Team Basil is proud to announce that today it completed a walk without getting lost!
This morning we awoke to find that we had managed to sleep right through the summer and had woken up sometime in late autumn. We slowly realised we were on the same latitude as Iceland and that five degrees celsius was probably normal sometimes for July. We fought the temptation to put on Basil’s heating, because Finland is the only country through which will travel this trip which does not sell LPG and Basil’s boiler, excellent though it is, uses more gas than than even I can produce on a diet of pure baked beans and mushy peas.
Sarah’s extra wooly Christmas socks were quickly rescued from the back of a cupboard and my resolution to wear shorts from March to September rapidly crumbled. It was properly chilly and to make matters worse a sort of drizzly light rain hung in the air and heavy grey clouds looked set for the day.
We had planned to do a long walk and being British a bit of rain and cold weather was jolly well not going to stop us. Eventually we got all our winter gear together and after many cups of tea were ready to set off by 11.30. The walk was only 6 miles so I said there was no need to pack sandwiches, we’d be back for lunch. A mistake as it turned out.
The walk was surprisingly good, despite the weather and my increasing allergy to walking amongst endless trees. In these national parks the walks are all marked with different colours on the trees. We were following green and I was determined that today we would not be trying any shortcuts.
We’re following the green trail
The amount of work that goes into maintaining these paths is truly impressive. A few days ago you may remember we walked on a cross country ski path which in winter is lit for its entire 22 km until 9pm every night. I talked to the campsite owner who said maintaining the path cost €50,000 a year, which was split between various stakeholders. The paths in this particular park are of course not lit, but they are maintained to a very high standard. Because of the terrain for these Finnish forests, they are always close to lakes with various marshy areas and rivers to cross. All these are managed with sturdy planked walkways and bridges and various sections have gravel on them. All of this in the middle of nowhere, on paths that are probably not used by many people a year and on terrain where it is difficult to see how mechanised vehicles can assist.
Board walk over a bog
Today’s path turned out to be more interesting than a standard forest walk. There were plenty of hills, variety in the forest types, clearings, bogs and of course lakes. We even ended the walk with an impressive ridge with steep drops and lakes on either side. The large showy flowers which are evident in warmer climes are absent but there were plenty of small, ground dwelling flowers to keep our interest. Lichen is everywhere in profusion – on trees and even in huge clumps on the forest floor. Wildlife was thin on the ground. We could hear, but not see, plenty of birdlife and there was evidence of deer. The one constant was mosquitoes, although they were only problematic if we stopped for any period of time.
Oh look, another lake!
About half way round the walk was a shelter with cooking facilities, including free wood and pans. There was even a guest book, where we were the first British entry and only the second entry from outside Finland, the other being from the Netherlands.
Shelter and cooking facilities, provided all over the national parks. Wood store in the background
The dogs had a great time. Melek really thrives in these temperatures and managed the distance with no problems. He was even leading the way at the end. Mabel was well disciplined except for one bout of Spaniel excitement where she suddenly went bounding off across a bog and out of our sight in chase of some smell or other. We were relieved she responded to our calls and we saw her reappear. She then went back on her lead.
At last a view without trees in the way.
It turned out the walk took us three and a half hours, during which time we saw nobody, and by the time we got back to the campsite we were starving. It was straight to the campsite cafe for tea and cake.
On our return to Basil we did fire up his heaters for fifteen minutes or so to raise the temperature. The week ahead promises to be a little warmer, but I suspect this may not be the last cold snap we experience this summer.