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*** FINLAND 2012 - WEEKS 16~17 *** | |||
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The Skierri Fell-Lapland Centre in Enontekiö provided a wealth of information in readiness for tomorrow's walk in the Pallas-Yllästunturi National Park and an impressive exhibition on Sámi life. Along the village street, we paused at Enontekiö's modern church built in 1952 with financial support from Finnish-American Lutherans to replace the original church destroyed in 1944. We walked around the church to admire the high curved vaulting and east end wall decorated with a mosaic of Christ blessing the Lapland fells, to an accompaniment of Vivaldi as the Oulu Chamber Orchestra rehearsed for an evening concert. (Photo 1 - Enontekiö church with Lapland wall mosaic).
Before
leaving the Pallas-Yllästunturi National Park, we called in at the Visitor
Centre on the slopes of the region's highest fell, the rounded topped 807m high
Taivaskero. The Pallas-Yllästunturi chain of forested fells form the western
terminus of the northern boreal taiga belt which spans the Arctic polar region
of the globe
passing through Siberia across to North America. But the highly profitable
winter sports industry had made its presence unduly felt in this bleakly
attractive and previously unspoilt fell-land tundra: the area was now dominated
by a huge and intrusive ski hotel and the eroded walking paths on Taivaskero
were scarred by ski-lifts. It did however have its practical advantage in that
the narrow minor roads The following morning was bright but the air
had the distinct chill of early autumn. Today, after a provisions stock-up in
Kittilä's supermarket, we had a 150km drive south on Route 79 following
the Ounasjoki's middle valley to Rovaniemi, our final day within the Arctic
Circle. The road passed through continuous pine and spruce forest, and we had a
narrow miss when a large reindeer unexpectedly scampered across the road.
Approaching Rovaniemi was
We
drove down through the town and crossed the river on the so-called Lumberjack's
Candle Bridge (named from the illuminated-topped pylons) to find tonight's
campsite, of which Rovaniemi has two: the smaller, more attractive and cheaper
option, Camping Napapiirin Saarituvat in the eastern outskirts would mean a
drive into town for tomorrow's visit. The closer option, Ounaskoski Camping, is
set on banks of the Ounasjoki river looking directly across at the town, and we
headed for that, to be greeted with an officiously indifferent non-welcome from
the surly owner; he reacted with a casual shrug on being congratulated on being
the most outrageously over-priced campsite in the whole of Scandinavia, as he
demanded €31.50 for a night's stay, plus an extra €5 for wi-fi if you were
prepared to pay for that - we weren't. But it was within walking distance of the
town; you pays your euros ... !! We selected a pitch
It
was still raining the following morning, a miserably wet day for our visit to
grey Rovaniemi, and in full rain-gear, we set off walking across the river on
the double-decker girder-bridge, the railway running along the upper decking and the
road-footpath below (see left). As we crossed, a long timber train trundled over
the bridge above us. In 1944 while the occupying Germans went about their
barbarian business of destroying old Rovaniemi, the entire civilian
After
a good value Finnish buffet lunch at Moriza, we walked in drizzly rain through
Rovaniemi's ultra modern pedestrianised centre, passing another of the town's
memorials, a shell-fragment shaped piece of scrap metal posing as Alvar Aalto
art-work and stuck on a shop wall and entitled Aurora Borealis (see left); local
people who walked by it every day managed to remain indifferent. Across the
Route 4 highway where it emerged from an underpass under a shopping centre, we
passed what is
Our next campsite was 80kms to the south at Pudasjärvi but rather than take the direct road, experience had shown that even minor roads were well surfaced and gave a far more pleasant drive especially on a bright morning. We therefore took a roundabout route through the pine forests on Route 858, a lonely road through forested heathland interspersed with farming villages. We passed just a few reindeer, probably the last we should see, and just after the farming hamlet of Kelankylä, we reached the southern border of Lapland indicated by the Lappi sign (see right); it was a sad moment (Photo 18 - leaving Lapland). This was a truly magnificent drive: the road was deserted and the golden Ruska colour of birches fringing the woodland was lit by the afternoon sun (see left).
Rather than heading directly towards Oulu along the busy Route 20, we again took the more peacefully traffic-free minor Route 855 through pine forests following the Iijoki valley westwards to the curiously-named villages of Yli-Ii (Upper Ii) and Ii. As we approached the coast at the Bothnian Gulf, the pine forests gave way to the most intensive farming countryside we had seen in the whole of Finland, with dairy cattle, cereal crops and large fields cleared over generations from the surrounding forests. Crossing the wide River IIjoki on another double-decker girder bridge with the Rovaniemi-Kilpisjärvi railway line passing overhead on the upper deck, we reached the village of Ii and the main west-coast Route 4, which runs from Oulu north to Kemi, across to Sodankylä where we had joined it weeks ago, on from there to Ivalo and Inari, and finally across the tundra fells to Finland's northern outpost of Utsjoki, indeed an old friend of a road. Here we turned south but before heading into Oulu, we turned off into Haukipudas to see the small town's parish church whose interior is decorated with 18th century wall-paintings of Biblical scenes.
