My name is Mario. I am cycling with a foldable bike from Tunisia to the Arctic. In this seventh and last episode of my year-long trip, I finally reach my destination. The midnight sun, reindeers, Kiruna the city on the move, fellow cyclists heading North, Greta Thunberg, Fridays for Future and much more…
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Credits
Videos & Images / Unfold the World
Music / “O sole mio” by Mario Lanza – Internet Archive, “Il barbiere di Siviglia, Ouverture” by Gioacchino Rossini, “Epicenters Eve” and “Limestone Tower” by Danosongs https://danosongs.com/, “Kids” from www.mixkit.co, “A Voice from the Past” by Eugenio Mininni from www.mixkit.co and “L’estate” by Antonio Vivaldi
(music: “O sole mio”) No, I’m not back to Italy yet This is Sweden Here, when the sun shines at this time of the year especially after I cross the Arctic Circle it shines for 24 consecutive hours But I’m not always singing “O sole mio” during the four weeks from Stockholm to the Arctic Circle I faced wind… rain… cold… but no matter the weather in Sweden I can count on the best accommodation the check-out time is before or after 12 the best views are guaranteed you have unlimited access to the spa and laundry service and the restaurant is open 24/7 It’s called “allemansrätten” which means the right to roam free and pitch your tent anywhere is not explicitly forbidden or too close to someone’s house and, of course, provided you leave the place clean as you found it It is like this that I cycled from the port of Nynäshamn near Stockholm to the Arctic Circle I’m not the only cyclist on the road I come across a few others who like me are cycling North one of them is Tomas from Hungary who catches up with me again near the Arctic Circle or Fanti and Maus two puppets and their human friends from Germany I even meet someone walking all the way up to the Finnish border but my encounters are not limited to two-legged or two-wheeled travellers every now and then a reindeer would cross the road or a moose but the most social animals of all are, without a doubt mosquitoes rain catches up with me again in Gällevare beyond the Arctic Circle here I spend 24 lethargic hours in my tent waiting for the opportunity to hit the road again in the evening of the next day when the rain finally stops it occurs to me that the sun indeed never sets so I decide to pack up my things and cycle as if there was no tomorrow casting incredibly long shadows following empty roads in the most surreal silence of the Arctic summer night Kiruna, the destination I reach in the morning is quite literally a moving target the city really is on the move Kiruna sits on one of the largest iron deposits in the world the mine goes deeper and deeper under the city and it threatens to swallow it one of the first buildings I see is Kiruna’s new townhall with its iconic clocktower rebuilt not long ago inside I meet Dan from Kiruna Storytelling who tells me what is happening to his city “here you can see, in 18 years” “when they have emptied that level” “all houses and all people have to move away” “some of the houses will be saved” “but most of the houses will be torn down” a red line shows the part of Kiruna that must be relocated some of the houses were literally lifted and moved Dan takes me to another symbolic building of Kiruna its church which will also be relocated in a few years from now though it is not yet clear how the iron mine never sleeps at night one can hear explosions from underground but where is all this iron going? every day ten trains carry around 50,000 tonnes of iron ore from the belly of Kiruna to the closest ice-free port of Narvik in Norway I decide to follow their trails through some of the most beautiful landscapes of my journey so far (train whistle) everything in life including this amazing adventure begun last year in Tunisia has an end my bike journey stops here for me it’s now time to go home but the iron will continue its journey to Norway and from there to the four corners of the world the forces that dig the Earth and move entire cities to feed humanity’s endless appetite never sleep never stop never get sick, never get old they simply carry on but at what cost? and until when?