Photographers talk about the “golden hour” as being the hour just before and after sunset or sunrise where the light is particularly soft and sometimes golden, which adds a certain something to a photograph which wouldn’t be there if it was shot at any other time of day. Here in Finland we have a golden five hours, because in these northern latitudes at this time of year this is the drawn out period of dusk and dawn.
Yesterday I had loved the look of the old boathouses contrasted against the sky and reflected in the water and was sure these would look better in the golden hours. So after dinner I grabbed my camera at about 10.30 pm and went out to see what I could do. The result is just below and I’m very happy with it.
Boathouses in the “golden hour”
Our wildcamping spot was very good again. We did have a small disturbance with teenagers riding their 50cc mopeds across the car park, but that did not last long and wasn’t really a problem for us. We woke up to another lovely sunny morning, with a little more wind blowing off the lake. The sun seems so much brighter this far north.
The carpet scrubbing went on late into the evening and when I first woke up at 5am there was already one person there with their mat. Later I asked a woman who was cleaning her rug, what it was all about. She said that they did this on the same day every year.
Sarah had to prepare something for my forthcoming birthday so I was booted out of Basil for an hour. I wandered up to what Kerimaki claims is the world’s biggest wooden church. I wouldn’t argue, it’s enormous. It was built in the early 19th century to rather optimistically hold 5,000 people, which was the total population of the surrounding area at the time.
Kerimaki Church
Kerimaki Church
It is not particularly special to look at from the outside – just very big and made of wood! Inside, however, I found to be rather more interesting. Again because it is a Lutheran church it is completely unadorned. No murals, paintings, candles or elaborate alter pieces. However the clever use of wood and the simple muted colour scheme made it an ideal place for quiet contemplation.
Kerimaki Church interior
Kerimaki Church interior
For the rest of the morning we put some more miles under our belt as we drove north to the Koli Freetime Campsite (63.040500, 29.709311). It is a well equipped campsite next to a lake and at €27 including electricity is reasonably cheap for Finland. We needed to get some laundry done, so pay we must. The owner has already explained the ritual of the naked sauna to me – women 1900-2000 and men 2000-2100. I’ll probably give it a go tomorrow, but I will not be doing any lake plunging afterwards!
Camping Koli Freetime
I also asked the campsite owner about the carpet washing and she said she had never heard about it, but said Finns love to do things in large groups. But later Sarah was talking to a woman on the campsite and the woman said she was exhausted because she had to get up early this morning to scrub the carpets! Obviously some Finns do and some don’t.