Oulu (pronounced Oh-loo) with a population
of 135,000 is Northern Finland's largest city. Founded in 1605 by Swedish King
Karl IX as a port at the mouth of the Oulujoki river. the city's historical
wealth was based on timber floated down the river from the forests of Kainuu,
from salmon fishing in the river, but most particularly on the export of pine
tar brought for caulking wooden sailing ships. A disastrous fire in 1822
destroyed much of Oulu which was rebuilt in grandiose style by the city's wealthy
merchants who enlisted Carl Ludwig Engel, Helsinki's architect-in-chief, to
design the new city's major public buildings in neo-Classical style. The modern
city has been revitalised in recent years by its university's technological and
The cruciform interior of Engel's neo-Classical
cathedral was starkly Lutheran but decorated with several noteworthy pieces of
art-work including Finland's oldest surviving painting, the 1611 portrait of the
Swedish historian and dramatist Johannes Messenius (Photo 22 - Interior of Oulu's Lutheran Cathedral). Across the square, the
neo-classical grandeur of the Governor's former residence, now the Regional
State Administrative Agency, was lit by morning sunshine (see left). The park's
third side was enclosed by one of Engel's less inspiring design, the Oulu
Upper-Secondary Lyceum with plaques recalling 3 former pupils who became Finnish
presidents, K J Ståhlberg (president 1919~25), Kyösti Kallio (1937~40) and
Martti Ahtisaari (1994~2000), a plaque marking Ahtisaari's Nobel Peace Prize in
2008, and one commemorating the victims of WW2 Soviet bombing of Oulu. We walked
down Kirkkokatu (Church Street) to find Oulu's neo-Gothic City Hall, formerly a
restaurant for the city's tar-rich merchants and now offices for city
bureaucrats (see right). We ventured inside and
asked at reception if we
We headed down towards the Kauppatori (market
square) and by the side of the market stood the delightfully
attractive re-brick Kauppahalli (market hall) dating from 1901, a truly elegant
building its façade decorated with ornate brick features (Photo 24 - Oulu's 1901 brick-built Kauppahalli).
Outside the Kauppahalli guarding the entrance to the market square stood the
squat, portly figure of Toripolliisi, a 1987 bronze sculpture of an Oulu
market place policeman funded by public subscription to symbolise the bobby-on-the-beat
Leaving the market, we passed under 2 road bridges
into the delightful wooded green area of Ainola Park which looked out across the
Oulujoki delta towards the Merikoski HEP generating plant dam which spanned the
bay with water gushing through the sluice gates (Photo 27 - Merikoski dam spanning the Oulujoki river). A path
led us through the park to the Northern Ostrobothnian Museum whose displays
present a history of Oulu and its region from prehistorical times up to modern
industrial development. We particularly wanted to see the exhibits detailing the
production of pine-tar, floated in barrels down the length of the Oulujoki
from the forests of Kainuu to the port of Oulu for export, to caulk wooden
sailing ships and line the pockets of merchants with wealth that beautified the
city. It was not the most exciting of museums but we did learn much about
timber, tar and salmon fishing industries which brought Oulu its wealth. Moving
on around the
Dodging the cyclists, we crossed the dam to reach
the far bank and walked past the power generating plant along the riverside
pathway to a footbridge to cross 3 more of the delta's islands and back to our
start point back in the market square. After an ice cream in the sunshine we
ambled over the footbridge to the 4th island of Linnansaari where the remains of
Oulu's Swedish castle
The
birches under which we were camped at Oulu were now not only showing a golden
autumnal tinge but beginning to shed their leaves. The following morning we
crossed back from the outer island of Hietasaari on which Camping Nallikari was
set to the mainland to join Route 20 eastwards from Oulu and turned off onto
minor roads along the valley of the Kiiminginjoki. This was a quiet
Route 891 cut a straight but steeply undulating
course through Kainuu's forested landscape which from high points along the road
could be seen stretching It was a pleasantly warm autumn day for our day
in camp at Camping Ristijärvan Pirtii and after a morning catching up with
household jobs and updating the website, we went berry-picking on the nature
walk which led from the campsite around a lakeside board-walk. Among the birch woods
we found more ripe Lingonberries to add to our culinary stock (Photo 31 - Berry-picking at Ristijärvan Pirtii)
but most of the trees were now beyond their autumn colours and losing their
leaves. Such was the campsite owners' hospitality that they invited us to an
end-of-season party being held for their regular static caravan occupants and
that evening we joined them in one of the barns. Few of the other guests spoke
English but we enjoyed a fun evening of singing and dancing, including joining
in a Finnish karaoke; we now could sing Talo Auringan (House of the
Rising Sun) to add to our stock of Finnish. On an overcast and chill autumn morning, we
left Ristijärvi and continued south on Route 5, crossing Route 89 which branched
off to a new border-crossing into Russia. Soon after we turned off westwards on
minor lanes to find Paltaniemi a village on the shores of the all-spreading Lake
Oulujärvi renowned for the wall-paintings which cover the interior of its wooden
church. We had tried unsuccessfully on the telephone to arrange a visit, but we
hoped this morning to find someone in the village who could open the church for
us. Paltaniemi had been home to wealthy Swedish merchants who profited from
trade in this remote corner of the Swedish empire whose borderlands with Russia
were guarded by Kaajani Castle. The wooden church was built in 1726 and
elaborate wall-paintings covering the interior walls and ceiling added later in
the 18th century. These included a graphic Last Judgement scene whose gruesome
depiction of Hell was so shocking that the lower part was removed. But when we
reached Paltaniemi this morning, the huge church and separate bell-tower were
well and
We had identified a campsite 4 kms to the south of Kajaani said to be alongside a country-hotel which turned out to be a sordid service station motel with what must have been a pre-existing campsite alongside, but it looked forlorn and grubby. We booked in at the motel reception, but on investigating the facilities building, the truth of the sordid place really came out: they were the filthiest experienced in the whole of Scandinavia, worse than public loos in UK. Kainuum Portti Motel-Camping would go on record as the worst campsite of the trip, to be avoided at all costs; we had no alternative and it was only an overnight stay but others should take note. The following morning we were surprised to hear 2 young cyclists who had also camped overnight speaking English; Becs and Ross turned out to be from Preston on a long-distance cycling journey around Scandinavia, and we enjoyed their company for 3 more nights at other campsites as they followed a parallel route to us. During the 16 weeks we had spent travelling up through Eastern Finland through Lapland, returning now through Northern and Central Finland, we had been able to follow the wild berry plants through all stages of their development, from tight buds of their early flowers, through to full flowering, the formation of berries, and finally their ripening, and we had been able to record photographs of this botanical progression. These last 2 weeks had been the season of the year when the Finnish wild berries were at the fully ripened stage, and we had enjoyed the opportunity enshrined in the Finnish legal entitlement of Everyman's Rights (jokamiehenoikeus in Finnish), the freedom of land access, for berry-picking. To celebrate the glorious harvest festival of wild berries which grow so abundantly throughout Finland's forests, we have included with this edition a page of our photographs showing the Wild Berries of Finland Our final 2 weeks in Finland take us south through the towns and cities of Central and Southern Finland: IIsalmi, Kuopio, Jyväskylä, the second city Tampere, and out to the Bothnian coast at Pori and Rauma, finishing up at the port-city of Turku where we began our Finnish venture 5 months ago. From there it will be the ferry back to Sweden, across Southern Sweden and the Øresund Bridge to re-cross Denmark for the ferry back across the North Sea home to England. Join us again in a couple of weeks for the final part of our travels around Finland. Next edition to be published in 2 weeks
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CAMPING
IN FINLAND and LAPLAND 2012 - the Arctic
wastes of Northern Finland, leaving Santa Claus in the Arctic Circle at Rovaniemi, and south to Kajaani:
Leaving Kautokeino heading south towards the
Finnish border, it felt like the beginning of the long journey home; but we
still had more than 1,000 miles ahead of us down through the length of Finland
with many more ventures yet to come over the next 4 weeks. We crossed back into
Northern Finland with not even a reindeer in sight across the uninhabited,
stony, birch-scrub tundra terrain, but approaching the
small Sámi town of Enontekiö we were again driving through familiar pine and
spruce forests fringed with birch trees, the afternoon sunlight picking out the
beginnings of golden Ruska colours of the first autumn leaves.
