August 16th
We were on the road just before 8:30am, pretty much before anyone else in the campground had even made an appearance. Our plan was to drove north-east near the lakes (Finland has 187,888 lakes!), and spend 4 days in and around this area. We made good progress and covered nearly 400km in about 6 hours. Along the way we stopped to watch a fox that we spotted in a paddock (we really are tourists; stopping to watch an animal in the paddock) and we stopped near a lake for some lunch. It was a cold, drizzly day. We arrived at our campground in Äänekoski, and checked in to find we were the only ones in the campground! We thought that this might be the end of the summer holidays in this part of the world. It was a nice campground set amongst silver birch trees, next to a lake. Unfortunately it was pouring with rain, so we spent the afternoon in the van. The rain stopped in the evening, so we managed to go for a small walk down to the water, but it was cold, so the walk did not last for long.
August 17th
We woke to another rainy, cold day, so after a relaxed start to our day we got on the road to continue the drive north-east. After a stop into a supermarket for a few supplies like bread, milk, and fruit, we continued our journey to Kuopio. The supermarket proved to be a time-consuming, but fun experience. There are your standard brands that we recognised, but in the meats section, we were trying to work out what they were, given we know they eat a few odd things up there. In the end we made our choice, but checked what it was with one of the other customers, and we were fine. We arrived in Kiupio at lunch time, went into the information centre and had a quick look around a few shops. We were going to buy a local delicacy, 'kalakukko', which is fish baked inside a rye loaf of bread. We found one in the Kauppahalli (town hall) market, but it was 23 euros, so we decided against that. It would be good to try, but we agreed it was highly unlikely we would have enjoyed it, so weren't willing to spend that much to find out! We left town and went to our campground, which was huge, and very efficiently run – several saunas and bathroom blocks. The afternoon stayed rainy and cold, so we decided to put our plans for a walk on hold, and have another afternoon in the van. We discovered a free clothes dryer, so washed some things and made full use of it! Keeping up with the washing has been difficult in Scandinavia so far. The weather forecast is better for tomorrow, but even if it isn't, we will still be going for a walk somewhere. We have just been a little spoilt with good weather over the past few weeks. So along with laundry, and book reading we quickly took care of our day.
One noteworthy thing in Finland is the number of pokie (gambling) machines around. They are everywhere, including the fuel stations and supermarket foyers. This is our first day in or around shops in Finland, and we have spotted them everywhere! They're always in high demand. Haven't tried our luck though.
August 18th
After getting up and leaving our campsite by 9am we headed into Kuopio, and up the hill (there is only one hill – Finland is incredibly flat), with a big observation tower on it. We were nice and early, and there were only a few other cars around, so we parked up, and went for a 1 ½ hour bush walk, at a rather leisurely pace. It was beautiful forest, but a bit chilly. Unfortunately we didn't spot any wildlife here, but it is quite a well used area of bush so that was no suprise. We saw lots of people out picking mushrooms, berries, or Nordic walking with poles. Once we got back to the carpark, which had filled up, we went up the tower. It is basically a viewing tower, with a restaurant and cafe in it. The view from the top was stunning. It overlooks, and gives you the best view, of the lakes district. There were dark blue lakes and dark green forested islands as far as the eye could see in nearly every direction. It was so unusual to us because we were so far inland from the sea. There was just so much water around. The other cool thing we saw were ski jump ramps, one of which was 100m long. Obviously not in use at the moment, but it would be amazing to watch in winter. You see them on TV and they do not seem real; well in real life you wonder why anyone would do it. It must be terrifying standing at the top of one of those ramps. After admiring the view we went back down to the carpark and had hot chocolates to warm up. Even though it's sunny, there's not much warmth in it up this far North.
From here we headed back to the campground, via the Kauppahalli market in town to pick up some bread for lunch. We parked up at our site and had lunch. We bought a type of round, soft, flat potato bread, which reminded me of tortillas or pancakes in appearance, but I think it was made out of potato, flour and egg. Em enjoyed it, I did not so much. We relaxed in the van until 4pm, when the smoke sauna opened. This was the reason we had come to Kuopio. It is the worlds biggest smoke sauna, and can hold 60 people (it's only a small room really).
