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форт 7


Image by Sylvain Raybaud
[Fort #7]

Vladivostok is a city of great strategical importance. Located on a peninsula, it is surrounded by military forts both on land and on islands. These forts are no longer in use and can therefore be visited… if you can find them. Fort 7 is the most famous, reputedly the most interesting, and probably the only one you can find an official guide to. And this guide is a must see.

When we arrive at the bus station it takes us 10 minutes to find the direction of the fort, and 30 more to reach it, walking on an uncovered road. When we arrive, a sign on the door indicates that the fort is already closed but that we can call a certain number. Which Oksana (out host) does. A guy tells us he’ll be there in ten minutes. And ten minutes later he is there, a skinny guy in military clothes and leather jacket, and everlasting smile carved deep in his tanned face. The usual chatter. Almost. When he hears we are French he says something about Rael we cannot understand. We prefer not to ask for details. The guide starts a diesel generator and we enter the fort. We first go to his office for a few general explanations. Then we start our descent to the depth. The fort reminds me strongly of Tarkovsky’s movie Stalker. Vast empty rooms, absolute silence except for drops of water dripping from the ceiling, cold, humidity. Our guides sometimes indulges into the most foreseeable joke by turning off all lights, and then bursts into a deep but surprisingly sober laugh. He also seems to very much enjoy his green laser.
After a while we are back in the office. Because he likes us, he tells us about what really drives his life: ufology. The guy knows everything about the UFOs who keep showing up above Vladivostok and around. He has got paintings which he has drawn himself. He has got low res photographs whose authenticity is attested by the local ufology society. He wrote an article for a newspaper back in the years, unfortunately the KGB censored it. He shows us a notebook, size of a telephone book, in which he has been writing everything he knows since 1974, everything he has observed, UFOs size, shape, speed, locations, aerodynamics… He is putting up a website [DAMMIT I LOST HIS CARD! HELP, CLEMENT AND THOMAS!]
Because he really likes us, he will walk us back to the bus. Along the way he tells us about his family, his father who worked in or near the fort, how he went to play with a friend in the fort when he was seven, how he served here during his army years [it lacks consistency it seems]. He shows us were he used to live with his father and coworkers, and tells us that the place is connected to the fort by a tunnel, and also to Russky Island (several kilometers away in the sea). He points the locations of other forts around. He tells us that he has a got a "special device" and that if he triggers it on a clear night, "something extraordinary will happen". Too bad clear nights never happen here.

See the whole set: www.flickr.com/photos/popiet/sets/72157624645931186/
See also:
www.flickr.com/supercanard/tags/russia
www.flickr.com/thomasclaveirole/tags/russia

форт 7


Image by Sylvain Raybaud
[Fort #7]

Vladivostok is a city of great strategical importance. Located on a peninsula, it is surrounded by military forts both on land and on islands. These forts are no longer in use and can therefore be visited… if you can find them. Fort 7 is the most famous, reputedly the most interesting, and probably the only one you can find an official guide to. And this guide is a must see.