After a night's Camp at Enontekiö's Hetan
Lomakylä, we took the minor Route 957 SE through birch-covered heathland with the
high Pallas-Yllästunturi fells silhouetted against the sky-line. The road
followed the course of the wide and gently-flowing Ounasjoki River through
delightfully forested terrain, and here we caught up with a strange-looking
lorry. This turned out to be a snow-pole setting truck: a mechanism at the rear
corner drilled the snow-pole into the roadside verge and the truck moved on to
repeat the process in 100m leaving the line of red snow-poles in readiness for
next winter (Photo 2 - Snow-pole setting in readiness for winter). Near
to Lake Pallasjärvi, we reached the start-point for the Pyhäjoki Nature Trail (Luontopolku),
part of the Pallas-Yllästunturi National Park, detailed in the Guide to
Finnish Lapland published by Crossbill, an invaluable book which had served
us well. This way-marked 3km circular walk passed through pine and spruce
woodland initially on board-walks through a veritable forest of lush Ostrich
Ferns (Photo 3 - Pyhäjoki Nature Trail board-walk). The forest floor was richly carpeted with a profusion of shiny black
Crowberries and juicy ripe Bilberries (Photo 4 - Bilberries); the Finnish Everyman's Rights law gives
freedom for berry-picking and we had come prepared with collecting pots to take
full advantage of this (Photo 5 - Berry-picking on the Pyhäjoki Nature Trail).
The path contoured over hillsides, dropping down where the Pyhäjoki stream
tumbled down from a small lake with pines reflected in the still waters (Photo
6 - Pine reflections in Pyhäjoki lake). Gaining height up the rocky
fell-side, the trail continued across an open, treeless marshy plateau on
board-walks (Photo 7 - Board-walk across open mire). Here Cloudberries
grew among the sphagnum in the mire, and although small, it was our first
opportunity to taste the ripe fruits (see below left). Approaching the road, we
found juniper bushes growing in an old meadow laden with ripe black berries (see
below right) and we gathered a bag full to dry for adding to stews, leaving
fingers smelling of the pungent juniper scent; it had been a worthwhile
afternoon of berry-picking.
leading through the area which would previously have been
unsurfaced were now tarmaced for the ski companies to bus winter
tourists up here from Kittilä airport. Reaching Route 79, we ourselves turned
towards Kittilä for tonight's campsite. This main road passed through the most
beautiful forested terrain with the birch trees now tinged with their golden
Ruska colours and lit by the bright afternoon sun (Photo 8 - Autumn tinged birch trees).
Kittilä suffered the same WW2 fate as all other Lapland towns with not one stick
left unburnt. The town was hastily re-built post-war, its blandly unattractive
buildings strung out along Route 79, but it does serve as a major service centre
for the surrounding area, with banks, supermarket, shops and garages. Just
beyond the centre, Route 80 turns off towards Sodankylä some 100km to the east
where we had begun our northward passage through Lapland over 2 months
ago. On the banks of the wide River Ounasjoki which we had crossed earlier
today, we found Camping Kittilän
Lomamökit, a delightfully straightforward and
welcoming campsite (see left) where we enjoyed a peaceful day in camp catching
up with household chores. Our breakfast yogurt was enhanced with juicy
bilberries picked the day before at Pyhäjoki, and our supper laced with freshly
picked juniper berries.
something of a culture shock, after weeks of almost
deserted Arctic roads, suddenly to be plunged headlong into busy, speeding
traffic, dual-carriage way and speed cameras: welcome to urban (un)civilisation!
Promoted by the tourist industry as the Capital of Lapland, Rovaniemi is a place
of dual aspect: the town itself set at the confluence of 2 mighty rivers, the Ounasjoki and Kemijoki, had to be rebuilt entirely from the built-out ruins
of old Rovaniemi's once elegant wooden houses and churches left behind in 1944
by retreating Germans. Post-war reconstruction was directed by the eminent
Finnish
architect Alvar Aalto with a network of streets said to be shaped like reindeer
antlers, and a cluster of Aalto's archetypal white-tiled public buildings. Then
there's Rovaniemi's ghastly commercial aspect: most current day mass tourists
never actually see the town, but are whisked from Rovaniemi airport in their
plane loads for 24 hours over-commercialised, sanitised sampling of Arctic
wonderland in the souvenir shops of Santa's shopping centres 6 kms to the north
along the main Route 4 to Kemijärvi. The tourist industry manages to lure 1000s
of visitors here each year searching for Santa and gullibly emptying their
wallets into greedy, grasping hands. Arriving at Rovaniemi's outskirts, we
turned onto Route 4's dual carriage-way to take a brief look at just how awful
the Santa Claus 'attractions' were.
