From scarcity to abundance. 08/11/2009
It also happens to the most experimented trekkers. We had made this promise to ourselves to stop in Inari at a gas station and buy some propane for our small old gas ring. We did stop at the gas station, but we curiously left with bottles of fresh water! Just a basic neglect, but here we are, already gone for 5 days, trekking through the immense wild lands of Lapland with an amount of propane that would cook at best 5 or 6 meals -it was our certainty and our hope-, at worst 1 or 2 meals -it was the reality-. There was a fire restriction set off over this region of the world surprised by some hot temperatures and a lack of rain, which is not a normal situation in Lapland. So, it was prohibited to build a fire outside. But, as you can guess, most of our meals needed to be warmed or required boiling water. The log cabins and other shelters are distanced between each other on average of about 10km. Each one has a wood stove, but of course, they're much slower to start up. Considering that we need to hike about 20km each day, common sense would tell us that we didn't have much time and energy to build 2 or 3 fire woods throughtout the day. To summarize, we are coping with a difficult situation... We haven't had enough time to plan a way back on our first kilometers hiked. We haven't had enough time to pray either. Already, we open the doors of our first log cabin and we discover it's classic comfort, but on the left, at the entrance, a gas stove is available, which is connected to two propane cylinders, located outside in a nice storage!!! For more than one year now, we have been amazed at the quality of the Finnish equipement arranged on the trails. But this time, we are truly surprised by this free and totally unexpected eminity provided for trekkers, allowing them to cook on efficient gas stoves. That was the first time we have seen this in Finland! The next log cabins offered the same services and opportunities. So this is how we came from a situation of scarcity, where we were filled with worry into a situation of abundance. Reflecting back, we realized it's quite logical, since Lapland doesn't have so much fire wood and may be under the law of fire restriction for a while. So logs cabins need an alternative solution. But what we want to remember is our surprise about this nice reality. So, allow us here to address sincere gratefulness to the country of Finland, and to to the people who work very hard to take care of this large trekking network of trails. And, finally, more than religious and traditional words, we want to thank God for having fixed "our neglect" and having given us a beautiful testimony of human generosity in a world filled with monetary pursuits.
