South America are provided in various little touches of detail  – Capybara, snakes, flora, all of which contribute to the depth of the setting. A real sense of mystery can be found to the north-west side of the island, where the path around the headland is marked by small bonfires, as if lighting the way to a place of night-time rites. They encourage one onwards and around the headland.

An engaging setting, well worth exploring.

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• Vira Cocha (NewMoon, rated Moderate)

For May – the start of which has become somewhat indelibly linked with science fiction over the last several decades – Saskia Rieko and Konrad (kaiju.kohime) bring us their own epic sci-fi tale; one with its roots in a galaxy-spanning civilisation called the Ythari.

Born long before most others, the Ythari were driven by their insatiable intellects, boundless ambition and an overbearing pride and arrogance which perhaps led to their downfall.

The Ythari once ruled over a vast and enigmatic galaxy known as Veilspire — a name derived from its most haunting feature: a towering, luminous rift that cuts across its heart, like a tear in the fabric of space-time. This anomaly called the Axiom Rift, existing in the very centre of the galaxy, is believed to be the result of their final and most ambitious experiment — perhaps even the very thing that led to their disappearance.

– from the records of Dr. Khiraan Valis

Konrad and Saskia have always produced richly engaging settings within Second Life, often drawing on inspiration from locations and event on or from our physical world. Ythari – Echoes of the Silent Stars, however is utterly different in theme and tone – although its depth easily equals that of any of the previous designs the couple have presented. Whilst it might not draw from events and locations we might all directly research, instead being born entirely of the imagination, it nevertheless comes with a rich back-story; one capable of forming the basis of a novel from the likes or Asimov, Heinlein or James S. A. Corey (aka Daniel Abraham and Ty Franck) for an entire novel.

Mixing a thirst for knowledge and a hunger for understanding with towering abilities and intelligence, the story of the Ythari is one of a galaxy-spanning empire built not on war or dominion, but on the foundations of science, intellect, and an ability to conceive everything within their galaxy from the quantum level to the macro, without any apparent discontinuities of scale.

Veilspire was no ordinary galaxy. Unlike the spiral and elliptical galaxies known to modern astronomers, its structure bore evidence of deliberate engineering. Star systems arranged in mathematically perfect formations, gravity-defying megastructures orbiting black holes with impossible stability, and entire regions where time seemed to flow at inconsistent rates, with the centre of the creation, The Axiom Rift — all hints that the Ythari did not merely live in their galaxy, they designed it with the development of The Equation of Being.

– from the records of Dr. Khiraan Valis

It is also a tale of galactic overreach and a hubris which – perhaps inevitably – could only result in one of two outcomes. Outcomes which themselves might perhaps be indistinguishable from one another, thanks to the passage of aeons and when looked upon through the eyes of a far-future humanoid race stumbling across the crumbling, but still magnificent relics the Ythari left in their wake.

As they neared the completion of their greatest project — an attempt to rewrite the fundamental laws of reality — they miscalculated. Or perhaps they succeeded too well. One by one, their great cities, planets, even the whole solar systems fell silent … The Ythari simply… ceased. Their towering spires, their quantum archives left behind as if abandoned in an instant. No bodies. No signs of struggle. Only silence and the mysterious humming of the abandoned Axiom Rift.

– from the records of Dr. Khiraan Valis

To best appreciate the setting, make sure you have your viewer set the Use Shared Environment, and you have media set to play (at least initially in the case of the latter). The arrival point will provide you with the back-story in the form of a records / log entry by one Dr. Khiraan Valis, an archaeologist dedicated to uncovering the mysteries of the Ythari.

The latter is played back over the computer screens and consoles at the landing Point, and really is worth listening to. For those who prefer, the same information can be obtained by clicking the traditional Natthimmel greeting (and setting name) on the ground of the Landing Point, and accepting the offered folder. This contains a notecard with the  information given within the narration. For those who do listen to the audio, I would strongly suggest pausing media playback (click the movie camera icon / button towards the top right corner of the viewer’s window), as the narrative track can otherwise overwhelm the ambient sounds within the setting.

