After our two day hike in Urho Kekkonen national park, we decided to lay back at lake Inari for a day or two. This lake is situated about 300 km above the polar circle. Inari is the largest village of Finland. We crossed the village border about half an hour before spotting the first house along the road.
Lake Inari itself is about 100 km long and has an average dept of about 14m, going to 100m at some points. It is home to 3300 islands. Quite a spectacular lake 🙂
The only problem going above the polar circle are the mosquitos. You cannot believe how many hungry beast try to attack you… None of our repellents seemed to work (we should’ve brought deet, but at that time I only seemed to link that with tropical regions…) and so we got bitten a lot of times. The problem with that is that I’m am pretty allergic to mosquito bites. It took this trip to Finland for me just to realize how badly allergic… The only solution was getting some anti-histamine tablets and a lot of repairing cream with cortisone in it to fix it. Getting onto the lake was an easy way to escape the hungry swarms, and so we rented a boat for a day.
The view from our tent.
Boatrip on the lake.
Daiko loves fetching sticks!
The bigger, the better!
Dog in action!
Just keep swimming, swimming, swimming…
Almost there!
I proudly present my fetched stick!
We camped out on the borders of the lake. The campsite was, like most campings we stayed at in Finland, pretty basic – but with all the comforts we needed: a warm shower, possibility to charge our batteries and a wonderfull lakeside view. Nothing beats looking out of your tent at midnight and seeing this scenery…
Lake Inari.
Midnight sun.
The campsite was packed with people on the road, most of them on the way to or back from Nordkapp in Norway. We planned on heading there, but most people said we shouldn’t. It was a big drive up north, pretty crowded that time of year and the Nordkapp itself wasn’t that big of a deal. So we decided not to visit.
Recently I saw a wonderfull blogpost by Sartenada about the road there (you can take a look yourself here) and now I regret it. But no worries, it’s on our bucket list – and now I can enjoy it with the two loves of my life: Maarten & Febe. So no harm done there 😉
On our last day there we decided to take a walk to the Piepaljärvi Wilderness church. It’s a church that is mostly used by Saami people. You have to walk a pretty long time through the woods before you reach it. There’s no road leading there, only a path. We were told it’s a popular spot to get married. I can understand why, the location and the building is great. But I don’t see myself with a wedding dress and high heels doing that walk. I wonder how the brides do it?
Piepaljärvi Wilderness church.
The interior is basic, but very atmospheric.
Walking path up to the church. We came through the forest in the back.
Time for a last swim…
I higly recommend visiting this area. The lakeside is beautiful, the people in Inari friendly and welcoming. Just take enough protection for the mosquitos and you should be just fine 🙂
-A-
