Monastery at Virkatouyre, 320 km north of Ekaterinburg, Western Siberia, Russia. Summer 2004. Virkatouyre represents the highest latitude I have been on the Earth. It also represents a major "stamping ground" of the Mad Monk of Russia, Rasputin. Nowadays Rasputin would be called a feral. Here is the famous monastery where Rasputin hung out. Compare with this view of the same monastery in winter. Going to Russia in winter is like going to another world! Comparisons of the countryside between summer and winter are very marked.

(Photograph: T.J. Hawkeswood)