After being given our towels we went to our changing rooms and got ready, then had a quick shower on the way into the sauna. It was a log cabin type building, with wooden three-tiered seating around 2 walls. On another wall was a massive stone walled pit that was probably about 1m deep, 1m wide, and 1.5m long. It was full of red hot embers. It was hot (obviously), and about every 5 mins some one would dump on a ladle of water to get some more steam, which intensified the heat. I managed to stay in there for about 40 minutes, with 2 small breaks, and Em lasted a little longer. I personally found it more enjoyable than our Turkish baths in April. We didn't do the local thing and go nude, and an older, naked man told Em she was wearing too much after she'd said she was getting too hot! While we were there we found out that they start the sauna at 10am, and get a good fire going, using birch and alder logs, to give the sweet smell. Once it burns without smoke they go in there and wipe down all the seats and walls of soot (what a hot job!), which in total takes about 6 hours. It seems to be quite a social experience for the Finns and they would spend a few hours there, have a drink, go for a swim in the lake, and talk, in between going in and out of the sauna. We left there just before 6pm and drove to Nurmes, which was north east. I was light-headed so Em drove. It was a town on the way to our next stop, and it seemed nice so that is where we ended up for the night. It is about 50km west of the Finland – Russia border, on the 64th degree latitude, and is only about 150km south of the arctic circle. This is the furthest north we will be during this trip. By the time we got set up it was 9pm, and time to do a couple of jobs before turning in for the night, and a chilly night it was outside! We expected a frost, but it didn't happen.
August 19th
Our plan was to arrive in Lieksa by 10am, and our morning ran smoothly. This town is really close to the Russian border, and we both thought it showed – the buildings were very bland and run-down looking, and we saw some unusual old cars, including a three-wheeled tiny red car driven by a granny. The population of the town seemed post-retirement – we were the youngest people on the street by far. After filling up the diesel in Lieksa we went to the information centre, which was quite a mission to find. Our main reason for going to Lieksa as that we had heard and read that if you want to see big wild animals this was the place to go. We saw statues of bears on the way into town, which we thought was promising. The lady in the information centre was very helpful, and booked us in with the local 'wild beast watching' guide – Era Eero. We had to be at his hut at 3pm, so we had a few hours to kill; we did groceries, got some post sent, then drove and found a nice spot for lunch.
From there we drove on, along about 15km of gravel roads and arrived at the designated spot in the middle-of-nowhere-forest. We were greeted by Era, the owner / operator, who had snacks and coffee (Kahvi) waiting for us. His house was amazing. It was a log cabin, with no running water or electricity, but it was warm and cosy, with oil lamps burning, and furs around the place. There was a huge set of antlers over the front door, and some conifer branches were fanned out as a mat around his bottom step outside. We read some wildlife information, and looked at photos, then left his house at about 3:30pm. After about a 20 minute drive we arrived at the observational hut. Era did not speak English (shrug, “me no England”), which was a shame because he was a very nice guy, and he must be so knowledgeable about the animals and the surroundings. On the way to the hut he phoned someone who spoke English and I spoke to him - he said the Era's instructions were that once we arrive at the hut, we have to be very quiet, and also that bear hunting season starts tomorrow morning, so do not be alarmed if we hear gun shots! The hut was an amazing set up. Again there was no electricity or running water, but there was a small kitchen, sleeping area with beds, and then the observational room, which had a window right across the front with tinted glass, and then above this was black canvas with drawstring openings in it for cameras. There were nice comfy chairs (car seats attached to wooden bases), and also headphones, which were hooked up to a spy-sound amplifier device, so you could hear something splashing in the water, which was more than 100m away! We were looking out over a small valley, with a grassy floor, a river, small lake, and the opposite valley wall was tall taiga forest, with boulders in amongst the trees.
Era set out some encouragement (fish) for the animals in nooks and crannies outside, and then we waited. Once we were settled in, Era left for a couple of hours. At about 5:30pm Em spotted our first wolverine on the other side of the river. It was not long before it crossed the log lying across the river as a bridge, and began searching for the food. Soon there were two others there as well. After about 30 minutes we had 5 wolverines walking lolloping around in front of us, it was fantastic. They looked so friendly, but given that they are the size of a medium dog, and one can bring down an elk, which is the size of a small horse, then, I would not try and mess with them. Apart from the running water of the river, and noises the wolverines made (scary grunts and growls), it was dead quiet. It was so relaxing, but exciting at the same time. Those 5 wolverines stuck around for almost an hour and a half, and then went back across the other side of the river back towards their homes. A big beige hawk with yellow legs silently swooped into the valley and sat on a dead tree for most of the time, not moving an inch, until he spotted some prey and swooped for it. Era arrived back close to 7pm and gave us some evening snacks. In between eating the yummy bread and cheese, yoghurt, and coffee, we continued to watch until darkness meant we could not see anything else. Era had set us up a bunk each with warm sleeping bags, and we were in them by about 10:30pm (dark), ready for an early rise. It had been a very exciting day, and watching the wolverines was even more enjoyable than we thought it would be. No bear spotting yet, but we still had the morning.
