Kunda trip.

On the 28th to 29th of April.

 

Day 1.

 

On day one I would travel to Rakvere by train, and then catch a bus from Rakvere to Kunda. Then walk from the town down and round the back of the factory and up to Hiiemägi. After this I would walk along the whole length of Hiiemägi ridge to get to the place I had booked to stay for the night. Lammasmägi would be day two.

 

In the image below there are three black circles. From top to bottom – the site of the installation on Hiiemägi, the place I would sleep, and day two’s installation site Lammasmägi.

 

Below is a closer aerial view. To the right of the town is the large river. Bulging at the point where it meets the bridge, which can be seen by the crossing road, this is because there is a hydro electric damn there. On the other side of the river the ridge of Hiiemägi is visible, as well as it’s mined edge and drop into the flatlands of fields. Above the Hiiemägi plain is the current Estonia cell factory which is in full operation unlike the towering concrete cement factory on the town’s side of the river.

 

The below map traces the route I walked on this day.

 

The day began with the train. They are really big diesel trains, all coloured orange in Estonia. You feel safe in them. Watching the dense tree forests pass by. The leaves haven’t burst yet here, but all of the buds are ready and waiting. The crazy tension in all of their branches. It was essential to have good weather for these days. I would be walking a lot, carrying all of my gear on my own, and filming with a digital camera. There had been heavy rain and snow in the days previous so I was hopeful that this had passed by. Just as the train was approaching the last few kilometres before Rakvere a torrential hail storm started. As I got off of the train this had just stopped. All of the roofs and drain pipes were running with water, it was gushing off of the roofs. It seemed that this large dark cloud had passed by, but there were other lurking and I was a little worried. The sculptures that I am bringing to Kunda this time are not waterproof, if they get wet they will dissolve and break.

The same backpack I used to carry the Kunda clay back on my first visit, and the Kunda Pair on my second, was being used this time. This was my heaviest and most physically taxing journey. My backpack had the camera, clothing, water and food for the night, the sculptures were in one separate cloth bag to carry, and I had a tripod. All in all it was a lot of weight, more than what you might think. But to be honest, I love Kunda, there is something special about that area to me that makes me feel so full of energy. I went by myself this time, because I knew that the principle of the installations would work better. I was visiting sacred spaces, and burial sites, leaving behind sculptures that were made of clay  that I had processed and worked with, for reasons that were found through absorbed and slightly obsessive research. I knew it would be harder to go by myself, but it was important to me for every step and action to be carried out by someone who fully felt and understood this place, so I went alone.

After finding the bus stop I waited, but all of the benches and pavements were soaked, so I stood for half an hour with all of my heavy things waiting, and eating a banana. I knew I had a lot of walking ahead, the bus timing was unfortunate, but I waited, and settled into being on the way. The nerves and apprehension of the journey were easing.

Once at Kunda the skies were crisply blue. What luck. So I set off away from the soviet square apartment blocks. Certain ones are really growing on me, the crispness and integrity of their commitment to the soviet era is so clear and true, they are becoming familiar. As I reached the river I was slightly out of town. And the cargo lorries were back. Trundling, knocking up dust. I passed over the bridge. The river was absolutely billowing with force, and there were old and new structures. I felt the bridge might just be pushed away. It became apparent that this section of the river has been used for power for quite some time. Causing a still bulge on the one side of the bridge and dangerous rapids on the other.

 

https://youtu.be/cww1awmBIsw

 

After the bridge the road began to rise to a horizon, and so was all of the land on this side of the river. It seemed that this must be the ridge. Estonia is a pretty flat place. Encountering such big raises like this is not common and quite striking. I could not see where it was going.

The two small buildings dug into the earth below are old cellars, large ones. There were quite a few old derelict buildings surrounding the hydro site.

 

As I walked up onto the ridge it just kept going. I soon realised the size of Hiiemägi.

The grassland on Hiiemägi is beautiful. There is absolutely no one up there. The moor runs and runs until there is a sharp drop, and after that large flat fields of farm land. It catches all of the wind coming in off of the sea up there. There are a few trees and moss, twigs and grasses. And some birds. The main sounds are the wind, and the creaking of the branches of the trees and their twigs. This creaking is the only other thing making noise up there. The grass feels like it just continues and continues. From the heath the factories are visible, and just, the sea. The factories still seem the size that they are, but their significance becomes quite less. The heath seems much more powerful, and has a much greater dominance on Kunda.