Passing the Santa theme park (thankfully
closed in August), we pulled into the Santa Claus Village (Joulupukin Pajkylä)
set at the point where the notional line of the Arctic Circle (Napapiiri)
crosses. To escape the pouring rain, we dived into the nearest souvenir shops to
glance at the shelves laden with ephemera. Across the car park, Santa's Main Post Office
(Joulupukin Pääposti), operated by the Finnish Postal Service, was a novel and
modestly under-commercialised feature: you bought your card, addressed
it at the writing tables provided, bought a stamp from the smilingly friendly elf
at the counter, and posted it in one of the boxes for delivery at Christmas duly
franked with Santa's postmark (see right). And at Christmas, the card was duly delivered to our grandchildren, adding
verisimilitude to the Santa myth. This Post Office receives millions of letters
each year addressed to Santa in Lapland from children all over the world. Outside the notional line of Napapiiri was
marked across the car park's puddles for tourists
to be photo-ed standing
astride; the actual Arctic Circle has long since drifted further north! Santa's
Official Office (Joulupukin Kammari) stood across the driveway. Hurry along, a
passing elf urged, since the Old Man was about to take his tea break; a visit to
Santa was entirely free of charge - this we had to see. A mysterious corridor
meandered around the darkened interior, past a huge ticking clock mechanism
which, so the story goes, magically slows the earth's rotation so that Santa
has time on Christmas Eve to visit children all round the world. So if you had
ever wondered, that's how He does it! This eerie
ticking monster provides entertainment for those who queue for hours at
Christmas to see Santa. Today however we walked straight in, up the stairs and were greeted
at the door of Santa's grotto by another elf who enquired if we had been good.
And there He was, beckoning us in to sit either side of his throne, conveniently
positioned for the photo of this magical moment. The job description for Santa
applicants requires multi-lingual speakers, since He chatted with us in
charmingly accented English. There was no rush for our audience with the Great
Man, and in conclusion we shook his hand and wished him well. The only element
of commercialism was the elf who tried to sell us our Santa photo at €25; we
tactfully declined! Tacky as the Santa Village sounds, it was all remarkably low
key, and even more surprising there was no charge for an audience with the Boss
Man. You could take or leave the souvenir shops and there were no queues for the
Main Event at this time of year. His Post Office service was also free of any
exploitative charge with just the cost of a normal stamp. You could happily
ignore all the tackiness, and enjoy the pseudo-magic of a visit to Santa,
especially in the pouring rain - and we did!
looking out in the grey
gloom across the wide Ounasjoki/Kemijoki grey rivers to the town's grey modern
buildings on the far bank; it was a forlornly grey vista. Having moved further
south beyond the Arctic Circle, it was fully dark by 10-00pm, the first time in
4 months we had experienced darkness.
population
was forcibly evacuated to Southern Finland or Sweden; a number of monuments
scattered around the modern rebuilt town commemorate the huge task of post-war
reconstruction. The first of these monuments, the Clearing and Reconstruction
Memorial, stood on the far bank, commemorating the work of Pioneers during the
Lapland War and post-war reconstruction (see right). On the far side of the
railway, we reached Rovaniemi's parish church, built in 1950 to replace the
original destroyed by the Germans. The huge interior was dominated by an impressive
east-end mural: entitled the Fountain of Life, the painting depicts a Day of
Judgement scene with the figure of Christ rising from a Lapland setting above
the segregated figures of the good and not-so-good about to be judged. It was
just the sort of illustration to hold a congregation's attention and while away
lengthy Lutheran sermons (Photo 9 -
East-end mural in Rovaniemi parish church).
Across in the town we walked past the cluster of white-tiled Alvar Aalto public
buildings, the City Hall, Lappia House Concert Hall and Library where we
consulted the weather forecast on the free-access internet (Photo 10 - Rovaniemi Lappia House Concert Hall designed by Alvar Aalto).
Stylised reindeer sculptures grazed the lawns outside, although it has to be
said that neither from the street plan nor
walking the streets could we
distinguish Aalto's supposed reindeer antler-shaped town layout. In gloomy rain, we plodged our way around the streets to find another of Rovaniemi's reconstruction
monuments, this one resembling an oversized TV antenna, with a moving
display of post-war photographs showing the scale of war-time destruction with
just the skeletal remains of chimneys standing among the smoking ruins. The
commentary was conveniently translated into German to remind modern-day German
tourists of the crimes against humanity committed by their fathers and
grandfathers.
allegedly the world's northernmost
MacDonald's and followed signs
to the much promoted Arktikum which our guidebook described as 'One of
Finland's best museums and well worth the admission fee' ie it was unduly
expensive to get in! The first of its 2 exhibitions, the Provincial Museum of
Lapland was a randomly arranged series of themed displays tracing the recent
history of the region and Sámi culture. The centrepiece was 2 contrasting scale
models of Rovaniemi, one from 1939 showing the pre-war city, the other from
1944 showing the city's charred ruins and broken, twisted remains of bridges
after the Germans departed. The other exhibition on Arctic natural history was
equally disappointing, and included a series of displays on the Arctic's
so-called indigenous peoples which left you feeling that, while the enforced
assimilation policies by national states was to be condemned, the present day
self-seeking claims to special status by such as the Sámi are equally
questionable. Arktikum, neither its displays nor over-expensive admission
prices, did not impress. In gloomy, misty rain we made our way back across the
Jätkänkynttilä bridge to camp on the far river bank, passing Rovaniemi's final
memorial, a statue of 'I'm a lumberjack and I'm OK'. Under a uniformly grey sky
today, the city's dismally grey-white modern buildings blended into one another
as they must do when snow and ice envelope Rovaniemi for 6 months of the year.
