Is hiking not just the best damn thing ever? Foot after foot, breath after breath, impression after impression. Tonight I’d taken my big backpack for a big walk, one that literally started around the corner of my Villa Lanca. It was surprisingly pleasant to watch the road going straight with no change of altitude, no need to watch the pathway more than the view. The so called anklebreakers (hidden rocks and tricky tree trunks) were definitely still there, louring at the bottom and waiting to grab some ankles. But still, compared to the mountains that seemed weeks ago and worlds away, this was back to back; a basic, nevertheless extremely enjoyable hike. Its golden-brown sandy pathway immediately brought me into the pine forest, delivering me to the hands of nature once more. What makes pine forests my absolute favourite is how still they are, how quiet. The needles of the pinetrees are insensitive to the summerbreeze softly blowing trough the sky, announcing the summernight now that the sun wouldn’t go. At the same time they do not block the light out but let it all in, which allows the ground to be this carpet of green mosses and plants. Then every now and then a little group of birch trees creates an always welcome variation, but is no match for the pines. It’s insane how a forest so lively is so quiet, and amazing to realize how big it must be to hide all its creatures.
The silence was a little less quiet here, as a river that served as the heart of Inari and its only one source of sound, followed my every move. It was a beautiful contrast with the trees at its side, put in an orange glow as the sun now was at its lowest. The sun sets but also doesn’t, yet still takes the effort of rising a little bit higher only a few hours later. For a little while I followed the river, numb and hypnotized by the sound of mother nature. I was amazed by the amount of fireplaces popping up, it was such a thing for Finland to have these random, hidden, wooden fireplaces in the middle of the forest or suddenly by the side of a road. a pile of wood for everyone to burn, a few benches, and if you had the total package there was a little toilet present as well. It was just a rather long walk to take the meat along, which led me to think people caught their own fishes for campfire-dinner. With my luck I would be sucked into the river I thought, staring at the little foamy waves jumping up to all the rocks blocking their way, angrily. And then for the first time I could separate another sound, with all my senses at their peeks and the world around the forest non-existing. I looked up and spotted something twirling down, light as a leaf. I looked up and soon realized I was being spied on by one of nature’s handiest residents ; a squirrel.
A baby squirrel to be precise, with a tiny red little fur, way too big tail and ears, and big bat eyes, looked at me with a frown. It stopped moving the second he realized he was spotted and therefore also refused to break eyecontact with me. It only made a few nervous peeping sounds but when this didn’t chase me off, it stopped. Then suddenly, as if it realized I was not nearly handy enough to climb this tree, it went for a run. And then it literally took a massive leap of faith, as it made a jump I didn’t expect a squirrel to make to its neighbour tree. There it gave me one last look, proudly aware I couldn’t do the same, and left. In a forest so massive and quiet that you wonder where the birds have gone, seeing a squirrel was really exciting. What could have been exciting to but simply was a nightmare to me, was a wooden, hanging bridge to cross the river. To me the bridge was not a way to cross this obstacle, but an obstacle itself. I have this unexplainable fear of bridges collapsing when I happen to be on, and honestly almost wanted to turn back now. But I was here to live my dream, to cross of some bucketlist items, and I wasn’t going to let fear stop me from doing that. Instead I put one foot after the other on the wood, pretending the bridge didn’t move at all even though it probably was meant to, putting my trust in the engineers. And it was as if, on the other side, a reward awaited.
A little hairy white but appeared, and soon came with a face as it turned its majestic antlers my way. The reindeer truly were no longer afraid of people, I realized during a short stare-off. Somehow when making eye contact with an animal so majestically beautiful, it’s as if the whole world doesn’t make sense anymore and the beautiful miracle the earth is, is emphasised strongly. The reindeer started walking the path that was laid out in front of me, it didn’t even bother running into the green forest. So for a little while, I don’t even know how long, I simply followed it. I felt like I was harry potter following its patronus, alice in wonderland following the white rabbit. Its hooves were completely silent on the sandy path as it gracefully followed along. And then suddenly, as if it’d heard something in the silence of green, it started adding some pace, and before I know it disappeared into the bush. I went around the corner, and now I knew I had entered one of the world’s most mysterious grounds. In front of me appeared something scary, something utterly terrifying. Something beautiful, something amazing, something beautifully disturbing. It was a red wooden church, completely surrounded by a high fence and therefore either sacred ground or forbidden, or both. I absolutely didn’t want to get a step closer to this sudden mystery of wood, so obviously that’s what I did.
There was no way to get trough the fence, as all I kept thinking was how it seemed as if the reindeer guided me here, which made this already mysterious place even more terrifying. But mystery is beautiful to me, and even though many cells in my body told me to get away from this place, I couldn’t. it did feel like something bad happened here, it was disturbing to see the windows being completely boarded up and the wood looking damaged, almost as if one tried to set it on fire. The grass around the church had grown so high that it was clear nobody came along for a while, yet someone somehow decided it was not safe or appropriate to visit. Finland had never failed to disappoint me with its flood of mysteries, but this one smashed it all. A red wooden church, abandoned, locked away from the world while locking people out, deep in the middle of a forest. I felt a genuine shockwave of terror as I jumped op when probably the same reindeer jumped up only a few meters away from me and ran away. I didn’t like that it ran, it now made me feel as if I was supposed to be alone at this church or even worse; it didn’t want to be here. I couldn’t even pay attention to its beautiful little butt disappearing into the green oasis, because I didn’t want to look away from the church. I had this unpleasant feeling something was watching me as my eyes kept investigating each discoloured plank and sealed of window.
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