August 20th
It was our earliest start yet this trip, up at 4am, daylight was just breaking. It was a beautiful morning, clear sky, and no wind. We had some early action with 3 wolverines out early and coming up quite close to the hut, but after about 15 minutes they left again and it was quiet. We had a couple more appearances by a lone wolverine, for about 5 minutes each time, but each time it looked rather timid and did not stick around to explore the area. Our last sighting was at 7am, and when that one left we started packing up. We left the hut at 7:30am. Unfortunately there were no bears to be seen (unless one came by during the night, which we will never know). From the hut we headed back to Era's house. He made up a fantastic breakfast of muesli, stewed strawberries, cheese, ham, breads, coffee, tea, and a few other things as well. It was great. Era also rang his English speaking friend and Em spoke to him. He said that it is highly likely that any bears would have gone into hiding if they had smelled hunters, and heard any gun shots at all. He said that 15 bears had been killed in the night, which made us sad (there are less than 1000 in Finland!). We also filled in his visitors book and noticed that a BBC film crew had also spent time there, as well as a German documentary company. Era loaded us up with lots of post cards, posters, and even a Finland wildlife watching 'diploma'. We were sad that the whole experience had come to a finish. We both really enjoyed the whole thing; getting out into what seemed like the middle of nowhere, having a guide like Era, being at the observational lodge, the food, and of course seeing the wolverines. We left Era's house just before 10am and drove further east, getting to within about 10km of the Russian border, along a single lane gravel road, before heading southwest. We drove until mid afternoon, where we arrived in arrived at Juva. Here we found a nice lakeside campground and relaxed for the afternoon doing a few jobs and having wine and cheese. We were both quite tired so we were in bed pretty early.
August 21st
We were up early on yet another beautiful but fairly chilly Scandinavian summers morning for a run. After we returned, we packed up camp, got ready for the day and left camp by 9am. We drove south west to Helsinki, and arrived early afternoon at our campground. After a quick lunch in the van we headed into city centre on the Metro, to make the most of our short time in Helsinki. After changing some money to get ready for the Baltic countries, we went to the waterfront to try and catch a ferry across to the Suomenlinna Islands. However we just missed one, so while we waited for the next one to arrive we wandered around the nearby market square on the waterfront, where we bought a litre of cherries for a snack (yes – you buy them by volume here!). We ended up getting out to the island just before 5pm. Suomenlinna is an historic maritime fortress built across six islands, in the 1700's, and is Unesco World Heritage listed. It still has grass-covered sandbanks for gun powder storage, star-shaped defensive walls, tunnels, massive cannons, and other remnants from its previous life. Now it is a tourist attraction, as well as home to a few hundred people. We spent the warm sunny evening out there exploring as much as we could before we left on the 7pm ferry back to the city centre. From there we trained back to the campground, and had dinner to finish off our nice afternoon.
August 22nd
This was our full day of Helsinki exploring. Pretty much everything here opens up at 10am. We made it into town by 9am, and caught the tram up to the Helsinki Olympic stadium, home of the 1952 Olympics. This opened at 9am, so we were in luck. There is a 72m tower which is part of the stadium. We went up this first and admired the fantastic view of the stadium, the city centre and the Baltic sea. The stadium itself was not overly impressive, but nice enough. From here we walked back towards the city centre, stopping next at the Temppeliaukio Church, which is a circular hole quarried out of natural bedrock. It was strange because we arrived at the back, and it looked like a park area which was just a rocky hill, but as you walk over it you see the domed roof of the church. Once inside it is unlike any other church we have been to. The walls are solid reddish rock at the bottom, with rock (block) walls at the top to level it off, then a glass dome with wooden beams like spokes, and the centre circle of the ceiling seemed to be copper. There was a big brass organ on one side. It was very 'unchurchy'. After admiring this for quite a while, we continued towards the centre city, with our next stop being the Finland Natural History Museum. This was well worth the time it took. There were 3 main exhibitions really; 'The story of bones' (where you saw lots of skeletons including elephants, polar bears, bats, seals and giraffes), 'The Nature of Finland' (with incredibly life-like taxidermied Brown Bears, Foxes, head-butting Elk, Lynxs, arctic foxes, lots of fish, birds, and many others), and then the 'Development of Life on Earth' (which started as far back as they know life existed and worked through the billions of years, and they even had some dinosaur skeletons). Em and I both really loved it. After nearly 2 hours we finished up, which was about the right time for lunch. After choosing the wrong place for our not very enjoyable lunch we got back into our sight-seeing. We went to the Lutheran Church, a large white building topped with large green copper domes, and explored the City Hall markets. We moved on to the Orthodox Uspenski Cathedral, built by Russian Emperor Alexander II during the 1860's. That was highly decorated with gold outside and in, and was definitely a great sight to see. Most things started to close at 4pm, so after one last walk through the markets, we headed back to the train station and made our way back to the campground. It was a full and very enjoyable day. We were lucky enough to again have a stunningly beautiful day which added to the charm of Helsinki. We saw postcard pictures of the city in mid-winter – all covered in snow, and the harbour full of ice! That would explain all the fur mittens, ear-warmers, and coats for sale at the markets.