Safe Return Doubtful

Koli National Park was the fifth of Finland’s National Parks when it was established in 1991. Now there are 41, and it is the third most visited (Pallas–Yllästunturi, despite its northerly situation, is by some way, the most). Koli consists of gentle hills, rising to about 350 metres, lakes and forest. It is more strictly controlled than those further north, with well signposted trails for mountain bikes, hikers and skiers, all three kept away from each other.

It is in Finland’s Lakeland, of the central east of the country, a vast area in which 25% of the area is made up from lakes. Finland has 187,888 lakes that exceed 500 square metres. There are 40 in each hundred square kilometres in Lakeland. 

It’s a great time to visit also; the weather is perfect; dry, autumnal and between 10 and 20C, the mosquitoes are gone, and so are the majority of tourists. 

Today I ascended Ipatti hill by way of the ski slopes from where I am parked, a drudge of an ascent, but a means to an end, as after that the walking was splendid. There’s a hotel at the top of the ski run, though with my blinkered vision, rather than complain about these spoiling the environment I tend to ignore them. 

People settled in Koli in the 1750s, a century later than the surrounding areas due to folklore and legend that told of grim stories and wicked happenings that can be associated with rugged hills; another reason I think, why I love them so much. 

In the late 19th and early 20th centuries the area was associated with the Karelianist movement, a time of great cultural advance of writers, painters and musicians. Notable amongst them was the composer Jean Sibelius, whose Fourth Symphony was inspired by the cabin and its surrounds where he spent his honeymoon. 

Midway through the hike, six or so kilometres in, we stopped for coffee in the village of Koli, returning through the pasture and forest via the old Kivelä farm, one of the first buildings in the area, founded in 1750.

These days all that remains is the Mattila Manor House, built in 1920, which today is visitor accommodation. It is supposed to be haunted, and the story is on display in comic style outside the building.. 

We were back at the van in the early afternoon for a catch-up on various important matters; book reviews, answering email, and looking at the schedule for the next week. In the early evening we walked down the lake as Roja was keen to swim.

There are hardly any visitors around, but we ran into a Finnish couple who were staying up at the hotel, but down on the lakeshore to cook a steak over a fire, and an older German couple in a Land Rover who were just coming back to shore after a canoeing trip. As ever, it was good to chat with both, as always we have things in common, usually at least a love of travel and wild places, but also in these cases wine from Mendoza, and a novel about the Winter War. 

It came to me during the tedious ascent this morning that I hadn’t mentioned ,any cultural recommendations recently, other of course than my book reviews, and the occasional film review. So here’s a few..

Podcasts

Out To Lunch with Adrian Edmondson, particularly the Reece Shearsmith and Nigel Planer. 

A podcast called Choice Classic Radio Detectives, a branch of Old Time Radio. There’s a lot on there, but particularly the Sherlock Holmes stories, dramatised for radio and featuring John Gielgud as Holmes and Ralph Richardson as Watson, from the 1950s.

Also the Adventures of Phillip Marlowe (Raymond Chandler) from CBS radio in the 1940s. These were weekly Saturday night 7:30 pm entertainment, and still as good today.. 

On Reece Shearsmith, he does a wonderful reading of Robert Aickman’s tremendous book of weird stories, The Unsettled Dust. His voice is so good for Aickman. I will come back to one of the stories in that book in the next few days. This isn’t a podcast, but available as an audiobook. 

TV wise, the best things this year have been the Netflix series Ripley, with Andrew Scott, and the final (ninth) series of Inside Number Nine. Shearsmith actually talks about this with Edmondson.