The
sky was still uniformly grey the following morning with the air autumnally chill
as we departed Rovaniemi heading south-easterly along the beautifully forested
Kemijoki river valley, misty rain clouds blanketing the distant hills. The
birches now really did have their autumnal Ruska golden touch. Route 81 crossed
the Kemijoki over a huge hydro-electric dam which spanned the river to form a
lake on the upstream side. This was hopeless weather for our originally planned
walk to the Auttiköngäs waterfall today, and instead we headed for tonight's
campsite, a northward 30kms diversion from Autti to
Luusua on a minor road
towards the bottom end of Kemijärvi lake and Camping Matkatupa. We were greeted
with genuinely charming grace by the
owners, Elvi and Urho at the Matkatupa Camping-café which even in this wretched
weather seemed such a cosily welcoming lakeside campsite. Here we gladly settled
in on a grassy promontory overlooking the lake, not far from Kemijärvi at the
northern end of the all-pervasive lake where we had camped weeks ago 'back in
the summer' and had first seen the Midnight Sun. Despite the bitterly cold and
wet weather, Matkatupa was in a beautiful setting with Elvi and Urho's house
forming one side of a floral courtyard. The campsite was set on Urho's farm
which had been established from virgin forest by his father on return from the
war. Urho and his brother Paavo had been born here and grew up on the farm; they
still kept a few dairy cattle and worked in forestry cutting timber and clearing
more land, but their main livelihood was now the campsite which he and Elvi had
developed over the last 40 years. The following morning we at last woke to clear
bright sun, and Urho showed us the open-air wooden theatre on the lake-shore
where shows were arranged for guests in high summer; he also told us the snows
lasted from November to February during winter darkness, with only 2 hours of
daylight to collect wood from the forests on his snow-mobile. Under the trees he
showed us that lingonberries were now ripening and we gathered these and
bilberries for our larder. We had been given such warm hospitality by Urho and
Elvi, and before leaving we took their photos by the house to add to our
treasured memories of these lovely people and our stay at Matkatupa (Photo
11 - Matkatupa Camping with owners Elvi and Urho). With our diversion
to Matkatupa, we had returned sufficiently northward to have been camped almost
back on the Arctic Circle: Matkatupa's latitude was 66° 30' north, just a couple
of kms south of the line of Napapiiri. Before heading south this morning, we
drove further along Kemijärvi until the satnav showed us we had reached the
magic latitude of 66° 33' (Photo 12 - Arctic Circle sign near Matkatupa at Lake Kemijärvi).
The 30kms along Route 944 was a delightful drive
on a sunny morning crossing sections of the elongated Kemijärvi lake, and
finally crossing the weir of the Kemijoki to resume Route 81 at Autti to turn
along to the parking area for the Auttiköngäs waterfall and nature-trail. Wooden
steps led down to a footbridge crossing the 19th century dam
above the waterfalls,
built to maintain a controllable head of water for the log-flume bypassing the
obstacle of the 16m high falls. As the most economic means of transporting cut
timber, logs had been floated down the Auttijoki river to sawmills at Kemi at
the head of the Bothnian Gulf until as recently as 1970. The log-flume
constructed to bypass the falls had been reconstructed by Metsähallitus, the
Finnish Forestry Commission, as part of the area's cultural heritage (see left). From the
footbridge, it certainly made an impressive sight looking down the steep wooden
chute into the depths of the river's rocky canyon with the roar of falling water
filling the air (Photo 13 - Auttiköngäs log-flume and waterfalls). Beyond
the falls, the nature-trail continued on a board-walk above the sheer-side
canyon and onto into the forest. Here the forest floor was covered with all the
berry plants which we had got to know so well and now were laden with ripe
berries: juicy Bilberries, shiny black Crowberries and increasingly red ripening
Lingonberries (Photo 14 - Ripening Lingonberries). The path dropped down
to a wooden suspension bridge spanning the river and climbed steeply on the far
bank to the plateau summit of Könkäänvaara Hill where a wooden observation
platform gave distant views over the pine and spruce forests which stretched
away in all directions. Back down through the forests with yet more Bilberries
to pick for our breakfast stocks, the path led back to the car park.
We now had a 60km drive south to Ranua where we
planned to camp tonight in readiness for tomorrow's visit to Ranua Arctic Zoo.
On a sunny afternoon, Route 942 was a pleasant road passing through forests, pastoral land
and farming villages. As we travelled south, the countryside
no longer had the wilderness appearance so typical of Lapland; even the
forests looked less severe. There was a nostalgic feeling of leaving behind the
northern wilderness as we approached Ranua. We had 2 camping options, one 2 kms
south of the small town which sounded pleasantly situated; the other by the zoo
was
convenient for tomorrow's visit, and just north along Route 78 we found the
newly laid-out Ranua Zoo Camping. As the sun dipped behind the surrounding
pines, the evening grew autumnally chill and it was dark again by 10-00pm; the
year was indeed moving on. The following morning was bright as we walked around
to the zoo entrance. Ranua Zoo specialises in the animals and birds of the
Finnish Arctic with a few additions from the polar region. The layout was less
of a conventional zoo, more of a safari park with each of the animal groups having
large enclosures all set in natural pine forest woodland on the hillside slopes.
As expected, the entrance charge was high with seniors' tickets at €13.50 each.
Layout plans of the 2.5km board-walks around the animal enclosures were provided
in English, also giving a schedule of feeding times.
