Postcard from... the Eternal Sea

By Julia Stone:

It was the name on the map that intrigued us. Scanning through the places and landmarks of Ostfriesland the name jumped up off the page. Ewiges Meer – the Eternal Sea. We knew nothing else but the name was enough. We took a detour and followed a wooden path above the marshy moor for two kilometres, all the while watching the sky warily for the onset of a promised thunder storm.

We found the lake and immediately noticed there was none of the usual reeds and other plantlife growing in the shallower waters along the shore, and from the information boards by the path we learned that this was a result of the nutrient poverty of the moorland waters. The Eternal Sea is a Hochmoorsee (high moor lake), around which peat was long extracted until it was declared a nature reserve in 1939. It may be only three metres deep but it is 1.8 kilometres long and almost a kilometre wide.

Under darkening skies the waters were choppy, and although the information boards promised a variety of birds and other wildlife there was none to be seen. No people either, and standing out there with no chance of shelter from the cloudburst, feeling rather disconnected from civilisation, our surroundings felt strangely timeless... you might even say: Eternal.

Elsewhere No.04, featuring illustrations and artwork from Julia Stone, is out now. You can order your copy directly with us via the online shop.