Soulful Totma

The best moments in life are when you have the opportunity to walk in some quiet and beautiful place at a slow pace, not for the sake of photos, but for the sake of sensations! I manage to visit such places a couple of times a year. This year, Totma turned out to be such a place.

(For myself, I recall the strongest walks of the past years: 2024 – Opoki, 2023 – Vytegra, 2022 – Chagoda and Cherepovets, 2021 – Kich-Gorodok.)

The sensations were not only emotional, but also physical.: I still remember those small sharp stones digging into my bare legs. I had to (voluntarily) ford the Pesya Denga River a couple of times.

I went out for a walk twice–once at noon, then in the evening.

I already know Totma well enough, but this time I didn't have time to explore any new places, so I walked the old routes.

Most of the time, I don't want to remember last year, but the year before that.

And for some reason, while walking, I had similar feelings as two years ago in Vytegra.

I also walked there just like that, without purpose or reason, just walked and occasionally photographed plots that interested me.

I want to go for a walk in some completely new place...and this has not happened for a long time.

There is another option on how to enjoy walking in familiar places: to update your angle of perception.

And this is even more difficult to do than going to a new place.

Or maybe I made an early conclusion about the easiest and at the same time strongest walk.

Maybe there will be something else, because not always such moments occur in the summer.

But this visit will definitely be remembered for its maximum inner peace and maximum detachment from reality.

These are probably the most important criteria that then allow you to remember any walk for a long time.

Nevertheless, summer contributes more to this lightness.