Having had the opportunity to see brown bears the
wilds out in Eastern Finland, our priority today was to see Finland's other 3 natural
carnivores, the wolf, lynx and wolverine, albeit in the artificial surrounding
of a zoo, and headed up to the top end of the site firstly for the polar bears' feeding
time. The polar bear enclosures
were large and rocky with pools, creating as natural an environment for the
animals as captivity allowed. Ranua Zoo's pair of polar bears had last winter
produced a cub, and the mother bear and cub were in the first enclosure clambering around on rocks, standing in characteristic Glacier Mint pose, with
the mother plunging into the pool (Photo 15 - Polar Bear and cub at Ranua Arctic Zoo). Despite being Saturday, there were remarkably
few visitors about, and although the animals were some distance away, they
were well lit by sunlight and a raised board-walk platform gave clear views for
zoomed photography.
We moved around to the other carnivores' enclosures and were
able to look directly down from the board-walk with unimpeded view of these rare
animals. The lynx sat in characteristically feline pose but then began prowling
around; however large the enclosure and caring the regime, they were still caged
animals. There are around 2,000 lynx in the wild mainly in the boreal forests of
Eastern Finland (Photo 16 - Lynx, one of Finland's 4 wild carnivores). In
the next enclosure, a pair of wolverines scooted around. These stocky and
muscular carnivores with powerful jaws and sharp claws are related to weasels
but superficially more closely resemble a small bear; the wolverine has a reputation for
ferocity and strength out of proportion to its size with the ability to kill
prey many times larger than itself. There are around 200 surviving in the wild
in Northern and Eastern Finland. They are powerful and versatile predators and
scavengers, their prey consisting of mainly small mammals, but the wolverine has
been known to kill such prey as adult deer . The
attendants arrived for feeding time and tossed several chicken carcases down for
the carnivores: the lynxes behaved in typically feline manner towards their
prey, tearing into the carcases. For the wolverines, 'dinner' was more of a
game, and they prowled around gripping the carcass in their jaws. The wolves
were more elusive and remained at a distance on the far side of the large
enclosure. They were hunted almost to extinction in Finland but there currently
around 200 wolves surviving in the wild.
The rest of the zoo had a variety of species of
deer including reindeer (but over the last 2 months, we had seen many of these
gentle creatures in the
wild), as well as otters, cranes and a number of owls, buzzards and eagles.
Despite our reservations about Ranua Zoo and the cost of admission, it had been
a reasonably worthwhile experience and the animals seemed well cared for with plenty
of space in a natural environment. Most importantly, we had achieved our
objective of seeing Finland's 3 other wild carnivores, the lynx, wolf and
wolverine, to complement our wild brown bear-watching experience of earlier in the trip.
The
new campsite alongside the zoo had been convenient, but we moved that
afternoon over to Camping Ranuajärvi at a delightful location set among pine
woods on the shore of Ranua Lake where we greeted with a smiling welcome.
Bilberries grew in profusion under the trees around where we were camped and we
duly topped up our breakfast supplies. 
Traffic
increased as we reached the junction of Route 20, the main road linking Kuusamo
and Oulu, and 20kms to the SW we turned off into Pudasjärvi before finding
tonight's campsite just to the north of the small town. Camping Jyrkkäkoski had
a gloriously peaceful camping area in a pine forest glade with the afternoon
sunlight filtering down through the trees; it was another memorable campsite
with welcoming reception and first class facilities set in a heated log cabin.
Using the free wi-fi access to consult the BBC weather forecast and news, we
learnt that Neil Armstrong, the first man to set foot on the moon in
1969 with the now immortal words One small step for man, one giant leap for
mankind, had died at the age of 82.
The
cream-coloured church with its tall chamfer-cornered red-tiled roof
stood alongside a sturdy belfry with wooden, moustachioed vaivaisukko
(pauper statue) holding out his palm for charity donations to be dropped into
the slot in his hollow chest (see left). We walked through to the neighbouring
war cemetery whose trimly maintained lawns
were filled with the graves of local
men killed in the 1939~44 Winter and Continuation Wars, each grave-plaque marked
with a brightly flowering fuchsia plant (Photo 19 - Haukipudas church with Winter~Continuation War Cemetery).
The present church was completed in 1762 with cruciform layout common in
Ostrobothnian churches where the congregation was closely gathered around the
pulpit for Lutheran instruction. The church's interior walls were decorated by
the top church painter of the day, Michael Toppelius from Oulu; clearly this was
a wealthy community to commission work of this scale for their church. The
paintings were begun in 1774 and a Day of Judgement mural added in 1779, all
regarded as Finland's finest Baroque ecclesiastical art-work. The altar wall was
decorated with scenes from the Passion and Resurrection with the crucifixion
scene taking centre-stage (Photo 20 - Baroque paintings covering the walls of Haukipudas church).
At the west end Adam and
Eve were depicted in the Garden of Eden with a small elephant and unicorn for
company, Abraham stood over his son Isaac with sacrificial knife, and opposite
David faced a swash-buckling armoured Goliath, with all the painted scenes
enclosed by Rococo-style acanthus leaves frames. The north transept showed a
Nativity scene worthy of any Christmas card (see right), while the lower wall
was covered with a huge and elaborate Day of Judgement portrayal. This rustic
art-work was simply delightful.
After
all the wonderfully peaceful forest roads of earlier, it was now a shock again
to face city traffic as we worked our way into Oulu's NW outskirts to find
Camping Nallikari sited on one of the large islands of the Oulujoki delta around
which the city is located. This was part of the Top Camp chain of 'holiday
villages'; the very name implied expensive at €27 a night, but we were received
with smiling helpfulness - city map and details of the #17 bus from nearby and
get off the 'big yellow church' ie Engel's ochre-stuccoed cathedral. Being
so close to the Bothnian coast beaches, this campsite would be rowdy bedlam in
summer, but in late August we had the place almost to ourselves and settled in
under the birch trees (see left). The following morning in bright
sunshine, we walked over to wait at the bus terminus (see right); like
everything else in this enviably civilised society, the bus was punctual and
clean and the driver helpful and friendly; a few stops along, the crew changed
and the departing driver called näkemiin (goodbye) to the passengers and
the new driver greeted them with päivää (hello) - how delightfully
civilised. As instructed, we got off by a small park by the cathedral (Photo 21 - Oulu's
neo-Classical Cathedral) looking
forward to our day in the city of Oulu.
computing
expertise, attracting IT companies to establish science and technology parks in
the outskirts. Oulu has become a national leader in the IT and
microchip
industries, supplying many of Nokia's mobile phone designs and attracting
skilled IT staff from across the world as well as local graduates.
