Lakes and carriages disappear into the ground in Järva-Jaani
A century old geography books write that Järva-Jaani and its surroundings are driest and highest parts of Järva County. There are no lakes, only some creeks and springs as the only sources of water and refreshment.
For the joy to the locals as well as to the by passers there is an artificial lake situated on the edge of Järva-Jaani borough. It is not the only water eye of the parish. More interesting ones are shining in the spring sun in Jalgsema and Paistevälja. Those water fields filled with taiga bean and white fronted gooses, long-tailed ducks, mallards, black-headed and herring gulls are usually disappeared into the air by midsummer.
When the waking up time arrives and Jalgsema alder and bird cherry ditches are echoing of the singing of the fieldfares and chaffinches then the water underneath the soil may boil so intensely that in couple of days a lake may appear covering couple of hectares.
The secret of the coming and going of the water lies in the landscape. Between the villages of Jalgsema and Paistevälja is situated a karst hollow which fills with water and creates shallow water lakes during the high water season and dries up by the midsummer.
Järva-Jaani is for sure one of the limestone richest areas in Järvamaa. The stacks reach the surface of the soil in quite many places. The wonderful play of spring waters can be observed in Kuksema karst basin and Karinu passages. The edge of the Järsi forest is very rich of smaller and bigger karst holes. The biggest hole is Suure Jüri (George the Great) hole and the surrounding area is called Liuski by the locals. This valley, kilometer in length and hundred meters in width, has in ancient times been a lake.
There is a story going around about the meadow-lake saying that in ancient times there was a road and the road had a bridge that was called Devil’s bridge because Devil himself had gone in and out from there. The great Jõri hole got its name after the Karinu manors coachman the tall Jüri. Once Jüri had belt along with the fine seven horse carriage and all of the sudden the carriage carrying Jüri and manor dames sunk under the soil. Only water had soughed around.
* There are lots of sacrifice stones in Karinu. The proudest of them, Orjakivi (Slave Stone), has 56 dished worship sockets.
* There are lots of horse ants in Kuksema, their population area is mapped.
* In the springtime on the fields and water eyes of Järva-Jaani surroundings stop over thousand headed flocks of birds and it is possible to count dozens of different species at a time.
* Near the borough grows nearly ten different species of orchids.
* Karinu limestone pit was taken into usage well before the First World War. Circle limestone inherent to the pit is developed thanks to the chamber of one species – borealis borealis. |