Stormy, eerie and caught under a roiling, almost angry Expanse in which the eye of a galactic core balefully stares from one horizon, this is an environment for which words – genuinely – are not enough. Beyond the consoles and systems at the Landing Point, as left by Dr. Valis and her team, this is an assuredly alien setting. Within it, a water-like sea slips into a low-lying landscape. This initially appears to be dotted with strange tree-like groves. However, closer inspection reveals them to be more rock-like than organic – or perhaps they are the fossilised remains of something; and while there is the odd tree to be found, organics as we might recognise them are few and far between.

Even the paths laid across the water have a geometry about them that feels alien. None lead directly from A to B; instead they seem to be some kind of mathematical expression, as much a part of the gigantic towers and other structures within and floating over these strange lands.

Broken, decaying, and ominous even when countered but the roiling heavens beyond them, these structures are riven by massive discharges of energy, themselves accompanied by rolling booms which fall upon the ears as the funerial beat of drums. Whether these discharges are is being generated by whatever remain powers keep at least some of these artefacts raised in defiance of gravity, or whether the explosions of light and energy are the angry response of the atmosphere to their hulking presence, is yours to determine.

Not all the structures are airborne or massive; floating on the waters are polygonal forms, cables and relays on them looking as if they might have once drawn power from the waters – or discharged it into the waver over which they sit. They sit around the remnants of the great towers as if part of their ancient function. Steps climb the interiors of the towers, while outside of one is an indication that the Ythari might not have vanished completely.

The very few who dare to explore their ruins tell of anomalies time fractures where the past leaks through, machines that seem to remember their creators, and strange, whispering voices that seem to come from nowhere. The Ythari may be gone, but something of them lingers. Watching. Waiting.

Beautiful, visually impressive, rich in narrative and creativity, edged in mystery and a hint of dread, Ythari – Echoes of the Silent Stars is a magnificent journey of the imagination.

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• Ythari – Echoes of the Silent Stars (Natthimmel, rated Moderate)

I first encountered the region designs by Konrad (Kaiju Kohime) and Saskia Rieko, hosted on their Homestead region of Natthimmel (Swedish for Night Sky), in May 2023. At the time, they were offering a visually immersive interpretation of Göbekli Tepe, Turkey (see: A Night Sky with a touch of history in Second Life), and I was immediately captivated; like the late Serene Footman and Jade Koltai, Konrad and Saskia had captured the essence of a place within the physical world most of us would likely only witness through on-screen images and film, and allow us to explore it in person.

Since that time, Saskia and Konrad have continued to offer settings and environments reflective of the world – indeed, in one case, the cosmos – we inhabit. I’ve never failed to be awed by their work, the span of their creativity and imagination; thus, I’ve attempted to record much of their work in these pages.

For early 2025 (having opened on February 26th, 2025), they have drawn on a tragic feat of exploration from over 100 years ago – and done so in so subtle a manner, the core might easily be missed. At the same time, their canvas is so rich, it still has the power to speak volumes to us on the nature of life and the human condition.

Terra Nova presents a frozen environment caught in the twilight common to our polar regions; ice floes hug the cold, green waters, their frigid surfaces rippled, pitted and crumpled from endless collisions and as a result of freezing / thawing / freezing in confined pools of water forcing them to fight one another for space. Around them stand great towers of ice suggesting they are hiding the vast bulk of their mass below the waves, as a full Moon hovers on the horizon, its size magnified by the depth of atmosphere through which it is seen.

In the distance and dark against the horizon, stand the blocky forms of human habitation, lights visible while the lamp of a floating warning buoy flickers close by. They act as a siren call, drawing people across the ice and the planks painstakingly laid across and between the floes. As the structures are approached, they reveal themselves as huts built on the ice, whilst a colony (or perhaps a waddle, if they are actually just passing by) of penguins quietly disclose the fact this is somewhere in the Antarctic. But where? And what might this place be?

