War Photographer's Notebook

Chapter 286 The Valley Under the Highest Peak
"This is not a dream"

Eric pointed to Leo who was sitting next to him, "My cousin knew about a treasure buried by the Germans, but he couldn't find the exact location."

"What treasure?" Professor Jonas and Wei Ran were both aroused with curiosity.

Hearing that Eric turned his head to communicate with Leo, the latter reluctantly took out a silver cigarette case from his pocket and threw it to Eric.

The latter took the cigarette case, took out a few cigarettes from it and distributed them to everyone, and then took out a very familiar photo of Wei Ran from it.

"My cousin found this in an abandoned mine when he first started working."

Eric explained in detail while Professor Jonas was looking at the photo, "At that time, he found a decomposed corpse in the mine, and he also found a camera and some film near the corpse. It was developed from the film found. Leo suspects that this is gold buried by the Germans."

"Where did you find this?" Wei Ran couldn't help asking, and Jonas beside him also pricked up his ears.

Eric spread his hands helplessly, "Aside from showing off with this photo, he never said where he found it."

"I hope he can find these golds." Jonas handed the photo to Wei Ran, and seeing the latter waved his hand simply, he returned it to Eric.

Putting the photo back into the cigarette case and handing it to Leo who was still wiping the weapon, the topic of everyone returned to the Equator 2 weather station they had been looking for.

Unfortunately, just as Leo refused to say where he found the photo, Jonas clearly didn't want to say how he found the weather station.

During the chat, everyone drank a pot of coffee, and after the body was completely warmed up, Leo also began to prepare meals for everyone.

After Jonas promised to give him a gasoline flatbread oven after the expedition, everyone's first meal on Bear Island was also extraordinarily sumptuous.

From the very Norwegian Soder mutton soup and mutton stewed cabbage, to the pickled herring that made the three of them frown, to the potato wine that Eric called Norwegian blood, in short, after this meal, everyone They all praised Leo's cooking skills, and at the same time forced him not to take out the pickled herring to affect his appetite next time.

As for Leo, while enjoying everyone's praise for his culinary skills, he also sneered at everyone's requests.Although the pickled herring he ate was not the sensational canned Swedish herring of later generations, the weird taste was definitely not much better after being genetically mutated in the steaming tent.

After filling their stomachs, everyone decided to take a nap first at Leo's request. According to him, there will be a short period of dawn in about five or six hours. Instead of searching in the dark now, it is better to sleep and rest Keep your spirits up and wait until dawn before continuing to look for clues.

After all, Leo was their guide on this trip, Professor Jonas and Eric had no objections, and Wei Ran naturally did not have any objections.

After a brief discussion between the four, Jonas chose to live in the same tent as Eric on the pretext that he couldn't stand Wei Ran's snoring.It's just that Wei Ran could see clearly that this cautious professor made it clear that he didn't want Eric to have any private communication with his cousin that he didn't know about.

But Leo didn't seem to notice it, and enthusiastically led Wei Ran into another tent, lit the gasoline stove to warm up the tent, set the alarm clock and put it on the sleigh in the center of the tent, and then lay down On a furry bearskin blanket, a piece of equally furry reindeer skin was covered over the head, and it didn't take long to snore.

Seeing this, Wei Ran also took out a sleeping bag from his backpack and spread it on his reindeer skin blanket, and then covered himself with an extra blanket after getting in.

And in the middle of the two tents, after filling their stomachs, the four reindeer obediently huddled on the cushions that belonged to them, and buried their mouths in the warm thighs.

When the sound of the alarm clock woke Wei Ran, who was sleeping soundly, the sky outside the circular air vent in the center of the tent roof had become gray, and Leo, who was on the other side of the sleigh, had already stretched out and climbed. up.

Warmly greeted Chao Weiran. After realizing that the latter could not understand what he was saying, Leo pointed to the outside of the tent, and after saying "Eric", he turned around and got out of the warm room. tent.

When Wei Ran got dressed and chased after him, Leo and Eric were already dismantling another tent.

"Victor, Leo just discussed with me."

Eric stopped what he was doing and said, "We will accompany Professor Jonas to find the weather station later, how about you stay in charge of the camp?"

"Not changing positions?" Wei Ran asked in surprise.

"Don't change it now"

Professor Jonas took over the conversation and said, "Leo said that this is almost the center of Bear Island. No matter where the weather station is, it is only less than ten kilometers away from here. Leave the supplies here, and the reindeer can Run a little easier and run faster."

