Safe Return Doubtful

A seamless transition between National Parks by way of a the nature reserve at Meiko Lake. Meiko Lake is the outdoor recreation area for the town of Kirkkonummi, a remarkably quiet suburb of Helsinki, just half an hour away from the heart of the city. 

There is a settled period of weather, warm clear afternoons (18C), misty mornings, cool nights (8C), and with darkness encroaching rapidly on daylight hours the locals seem determined to squeeze as much activity as they can from the autumn before that uncertain period before the snow comes. In three weeks sunset breaks the 6 pm barrier, though the snow is not likely to fall until November, and settle until the end of that month. Unlike in Lapland towns here tend not to have floodlit trails. At the winter solstice Helsinki has 6 hours of daylight, with sunset just after 3 pm. 

Yesterday I moved on from Meiko, after a pleasant night there, and an excellent morning on their trails, to Nuuksio National Park. 

Established in 1994 Nuuksio is one of the closest National Parks to a capital city. Wellington, New Zealand, is the only capital city to have a National Park within its city limits. Nairobi comes close, but not within the city limits. It makes for an excellent standard of living for those who love the outdoors. Helsinki also has Sipoonkorpi National Park 20 kilometres to the northeast, but there isn’t as many trails or lakes for recreation. One of the big appeals of Nuuksio is that there are some many lakes that offer great swimming opportunities.  

The Park is famous for its high population density of Siberian Flying Squirrels.  

 I will be here until I’m due in the city on Sunday for a social engagement, and began by using Haukkalampi as a base, in the south of the Park, but just north of Haltia where the Finnish Nature Centre is. 

Roja and I managed a 4 kilometre loop before the daylight faded. 

I haven’t seen any other campervans for a few days now, but later yesterday evening a German couple with their young son pulled in next to me in their Ford Transit self-build. We chatted for a while as darkness fell, and again this morning as initially we headed in the same direction on foot. The guy had just completed a three month contract in Kuopio where he worked as a gas engineer. He takes contracts like this, and, as a family, in the summer, they live in their van. They were now taking a long route home, heading for Turku and Stockholm later today. 

I chose a circuit of about 12 kilometres which took a bit longer than usual as there were a few more climbs than I expected. I’ve got used to the very gentle hills of Finland, only in the far north, the Pallas-Yllästunturi and Lemmenjoki National Parks are there mountains. This morning though, the trail went up and down to a hundred metres a few times. 

After lunch I moved up to the north of the park, 12 kilometres on,y away, but necessary to drive 40 kilometres around. I’m based now at Salmi where I will, spend a couple of nights, as not only is there plenty to do here, but it is much quieter being further from the city, and I have a strong 4G signal for the sport; Premiership Rugby returns tomorrow..