A ship’s harpoon sitting on the ice alongside the largest of the huts, together with the canvas boats moored on the water suggest this is a shore-based whaling station. The fact that it is possible to see the graceful forms of humpbacks breaching the surrounding waters might well support this, and it is certainly one direction the imagination can run fully and freely. But there is another.

On the 15th June, 1910, the converted sealer Terra Nova departed Cardiff, Wales, for Antarctica. Originally built as a whaler in Scotland in 1884, the ship already had a proven career operating in both Arctic and Antarctic waters as a sealer, survey / exploratory vessel and in recovery operations for other expeditions. In all, her career lasted almost 60 years, coming to a sad end in 1943; however it was that departure from Cardiff in 1910 that marked perhaps her most famous voyage, as she was the transport for the last expedition to the Antarctic continent led by Captain Robert Falcon Scott.

Beset by issues and misfortunes from the start, the story of Scott’s Terra Nova expedition is most keenly remembered for the the tragic loss of the attempt to reach the South Pole – the overall focus of the expedition – which resulted in the deaths of all the men who made the final trek to the the Pole, only to find their rivals led by Roald Amundsen had reached it first. It is this tragic and now legendary “race” that is commemorated within Konrad and Saskia’s Terra Nova – and done so in a most poignant manner.

Alongside the Landing Point is the traditional Natthimmel welcome, sitting just over the water. Clicking it will deliver an information folder, within which can be found a poem, a beautifully framed and told lament to Scott and his expedition.

“Do you know of the land-walkers who came here once?”
asked the elder whale, his voice a ripple through the water.
The younger one flicked her tail, sending a stream of bubbles upward. “Many have come, many have gone. But I sense you speak of a tale worth telling.”

“Ah, yes,” the elder murmured. “A tale of struggle, of ice,
of those who dared to race where no fin could guide them.”
The younger whale listened as the elder sang of the land-walkers who arrived on a ship of wood and iron, calling themselves explorers.

– extract from Terra Nova, by Saskia Rieko

Through this lament, which quotes a part of Scott’s final entry in his diary (dated 29th March, 1912), the setting falls into place: the huts crouched on the the ice stand as a reference to those the expedition variously established – most notably Scott’s own hut (which stands to this day) on Cape Evans, Ross Island; the harpoon reminds us of the heritage of the Terra Nova herself; and whilst Scott’s expedition took place in the long days of Antarctic’s summer, the twilight lighting of the setting.

Meanwhile, the landscape falls into place as both the ice shelf from which Scott’s final three teams set out on the attempt to reach the South Pole and the hardness of the frozen landscape with which they had to contend, while the haunting audio stream (do make sure you toggle the accompanying audio stream on when visiting, it is offered as a haunting alternative to local sounds) accentuate the magnificent desolation – to quote another explorer of an altogether different age – of the frozen continent and the isolation faced by Scott and his men.

While the lament serves as a reminder of the sad end of Scott and the four men who joined him on the final trek to the South Pole – Edward Wilson, Lawrence Oates (who, stricken by frostbite and scared he was becoming a deadly burden to his colleagues, was said to have stepped out of their tent to his death in a blizzard with the quietly-spoken words, “I am just going outside and may be some time”) Henry Bowers and Edgar Evans – it also perhaps serves as a commentary on those of us concerned about the continued maltreatment our planet and how we might be remembered (if we are remembered at all) in the future –

“Even in the end, they thought of those they left behind.”
The younger whale exhaled a plume of mist. “A sad story.”
“A true one,” the elder corrected. “And in the deep, the truth matters.”

– extract from Terra Nova, by Saskia Rieko

A truly heartrending setting when seen and heard in context, Terra Nova is fully deserving a visit and contemplation.

SLurl Details

• Natthimmel: Terra Nova (NewMoon, rated Moderate)