Thousand hills and one city

The hot days are gone. In the last two of them I entered deep into Karelia. This name will ring a bell for anyone who did not sleep at history classes. What lays in Finland, is actually a small part of a region which has been conquered by Soviet Union during the Winter War. Together with the city of Vyborg, it has been a great loss for Finns, felt even today.

Since the first traces of agriculture had appeared just north of Sodankylä, going south I was seeing more and more fields, and cow pastures. Karelia is finally a land of fields and meadows. There are of course forests, as everywhere in Finland, but they don't dominate the land totally.

There is also one of the largest lakes in Finland — Pielinen. When I arrived there, it didn't impress me too much. The water had the same brownish colour as in many other lakes and rivers around, and there was still this awful pollen the plants had been releasing for few days. It wasn't easy to find a clean spot and make a badly needed bath after having completed my longest daily distance of 138km. Fortunately, there was a shelter and dry firewood, which helped me much, exactly on the night when the first serious rain arrived.

A shelter in the bush

The rain lasted till afternoon, which made me leave at 4PM. That was Sunday, which meant quite a lot of traffic, probably coming back home. They must be quite disappointed for having sun all the working days and a breakdown exactly on weekend, I thought. There must had been some truth in it, as I noticed at a gas station. This was the first place in this country where I spotted more than ten Finns together. People were rushing into the restaurant and small shop, like trying to get relaxed quickly before Monday. Just one of the paradoxes one can notice, being himself on open-end holidays.

Library at a bus stop

Koli peninsula was one of the places I wanted to see. Indeed, it looked attractive with small, tidy houses among hills. But it was also completely deserted, as all the tourist regions in Finland before the summer. There was also an ex-camping, still offering a shelter and nice beach (too bad it was too cold to make use of it) and of course place for the tent. In the night, however, some visitors appeared, coming and going in regular intervals. As they didn't disturb me, I ignored them. This lasted until morning, when I finally saw what was going on. Somebody was coming and taking the remains of camping equipment from a building. I had no idea if it was legal, but didn't dare to ask such a stupid question and just cycled away.

Finally I had some tailwind, but quite weak, and — in this hilly area — changing direction too often. As it comes to hills, this is the main feature of the landscape here. At the north of Karelia it was quite flat, but that was only an exception from the general rule. The glacier did his job. If you look at large-scale map, Finland seems to be flat as a table. Actually it is not. Every day I cycle over hundreds or even thousands of hills in different sizes. This makes keeping pace and thermal balance just impossible.

The waves of Finland

Powered bicycle

As the rains became heavier, I also entered the more populated areas near Joensuu. With bad weather and narrow roads, cycling among traffic, consisting mostly of speeding trucks, became quite dangerous. But the only option for some time was to switch to roads without asphalt. Good training before Africa. The wet sticky sand splashes all the bottom of the bike and immediately the chain and cranks start making crumbling sounds. Even after rinsing it down some of the sounds persisted, so the bike will need a service at the first dry moment.

Wet, sticky road

As the condition of roads deteriorated, the campings too. One night I spent on a freshly cut meadow — which wasn't actually bad — and even managed to roll the tent in a short break in the rain, which meant that it would be dry inside. That piece of my equipment is designed especially for hot climate. The inside tent is made mostly of mosquito net, and it can be used alone without the outer layer. In order to preserve the inside tent dry, it should be picked up and rolled while there is no rain. The next evening, however, it was pouring non-stop. Being wet myself, the perspective of sleeping in a wet tent wasn't appealing, so I tried to find another option. Exactly at the end of asphalt, where another dirt road was beginning, I found a road maintenance shed. It was quite old and slanted, but the roof still served it's purpose. I had cleaned one of the shelves of road signs and dust and hid myself in sealed sleeping bag, trying to survive the onslaught of mosquitoes. That worked pretty well.

Road maintenance shed...

...and it's cosy interior

Going from Karelia to Savonia I picked a road which cuts through lakes. Exactly on the border of these two provinces, there is no bridge, but a ferry. With quite significant traffic passing that route, the ferry just goes one or other way with almost no break. I wonder how much oil it has to burn to make it equal with the cost of a bridge.

Olavinlinna

This way I reached Savonlinna, one of better known cities of Finland, and the first one I would really call a city. It spans over a strait connecting two lakes, and also settles down on few islands there. When I had arrived, late evening in heavy rain, it had been looking nice, but the next day it revealed all it's beauty. There is the Olavinlinna castle, dating back to the Middle Ages, the only one well preserved in entire Finland, and of course build by Swedes. It occupies entire island, which in fact was a huge rock surrounded by lake waters. Savonlinna offers also numerous harbours and marinas to see. Being connected to the sea through Vyborg, it accepts bigger ships, and for this reason it has two moveable bridges: bascule one for the road and swing one for the railway. All the traffic in the center is blocked when a large vessel passes through.

The main Finnish industry has the priority

When the ship has passed, tourist can walk

Ships stop the railway too

There were also some people to talk to, finally. Before Savonlinna the opportunities were very limited. Once I met a group of youngsters having a picnic at lakeside, but they kept very shy about talking in English. It's not Norway, where virtually everyone spoke it, but it could be also a result of great similarity of English and Norwegian. Finnish belongs to Uralic family and is something totally different to anything I heard before. Apart from päivää (hello), kiitos (thanks) and kirjasto (library; the most probable source of free Internet) I haven't learned too much. But the sound of Finnish is very pleasant and soft.

I stayed at Vuohimäki camping, being the largest campsite I have ever seen. It is located outside the city, but what do I have the bike for? Here, after 20 continuous days of cycling, I decided to make a dent in my budget and stay for two nights. Maybe the morning sauna session, which is included in the price, had convinced me?