"We'll be back after dark"

Eric said enviously, "You can help us prepare some food and drink in advance. To be honest, if I don't need to be an interpreter, I would like to stay."

Seeing that the three had already made a decision, Wei Ran looked at Professor Jonas suspiciously, and then agreed.

Watching the three people running farther and farther in the reindeer cart, Wei Ran frowned. A few hours ago, Professor Jonas was guarding Eric and his cousin openly and secretly. , Why did you leave yourself behind?

Suppressing the doubts in his heart, Wei Ran took advantage of this rare opportunity to try to take the boat out of the metal book.Unfortunately, this row of boats was also temporarily detained.

In desperation, Wei Ran simply got into the tent and lay down on the reindeer skin blanket that was still warm. While staring at the sky above his head, he thought about the photo he saw in Leo's cigarette case yesterday. .

After a short four or five hours, the sky outside the vents became dark again, and the aurora also surged wantonly like colorful clouds.

Seeing that the time was almost up, Wei Ran, who had recovered enough energy, got up, lit a kerosene lamp and placed it on the top of the big rock not far away as a guiding lighthouse. Add some water to the leftover mutton soup and continue cooking.

Although meals were prepared on his side, it took another four or five hours after dark before the sleigh driven by Leo ran back from the southeast with the kerosene lamp on.

"Have you found it?" Wei Ran asked after the three tired-looking people got off the sleigh.

"No." Professor Jonas shook his head. "The snow in this ghost place is too thick. It is not so easy to find the weather station left over 40 years ago."

"And we almost fell into a rock crevice," Eric said with lingering fear.

"It's Leo's luck. He got two beautiful arctic foxes."

Professor Jonas changed the topic in a timely manner, and Leo, who was untying the reindeer, immediately pointed to the two white fox corpses hanging on the side of the sleigh after hearing that the other party seemed to mention his name. .

Seeing that Professor Jonas didn't want to talk more, Wei Ran didn't ask in detail, and after helping Leo and Eric set up the tent again, he immediately greeted them for dinner.

It's just that the dinner he messed up was naturally not as good as Leo's cooking skills, but fortunately there was no pickled herring this time, so there were no leftovers, and they were all eaten.

After searching for a full four days day after day, when they ushered in the fifth day, Jonas signaled without warning that Wei Ran would also follow this time, and at the same time, he had to bring all the supplies .

"Professor, have you found the location?" Eric asked in surprise.

Professor Jonas nodded, and said with an uncertain expression, "I thought about it last night, and I still think that the valley we went to two days ago is the most suitable for the description of the location of the Equator 2 weather station. place, so I think it’s better to go there together and focus on searching.”

This old fox.
Wei Ran cursed secretly, he was almost certain that Professor Jonas must have found the weather station long ago, and he probably spent the rest of the days circling the weather station to observe the surrounding environment.

But Eric obviously didn't think of this, he just excitedly called his cousin Leo to help Wei Ran clean up the camp and loaded all the things into the sleigh.

Under the leadership of Leo, the two sleigh cars slowly advanced on the thick snow, and before it got dark, they passed through a five-60-meter-long mountain depression and drove into a field surrounded by surrounding stone mountains. An oval valley that is one kilometer long.

When the two sleigh carts stopped, Professor Jonas pointed to a looming peak to the northeast and said, "That is the highest peak of Bear Island. According to the diary records left by my father, there was a building on the top of that mountain. There was a radio relay tower. They took it down and pushed it out to sea before they pulled out."

"Where's that weather station?" Eric asked impatiently.

Professor Jonas turned around and pointed to another hill that was much shorter about one kilometer away and said, "According to the records in the diary, that weather station is located in a valley around the highest point of Bear Island, in the northwest direction of that valley. A kilometer or so away, they built a small signal tower on another hill."

Having said that, Jonas paused, and continued with a regretful tone, "But the diary left by my father did not mention the direction of the highest peak of this meteorological station. But according to the exploration of the past few days, This should be the location that best matches the description in the diary."

"So what we need to do now is to find that weather station in this area?"

Seeing that Professor Jonas nodded, Wei Ran simply continued to ask, "Did your father mention what the weather station looked like in his work diary?"

"A small wooden house." Professor Jonas looked around and replied, "That house was built in the middle of the valley. But they demolished it before leaving."

"Torn down?" Eric's eyes widened. "Since the weather station has been taken down, how did the weather data survive?"

"don't worry"

Jonas waved his hand, "As long as we can find the ruins of the weather station, we will definitely be able to find the meteorological data left here. I can guarantee that they must be very well preserved."

(End of this chapter)