Reflecting its technological expertise, the city enjoys a universal free wi-fi
network called appropriately Pan-oulu. The city now has a prosperous and
cosmopolitan atmosphere. For us the most noticeable feature of Oulu as we got
off the bus was how quiet and traffic-free the streets were.
could see the Great Hall, expecting to be thrown out.
Not at all; this was civilised Finland, and one of the security officers gladly
showed us upstairs to admire the former
restaurant now used for official
receptions with its ornate Viennese ceiling decoration and chandeliers. We
walked around to the gardens at the rear of City Hall to find the bronze
sculptures by Sanna Koivisto called Ajan Kulku (Course of Time) created
in 2005 to mark the 400th anniversary of Oulu's foundation (Photo 23 - Course of Time memorial to Oulu's 400 year history).
The procession of 32 miniature figures represented characters who had influenced
the city's development over its 400 years history, starting with its founder
King Karl IX of Sweden; the wall-top line of figures included a man rolling a
tar barrel, a fisherman holding a salmon, a fireman from the 1822 great fire, a
mother with children, culminating with a student holding her newspaper, a yuppie
clutching his mobile phone, and at the very front symbolising the future a small
boy sits at the end of the wall. It had become a tradition for local people
to wrap a knitted scarf and hat around the little figure to keep him warm in
winter, perhaps symbolising Finland's caring society (see left). This was a
charming work of art, elegantly silhouetted against the neo-Gothic façade of the
city's Cultural Centre (see right).
around the Kauppatori, affectionately adorned with a floral garland (Photo 25 - Toripolliisi sculpture of an Oulu bobby-on-the-beat). (As
an aside we
could not help contrasting this with the low esteem to which public respect for
the police in UK has now sunk). We bought a delicious lunch from one of the
market square's food stalls and
sat in the warm sunshine to eat this with a
glass of beer at a bar-terrace (see right), enjoying the ambience of the market
and watching the many local people of all ages cycling around the city's
walkways; given Oulu's unique topography spanning the islands of the Oulujoki
delta all interconnected by footbridges, cycling was the most practicable means
of travel within the city's central area. Before leaving the market, we walked
around the Kauppahalli, its stalls laden with mouth-wateringly attractive
food-stuffs, fish, vegetables, meat cheese and reindeer products from the
Kylmänen meat processing company which we had visited on the way north at Sodankylä (Photo 26 - Kylmänen reindeer products stall in Oulu Kauppahalli),
and bought a litre of ready picked lingonberries from the market (see left).
waterside looking out across to the dam, we reached the Merikoski
Fish-way. The dam and power plant were completed in 1948, totally blocking the
passage upstream for salmon to migrate back to their spawning grounds further up
the river. The higher reaches of the river were re-stocked with fish annually,
but in 2003, under pressure from environmentalists, the Oulu power
company constructed a 750m long stepped passageway to enable migrating salmon to
bypass the dam barrage and make their way upstream again to spawn. We followed
the fish-way around and just where it re-joined the fast-flowing river above the
dam, we found the underground control room where a glazed panel allowed visitors
to watch the salmon struggling against the current to force their passage up into the higher river. The scientist gave us more of the details: after an
interval of 60 years of the river's closure by the dam's construction, the
fishes' instincts to migrate back to the spawning grounds had caused new
generations of salmon to discover the newly formed passageway. We stood
transfixed by the underwater sight of 60cm long salmon battling their way
upstream against the current (see right).
stood on a hillock. From here it was short walk back to the park by the
cathedral to wait for our bus back out to the campsite. As we got off the
Nallikari terminus, the driver waved us a cheery farewell.
Before returning to camp, we walked along to the broad stretch of sandy beach,
deserted on a late August evening, to photograph the sun setting across the
Bothnian Gulf (Photo 28 - Setting sun across the Bothnian Gulf);
it was the first time we had seen this sea since landing at Turku almost 4
months ago (see right). Back at camp, the BBQ was lit for a late supper of
grilled pork chops served with generous servings of lingonberries bought in the
market today, the sweet meat blending deliciously with the sharp berries. Today
had been one of the finest city visits ever: Oulu was certainly a city which
took full advantage of its wealthy mercantile history and the inheritance this
had left, together with its current prosperity from its forefront position in
modern technological industries and most of all its splendid setting astride the
islands of the Oulujoki delta. All the people we had met, from bus drivers, to
market stall holders, City Hall security officers, and unknown people who had
unbidden stopped to offer help as we consulted our city plan, all had been
courteously helpful, leaving us with some very happy and satisfying memories of
Oulu. And the unseasonally warm sunshine had certainly helped.
route and at
all the villages we passed through, school children were all now wearing coats
and scarves as autumn approached. At the larger village of 
Yli-Kiiminki, we
paused to photograph the church set on a rise among the pines (see right),
before turning south-easterly onto Route 836, an even more
peaceful road passing
through delightful stands of pines all glowing in the afternoon sun (Photo 29 - Peaceful road through pine forests).
This led eventually to the small town of Puolanka, back in the region of Kainuu.