When we arrive at the bus station it takes us 10 minutes to find the direction of the fort, and 30 more to reach it, walking on an uncovered road. When we arrive, a sign on the door indicates that the fort is already closed but that we can call a certain number. Which Oksana (out host) does. A guy tells us he’ll be there in ten minutes. And ten minutes later he is there, a skinny guy in military clothes and leather jacket, and everlasting smile carved deep in his tanned face. The usual chatter. Almost. When he hears we are French he says something about Rael we cannot understand. We prefer not to ask for details. The guide starts a diesel generator and we enter the fort. We first go to his office for a few general explanations. Then we start our descent to the depth. The fort reminds me strongly of Tarkovsky’s movie Stalker. Vast empty rooms, absolute silence except for drops of water dripping from the ceiling, cold, humidity. Our guides sometimes indulges into the most foreseeable joke by turning off all lights, and then bursts into a deep but surprisingly sober laugh. He also seems to very much enjoy his green laser.
After a while we are back in the office. Because he likes us, he tells us about what really drives his life: ufology. The guy knows everything about the UFOs who keep showing up above Vladivostok and around. He has got paintings which he has drawn himself. He has got low res photographs whose authenticity is attested by the local ufology society. He wrote an article for a newspaper back in the years, unfortunately the KGB censored it. He shows us a notebook, size of a telephone book, in which he has been writing everything he knows since 1974, everything he has observed, UFOs size, shape, speed, locations, aerodynamics… He is putting up a website [DAMMIT I LOST HIS CARD! HELP, CLEMENT AND THOMAS!]
Because he really likes us, he will walk us back to the bus. Along the way he tells us about his family, his father who worked in or near the fort, how he went to play with a friend in the fort when he was seven, how he served here during his army years [it lacks consistency it seems]. He shows us were he used to live with his father and coworkers, and tells us that the place is connected to the fort by a tunnel, and also to Russky Island (several kilometers away in the sea). He points the locations of other forts around. He tells us that he has a got a "special device" and that if he triggers it on a clear night, "something extraordinary will happen". Too bad clear nights never happen here.

See the whole set: www.flickr.com/photos/popiet/sets/72157624645931186/
See also:
www.flickr.com/supercanard/tags/russia
www.flickr.com/thomasclaveirole/tags/russia

форт 7


Image by Sylvain Raybaud
[Fort #7]

Vladivostok is a city of great strategical importance. Located on a peninsula, it is surrounded by military forts both on land and on islands. These forts are no longer in use and can therefore be visited… if you can find them. Fort 7 is the most famous, reputedly the most interesting, and probably the only one you can find an official guide to. And this guide is a must see.

When we arrive at the bus station it takes us 10 minutes to find the direction of the fort, and 30 more to reach it, walking on an uncovered road. When we arrive, a sign on the door indicates that the fort is already closed but that we can call a certain number. Which Oksana (out host) does. A guy tells us he’ll be there in ten minutes. And ten minutes later he is there, a skinny guy in military clothes and leather jacket, and everlasting smile carved deep in his tanned face. The usual chatter. Almost. When he hears we are French he says something about Rael we cannot understand. We prefer not to ask for details. The guide starts a diesel generator and we enter the fort. We first go to his office for a few general explanations. Then we start our descent to the depth. The fort reminds me strongly of Tarkovsky’s movie Stalker. Vast empty rooms, absolute silence except for drops of water dripping from the ceiling, cold, humidity. Our guides sometimes indulges into the most foreseeable joke by turning off all lights, and then bursts into a deep but surprisingly sober laugh. He also seems to very much enjoy his green laser.
After a while we are back in the office. Because he likes us, he tells us about what really drives his life: ufology. The guy knows everything about the UFOs who keep showing up above Vladivostok and around. He has got paintings which he has drawn himself. He has got low res photographs whose authenticity is attested by the local ufology society. He wrote an article for a newspaper back in the years, unfortunately the KGB censored it. He shows us a notebook, size of a telephone book, in which he has been writing everything he knows since 1974, everything he has observed, UFOs size, shape, speed, locations, aerodynamics… He is putting up a website [DAMMIT I LOST HIS CARD! HELP, CLEMENT AND THOMAS!]
Because he really likes us, he will walk us back to the bus. Along the way he tells us about his family, his father who worked in or near the fort, how he went to play with a friend in the fort when he was seven, how he served here during his army years [it lacks consistency it seems]. He shows us were he used to live with his father and coworkers, and tells us that the place is connected to the fort by a tunnel, and also to Russky Island (several kilometers away in the sea). He points the locations of other forts around. He tells us that he has a got a "special device" and that if he triggers it on a clear night, "something extraordinary will happen". Too bad clear nights never happen here.

See the whole set: www.flickr.com/photos/popiet/sets/72157624645931186/
See also:
www.flickr.com/supercanard/tags/russia
www.flickr.com/thomasclaveirole/tags/russia