With a new car and a camper fixed up after last summer’s and winter beating we’ve set up on our traditional August trip to Kuzomen. Here are a few photos from our way to Kuzomen the August of 2020.

Ran into a fairly large (about 50 heads) herd of cows in Umba:

Stopped in Kashkarantsy overnight. Lots and lots of blueberries, more than I’ve ever seen before:

Our next short stop was by a small chapel dedicated to one of the local saints, the Nameless Monk of the Ter Coast, a couple of miles east from Kashkarantsy. He was proclaimed a saint after, sometime in the 17th century, a local fisherman had a vision and, following instructions received in this divine message, he found a body, dressed in monk’s habits, washed ashore. Unlike most bodies of drowning victims, this one had no sign of corruption and was thus proclaimed to belong to a saint. Here:

An empty – or, rather, full of sand – coffin inside is full of handprints. Apparently, a new tradition the meaning of which we are yet to discover.

Candies on the casket and a pile of coins in the corner.

While on the way, struggled to understand the functions of many control buttons – much more than in the old Land Rover – in our “new” car, a 2005 Nissan Patrol:

Arrived in Kuzomen on Sunday and set up a camp:

Went to the local General store. Noticed a curious poster at the entrance inviting people to participate in horseback tours all over the Kola Peninsula. These would be extremely hard to organize given local distances so I remain skeptical if this offer is for real but here is the photo of the poster:

Their VK page is vk.com/horse_tours. Apparently they are based in Murmansk.