 

 

Now came the exploration for the graveyard. It seemed to me on that day that most traces of the stone graves on Hiiemägi had crumbled away or were not visible. The erosion was clear. However the land mass itself held so much history and feeling.

 

 

 

 

Hiiemägi’s ridge is what held the ancient lake of Kunda in.

“A well-known Mesolithic site that has given its name to the entire archeological culture – the Kunda culture (8th-7th millennium mother). At that time, to the south and east of the location of the current cement plant, there was an extensive lake, which as a result of land uplift had remained behind the edge of the klint, similarly to Lake Ülemiste near Tallinn. The shores of this lake have provided suitable habitats for Mesolithic fishermen and hunters. One has been on or near Hiiemäe on the eastern edge of the city of Kunda, the other on a small island in the middle of the lake – Lammasmäe. Around the 5th millennium, the mother of Lake Kunda near Hiiemäe broke through the klint, gradually began to run empty and swamp. Currently, the Kunda bog has been drained.
The first ancient finds were made from the northern end of the lake bog at Hiiemäe in the 1870s by mining a marl for the Kunda cement factory. They were located under a layer of peat in a marl a few tens of meters wide near the shore.1904. by the time the mining of the marl ceased, 191 Mesolithic objects had been found.”

(from http://www.eestigiid.ee/?CatID=94&ItemID=1761&SCat=54)

In this quote I am not sure what they mean by the ‘mother’ breaking through the klint. This is an automatically translated page by google. It could refer to the spring, or it may just refer to the water, the lake itself.

Seeing the slopes on the edge, and the flatland beyond I could imagine this place full of water, and this water forming the grooves of parts of these slopes off the edge of Hiiemägi.

The mining of the entire area of Kunda has been very intense in recent industrial years, for many resources, as a result uncovering many stories in its wake. I could really feel the quantity of water that was being held in by this land, the size of the lake, and the only other land mass the small Lammasmägi island within it’s shores.

 

The grass on Hiiemägi was flattened into waves by the wind. The only things upright were trees and twigs. The curves of the grass perfectly summed up the way that the wind moves over the form of this piece of land. This place used to be quite possibly an oak forest, and with the passing of these trees the land has been sculpted in another way. The layer of grass and moss and fresh shoots is thick, you cannot tell when you step with your feet what surface you will land on. You don’t step on the ground but on the mass of built up growth. The grass was dry and crisped by the sun and air. The twigs were so many that as you walked you couldn’t help but snap them.

 

The days that I went must have been the height of the migratory period for geese. There were hundreds and possibly thousands of geese on the flatlands of Kunda. They were coming in from the sea, fliying over Hiiemägi and landing on the flat fields right on the other side of the ridge, finding shelter. They would fly over me, coming closer to the ground as the land raised. I have never witnessed so many geese. It felt fitting, as the clay I was placing had migrated, and my studies to do with the migration of people and grog in the Neolithic, as well as my own questions about my place and where I am going next, and the limits on migrations for some and not others.

 

 

 

In the photograph above there are some mounds.

As you go up onto Hiiemägi there is a trace of some tracks or an old road possibly, this leads to the area of one of the drop offs. Around this area and further afield there are some mounds. Covered in moss and grass. Some of them appear to made up of piles of rounded stones that have then been grown over. And some have quite perfect domed mound shapes. I do not know if these are burial mounds covering a grave or collections of rubble from something else. It is a protected site that has been used for burials for many years so it is likely that these may have been burial sites. They were the only recognisable human interference in the land, but in a way that had been absorbed by the carpet of the heath. Their form and the shape of the stones made me feel it was the correct place to leave the piece I had carried with me.

 

After filming the installation of the piece it was time to take the walk to the small cottage I had booked to stay in for the night. It was the only place to stay in Kunda and it just happened to be on the other side of the Hiiemägi ridge.

In the whole area surrounding Hiiemägi there were no fences. This was quite an amazing feeling. All of the fields were not seperated by fencing, or the ridge or the roads.

 

 

      

There was a lot of walking in these days. I set my pace, and worked my way along. I felt that I could hear so many birds. And the air was so fresh. I realised how much I need to be away from buildings. It seems that when you are from a rural place this can be something you always need. I felt tired but yet so fresh. The freshest I had felt in a while. I keep thinking about that feeling and the place. It is so addictive.

 

I made it to the place I was staying. And there was geese visible from out the back. With their red legs. Who knows how far they’ve come. You can see my boots and bag and tripod. In the bag is the saggar carrier, and the sculpture for the next day. I was hopeful after eating most of my food that evening that the bags would be lighter tomorrow.

 

 

 

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