Day 51 – to Kilpisjärvi, Finland

The mountain I had planned for today was Halti, Finland’s highest, though it’s peak, at 1365 metres, is actually in Norway. By the border, on the slope of the mountain is a point which is 1324 metres, the highest point in Finland.

But, it was not to be.

During the night a storm came in. It hadn’t been shown on the weather app I checked. There wasn’t much rain to it, but winds in excess of 100 kph. It was pretty much impossible to sleep as the van rocked around, and incredibly difficult to even open the door at 7 am.

Being the only person around, it would not have been sensible to set off, though, by midday it had blown through.

Unlucky maybe, in that if it was yesterday’s weather there would have been no problem. But, I knew before I came that winter conditions arrive about now. There’s snow forecast for tomorrow. On 18th September the huts on the various long distance trails all close, and the bridges, many of which are seasonal and portable, are taken out. The trails are in effect closed. My plan is to move south as winter forces me, and this is a gentle nudge..

Instead, I descended in the van, had breakfast and planned another route. The old settlement of Ankerlia is now an outdoor museum, but since August has been hardly visited, as a storm took out the bridge from the car park – picture blow. Instead, it’s a 5 kilometre walk on a rough and rocky track from the hydroelectric plant below it.

It was a pleasant enough outing, but the supposed highlight, Ankerlia, was a bit underwhelming. One could be excused for thinking that naming it as an outdoor museum just meant the ruin could be left, rather than being removed and tidied up.

More interesting was meeting the farmers along route, an elderly husband and wife, owners of a fox farm. In 2018 the Norwegian Parliament passed the Fur Farming Prohibition Act (FFPA). The ban will enter into force in February 2025. The existing 170 fur farmers will receive individual compensation during the transition period.

This guy had been served notice in 2020 that this farm would close January 2023.

It did seem to be on its last legs anyway. The building they lived in looked derelict. Picture below.

I couldn’t grasp what he was saying at first, fox farming. I didn’t realise there was such a thing still.

Covid pretty much killed mink farms off. The EU had been very slow to ban them, and dates for their closure were about the same, 2025. Denmark culled almost all their mink during the pandemic, as did Spain. But there are still odd outposts, like this, of a farming way of life that seems so outdated now.

The guy told me he farms silver and blue fox. The sale of the fur is largely to Asia.

In the afternoon I drove southwards and inland to the place close to where three countries meet, to Kilpisjärvi, stay for a couple of days, and, eventually, pick up my Swedish Visa card, which had been posted from Inari. Fortunately it had arrived, though post is slow in Finland, it had taken 9 days from Inari.

There has hardly been any other tourists around other motorhomes heading up to North Cape, but here it is busy. For receiving my visa, I’m obliged to use the campsite here. It’s a good chance to do laundry as well, and it’s a day of rain tomorrow, so that fits well. There are two main attractions here, a half hour boat trip across the lake to the 3 border cairn, the place where Sweden, Finland and Norway meet (which costs 50 euro..), and the walk up Sanna mountain which dominates the village.

I’m sure it’s not anywhere near as busy as it gets in the summer, or in February / March, and it’s quite enough.

Being in Finland again also is a chance to get stocked up at the supermarket and with fuel, it’s much cheaper than Norway.

Here’s a couple of photos taken as we took a quick wander above the campsite in the early evening.. autumn is establishing itself more firmly here.