Safe Return Doubtful

The highlight of Koli National Park outside of the winter is the ridge that extends from near the Hotel for about a kilometre, taking in three peaks all about 350 metres. The Hotel itself is at 300 metres, so it doesn’t require much effort.mI would imagine that a few weeks ago, in the height of summer, this would have been very busy, and to be avoided. At this time of year there are still quite a few visitors, but as in the Lake District, it only takes a few hundred metres off the trail to lose 90% of them. 

Yesterday I extended this route further into the National Park and saw only a few other hikers, but amongst them was a school group. They were about twenty year 7s from a private school about a hundred kilometres away. One of the teachers was English, and we chatted for a while. 

Today I drove a few kilometers deeper into the less fashionable areas of the Park and put together a twelve kilometre circuit that took in a couple of small lakes and another ridge. We were pretty much alone. On the return there is a cave which I descended to, but chose to go no further. Climbing up back to the main trail I met a Finnish woman and a Japanese guy, about my age, who were on their way to explore it. The Japanese guy was writing for an outdoor adventure travel website, and the woman from a travel company in the nearby city of Joensuu. 

There’s a bit of a hole in my evenings as for the last few days there hasn’t been any cricket. Fortunately though that hiatus comes to an end tomorrow when the Lord’s Test starts, followed by the T20 quarter finals next week.