There's not a lot of pictures of this trip because it was raining on and off all the time, but I will share what I can.
Today we drove 6 km north, towards Luosto, then took a turn left at Aarnijärvi and drove a kilometer on till we found a parking place.
We then found out we sttill had a good 2,6 km to walk until we'd reach our destination, the amethyst mine. It started raining, so we took two umbrellas from the car and started walking.
Soon we realised we could have taken some warmer clothes with us too, and the mosquitoes seemed to have planned a stakeout for every poor soul to walk that path.
It was kind of inevitable that Miro would start reacting to all the stress. Before half way he had gone through pretty much all emotions from fear to sadness and hate. He was screaming and crying that he hated all the mosquitoes and how his feet and stomach hurt. All the bitterness just poured out from the depths of his soul.
When we reached Lampivaara, the hill the mine located on, and more importantly, a café where one could enter and escape the mosquitoes, Miro finally calmed down.
I bought both my boys a cup of cocoa, and sweet buns for each. Then I heard someone asking about the guided tour at the mine. I heard the next tour would start in forty minutes and would last for an hour. I started worrying as we weren't equipped to last an hour in the rain.
Gladly they had some cheapo raincoats for sale so I bought us one for each before Miro would cry his eyes off for the thirtieth time, now for not being able to mine his own amethyst rock.
When we were set up, I bought the tickets, and then we waited. Miro was asking an another boy who'd come back from the mines what he'd found, and how they used pickaxes and whatnot. He found out that he'd only get to keep just one small stone. Boy was he looking sorry and sad for that too.
When we finally got to the mining grounds, we were first taken to a meeting room with reindeer hide covered benches where we were taught by our guide what kinds of precious stones we might find and that we could each take just one stone with us, and it was to fit our fist. At that point Miro broke up and started crying again. The guide then added that the smallest guests could lend their parents' fists to not feel so bad.
So when the briefing was over, we were taken to the mining area, that was basically a pile of sand and rocks.
The digging part was not for me, as I started both my back and knees decided that I'm doing something a man in my age shouldn't be doing. But I endured, for my boys. I tipped them off on a good spot and put away my pickaxe. In the end our "loot" was pretty impressive. Miro had found, I would say the most beautiful deep purple Amethyst I've ever seen.
Okay, on the way back, Miro lost his cool again, and he even claimed he didn't care about reindeer either because he now "hates all animals".
Still, when the trip whas over, I bought us all icecream so we'd be on a bit better mood.
When we got back to our family cottage I made an omelet out of the leftovers from a pineapple coconut chicken with rice. Sadly I threw my part of it on the floor so only the boys got to eat.
Then it was bed time again, and I read them of the destruction of Isengard, told by Pippin.
They are both sound asleep now.
Amethysts
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