The municipality covers an area of 2,600 square kms with a population of 3,000,
a population density of just 1.24 inhabitants per km2 in this largely
forested region from where Oulu's barrels of tar were produced. Puolanka was
clearly a service centre for its largely rural surrounds and we topped up
provisions at the supermarket and diesel at the garage. Tonight's campsite,
Camping Lomakylä Puolankajärvi just 2 kms south of the town was set on the
shores of its eponymous lake, part of the Kiiminginjoki drainage system (see
left). Here we were greeted hospitably by the elderly lady owner who spoke no
English at all. This was the first time we had encountered this, but after 4
months in the country our limited Finnish enabled us to communicate. That
evening we cooked a beef and lingonberry stew, a warming and delicious supper
duly added to our collection of recipes as Finland's contribution. Dusk was
getting earlier and by 9-45pm, it was fully dark with a misty moon rising above
the birch trees.
Leaving Puolanka the
following morning, we continued eastwards onto Route 891, a narrow
road with, unusually for Finland. some steep hills, and 6 kms along reached the
turning for today's visit to Hepoköngäs which with a drop of 24m is one of
Finland's highest waterfalls; the 
would have been rich in flora earlier in summer but now was the berry season,
and Lingonberries, Crowberries and Bilberries grew in profusion on the forest
floor: the Lingonberries were ripe but still sharp (see right), the Bilberries
fulsome and sweet, and even the Crowberries were fat and edible though you had
to spit out the pips. We spent a happy hour berry-picking as the path threaded
through the forest finally leading back to the car park.
away to the horizon. Kainuu region, about the size of Belgium but with a
population of just 84,000, had during the 19th century been the world's largest
producer of pine-tar. Huge quantities of timber had been floated down the rivers
to Oulu, but today the last of the region's paper mills has closed. During
today's drive, we did however pass a number of well-loaded timber trucks and the
railway line crossed here must still carry a lot of timber trains. As we
approached Hyrynsalmi, a road branched off north to Suomussalmi; we had now
almost completed a full circuit of Northern Finland and returned to the point of
2 months ago. Today we turned south onto the busy main Route 5, following the
wide Emäjoki river which at several points swelled out into lakes, finally
reaching Ristijärvi village. Here we consulted the
weather forecast on the library's free internet and walked around to the
yellow-painted wooden church where in the trimly mown war cemetery large numbers
of WW2 graves were set out in rows each of the head stones marked with a red
plant. There had scarcely been a village through Finland that did not have its
neatly kept war cemetery. Just south of the village, we found tonight's
campsite, Ristijärvan Pirtii Camping where again we received a warm
welcome; this homely campsite
had free wi-fi and pleasant setting among birch trees on the shores of Ristijärvi.
truly locked, and no amount of enquiry around the village produced anyone to
open up for us. Today we were not to be able to see any of Paltaniemi's ornate
frescoes, and had to be content with photographing the exterior from the little
war cemetery (see left).
It
was a short drive into Kajaani where, crossing the river, we parked in the town
near the market to walk back down to see the remains of the Swedish castle.
Kajaani castle had been built on an island in the river by the Swedish governor
of Finland Per Brahe in what was then a primitive village to protect the remote
frontier with Imperial Russia. It was destroyed in 1716 during the Great
Northern War and the pier foundations of the modern road bridge had been built
into its ruins (see left); all that remained today of this small castle was a
heap of stones. But across on the far side of the river, another piece of
Kajaani's history was preserved, the 19th century Tar Canal (Terva kanava).
Boats loaded with barrels of tar produced on the forests of Kainuu had once been
dragged overland at this point of the river to bypass the rapids and rocky
waterfalls at Kajaani to reach Lake Oulujärvi for their onward journey along the
Oulujoki to the port of Oulu. In the mid-19th century, a narrow canal with locks
had been constructed, cutting through the bed-rock alongside the waterfalls to
enable the passage of tar-boats, and this had continued in use until 1915. After
falling into dereliction, the canal and locks has now been restored and operates
during the summer (see right). The Tar Canal was an impressive structure with
its narrow passage navigating the drop in the river's height down to the level
of Oulujärvi through a lock some 50 feet deep. The main passage of the river is
now dammed by one of two HEP generating plants, leaving the rocky falls over
which the wild river had once cascaded high and dry (see below left). Even so it
did show why the cutting of the Tar Canal had been necessary.
The
industrial city of Kajaani is capital of the Kainuu region and we walked back up
into the centre for an afternoon's exploration, starting in Town Hall Square (Raathuonteentori)
by the small Engel-designed wooden Old Town Hall (see right). The market food
stalls sold muikku, crispy fried whitebait from local lakes and a
delicious snack to nibble as lunch; we had often found these in town markets and
could not resist a tray of these now. At the far end of Kauppakatu, Kajaani's
main shopping street, we reached the town's architectural pièce de résistance,
the restored 1904 Art Nouveau wooden railway station (Rautatieasema). Kajaani
was clearly on a main railway route with the timetable showing trains to
principle towns and cities in all directions, all names now familiar to us. From
here we waked through back streets past small industrial workshops to the bus
station, where again the bus stops listed many of the places we had visited. In
an area of modern apartment blocks at Kalliokatu 7, we found a smaller and older
apartment building which was the home from 1911~1926 of local-boy-made-good Urho Kekkonen, Finland's long-standing president from 1956~81. A relief plaque
on the building's wall recalled Kekkonen's residency here in Kajaani where he
worked as a journalist before moving onward and upward to Helsinki. Walking back
along Kirkkokatu past the red-brick Orthodox Church, we looked
for what we understood was the memorial to Kekkonen, erected by the citizens of Kajaani in honour of its most famous son. What we found was a curious piece of
modern sculpture resembling an intestinal curvature which doubtless the
authoritarian Kekkonen would have ordered removed. What possible bearing this
grotesque piece of metal could have on the Finnish President (unless of course
intended as unsubtle
irony
at his expense!) defied
understanding, but sure enough the inscription read U K Kekkonen 1900~86. Nearby
was the ornate 19th century neo-Gothic Lutheran Church and alongside it, a very
large war cemetery containing many Winter and Continuation War dead from Kajaani.
