Retrive the Muonianalusta Meteor... 2018.

The Muonionalusta event.

Late July 2017 I was riding from Jokkmokk in northern Sweden towards Muonio in Finland, mainly easy gravel roads that sometimes turned into sandy single track. The weather was warm and my Honda XR was running like a dream.

The motorcycle was a last minute change in the plans for that year. Some months before on the first day of Easter I collapsed on the bathroom floor with a massive pulmonary embolism. I had not been feeling very well for some time. Technically I was dead for several seconds or minutes, who knows?

After 3 day I went to see my GP who then made an appointment with the hospital. Some hours later I was in intensive care where I was told that not many people survive a saddle embolus.

Lucky or unlucky?  I don’t know. The year before in October I nearly died under a truck in Uzbekistan while cycling on an otherwise deserted highway 50 km out of Samarkand. Driver fell asleep. I escaped with sort of minor injuries. Once again, was I lucky or unlucky?

After spending some days in the hospital and recovering for weeks at home, I felt immensely tired. I could barely walk 50 meters without getting winded. I see the cycling trip I had in mind for the coming summer evaporate into a non-event.

Between sessions of resting and sleeping I start to google for a used motorcycle the summer is not lost as far as I’m concerned. I just wane go places!

After some time I find a nice Honda XR650R with only 4000 km on the clock. This is a serious machine although dated it is still a good contender for the trip I have in mind, nearly 60 hp. and only 128 kg. But I’m still too weak for a test ride and the bike is kick-start only.

 

My initial plan was to fly to Murmansk and ride my bicycle back home via the North Cape in Norway. I want to stick to the plan as much as possible and apply for a Russian visa. I book the ferry from Ghent in Belgium to Gothenburg Sweden.

Meanwhile I order some panniers and new tyres for the bike, change the oil and filter and hope for the best.

On the road to Muonionalusta I have to stop a couple of times to rest, I’m constantly tired, somehow this is not easy for me to deal with. The mind pushes me on but the body wants to sleep…..

During one of those stops near the little village of Kitkiöjärvi I stopped and kicked my boots around a bit in the loose gravel on the side of the road. My eye locks onto something unusual, it is a strange pointed stone, brown blueish and it appears to be blistered. After careful inspection I put it away in my pocket.

I never made it into Russia that year, about 100 km before the North Cape in the Olderfjord hotel I discovered that I was peeing blood. Time to go home…..

It was only after I bought a new motorcycle jacket and emptied out the pockets of the old one that found the stone again. I pulled me hard, it had some sort of lure on me.

After some googling the region I discovered that the stone I had in my very hand was most likely part of a meteorite that impacted the Earth during the Quaternary Period, about one million years ago. It is quite clearly part of the iron core or mantle of a planetoid, which shattered into many pieces upon its fall on our planet. The material is almost pure iron and more than four and a half million years old. All depending of the height when it exploded the area where the fragments landed was already quite large to begin with. After that it had to endure four ice ages that spread the fragments out even more. The Muonionalusta strewn field is therefore one of the largest ever discovered.

The chances of finding a meteorite by eye are smaller than a million to one I discovered later. And again I ask myself the question, lucky or unlucky?

 I can do without this sort of luck and decided to leave it somewhere as a cache in an unknown location. Just to make sure it was not some heavy pebble I send it a way and had it certified. The long side was filed and polished to reveal the core and the very peculiar triangular structure that is known as Widmanstätten pattern.

Then I decide to put a hacksaw into it, roughly cut it in two pieces and drill holes through the pointed tips, if you ever retrieve it you want to wear it around your neck.

July 2018, on the road to Teriberka on the Kola Peninsula in North-Western Russia and I’m about ready to hide my first piece of Muonionalusta meteorite.

Find your way to Teriberka. The first road sign can be ignored. Do not go to the right and over the bridge unless you want to eat something first in the only restaurant I could find. Follow instead the road to “old” Teriberka and stop at the road sign claiming you have actually arrived in Teriberka. Stand in front of it facing the village beyond, or what is left of it I should say. On the inside is a ledge where I left it.

Grab it and ask yourself the question like I did a thousand times, lucky, unlucky?

Who will be the first, to uncover the secret?... 2012

 In August 2017, the object was found by the lovely Irina from Arkhangelsk I'm sure the object will be in good hands with her. May you always be an adventurer Irina, good luck in life, and don't forget to invite me for your wedding.

 

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This page will give you instuctions on how to obtain the Berque Adventure Trophy .

The trophy is an ancient arctifact in the form of a Moroccan sugar loaf hammer. I uncovered the hammer about 28 years ago when I was metal detecting in the Les Landes in the back garden of Max & Emmanuel Berque behind their ancestral home in Saint-Julien-en-Born. The last thing I did expected to find was something Moroccan. But later I found out that the Berque brothers Maximillien and Emmanuel were born in Morocco in 1950, they are nonconformistic artists and free thinkers that made several atlantic crossings in small craft that they designed and build themselves. One of  these cossings was even made without the aid of any instruments. As they care little for earthly possesions they said I could have the object. And the moment I touched it I feld the power of the ancient hammer. I effectively became during that moment without knowing it an explorer myself.

The hammer disapeared in a box and was forgotten for years, but never forgotten was the desire to explore, and do something few people do in their life time. At the age of 50 I decided to travel to the North Cape by recumbent bike. For many a journey like this is a dream or at best a once in a life time event, but the hammer has pushed me on and in 2012 I made it to the Nordkapp for the third time on my M5 recumbent bike .

On the 2012 journey I took the hammer with me and left it in a secret location. It is there only for the verry brave to be found. It is now time that somebody returns the hammer to it's rightfull owners.

To uncover the ancient object you need to travel to the edge of the world first and the last 30 kilometers need to be done by bycicle or on foot. Enter the main structure at 71 10' 21" and look deep underground in the rocks untill you find the first Nautilus.

 
The Nautilus wil mark the entrance to the St. Johannes Kapell.
 
 
This chappel is the most northern european mainland piece of  consecrated ground. Seat your self on the front row and face the altar. Weather you are religeous or not you will feel at ease in this sanctuary, look at the beautifull contemporary artwork that can be found in this place, like the altar and the doors with their elongated silvery handles. Look up at the starry night sky with it's hundreds of twinkling lights and have a moment of contemplation. You can rightfully be proud of yourself, for you have made it to the edge of the world dispite the cold, the rain and the dreadfull wind.
 
 
This is the object as you will uncover it. The ancient copper hammer, the leather strap and a card.
 
 
While facing the altar from the front row you need to move to your right.
 
 
Check if nobody has followed you into the chapel and make sure you are alone.
 
 
 Sit on the fourth back row seat counting from the door.
 
 
Quickly stand on your chair and reach onto the latch above where the object should be. The moment you touch it the power will be transfered and you also will be a lifetime explorer from now on.
 
If possible leave a message on the ledge, stating who you are and when you recovered the object. And if you feel like continuing the quest leave a personal object behind and run a simular Geo Cache from your own website or blog. In that case you have to prepare a card with the URL of your website or blog.
 
Please return the object to their rightfull owners and receive in return their book [sadly still only in French] or their DVD that features their transatlantic crossing in an extra ordinary way. [subtitled in English] You can find more information about the Berque brothers on their website :
 
Sans Bousolle   an atlantic crossing wthout instruments.
                      Emmanuel and Maximillien Berque
 
Emmanuel & Maximilien Berque
 
Place de la Mairie
40170, Saint-Julien-en-Born
FRANCE