Day 39 – at Inari

Inari town sits on the western edge of the vast Inari Lake, the third largest lake in Finland. It’s level is regulated by the Kaitakoski hydroelectric station in Russia, as the main river that feeds it, the Paatsjoki, is entirely in Russia, the absolute eastern edge of the lake is also in Russia.

From our overnight stop, there is appealing 5 kilometre hike to the Pielpajärvi Wilderness Church which skirts a small part of Inari Lake and passes a few other smaller lakes. With so much swimmable water it was always going to rank as one of Roja’s favourites of the course.

The Church itself was only of passing interest to me. Christianity was brought to the Sámi in the 1500s by missionaries. The Sámi are traditionally animists, believing that all significant natural objects have souls (animals, plants, rocks, etc). They have many deities, several of which lend their stories to Finnish folklore.

The Protestant church was hostile to Sámi shamanism, which it considered to be Pagan idolatry, and wished to exterminate it and Christianise the Sámi people. This resulted in some unsavoury skirmishes, including the burning of their drums and forbidding them from their costume, dancing, singing, and telling traditional stories. It is only relatively recently (1970s) that their traditions have been actively encouraged again, coinciding with a drive to encourage tourism in the area…

This church was built in 1752. Services were held when pastors visited, about 5 times a year. In the mid 1800s it fell into disrepair, and use of it ceased when the new church in Inari was built in the 1880s. It was renovated in 1975, for the odd service, but mainly for tourism, the hike out to it is a spectacular one. Interestingly, there has never been a cemetery at the church, the Sámi always kept their tradition of using cemetery islands, of which there are two in adjacent lake.

That the three languages on the information boards other than Finnish are German, English and Russian shows how many tourists from Russia Finland usually receives. Not at the moment though of course. Borders are in effect closed, as the visa that is necessary for Russian visitors is currently almost impossible to get.

There were a few other visitors around, including a group of Spanish at the church, so an opportunity for me to get frustrated trying to remember all the vocabulary I’ve forgotten since the last time I was in Spain, less than a year ago..

I walked the last section of the return leg with a Swiss couple from Basel who were keen hikers and heading for the National Parks I have just been in.

It’s was a showery day, and though it didn’t seem like it, there was enough sun to completely recharge my batteries. The temperature didn’t get above 10C, plenty warm enough so long as you keep moving.

I moved to the west of Inari in the late afternoon, just so as it be parked up in a place that we can hike from tomorrow, and it’s a lot wilder. There’s no one else here, another perfect overnight park up.