I’ve just had an enjoyable week in Tiilikkajärvi National Park which is about an hour and a half north east of Kuopio, in the region of Northern Savonia, or north Savo as it is known, it would be referred to as Central Finland. It is one of the more recent national parks, founded in 1982, but added to significantly in 2023 to include the area I was in. It is now the second largest national park in the country.
It is popular for hiking and canoeing, the biking is less challenging, and although it has trails for winter sports they are not maintained in the winter, which means it closes in effect. It has gentle rolling hills, and is known for its unique type of sand on the lake beaches, called Venäjänhiekka, or Russian sand.
A big reason that my week was so comfortable was the place I stayed, Metsäkartano Youth Activity Centre. I mentioned that I had been invited, or recommend to stay here by a guide I met further north. It closed today for the winter, and there were only a few other visitors, but the full staff, which includes a restaurant and cafe. The other visitors were a university group, mainly of women, from Espoo, but it was their overseas students on a team building week. They were mainly from Ukraine and Spain, but each time we ran into them they made a huge fuss of Rua. Indeed, so did the staff at the centre reception. One of them had two labs, the other was waiting for a new one, currently two weeks old.
Rua is big now, and extremely fit and lively. I’m sure he could jump a significant height, but I don’t want to encourage him, and I know it’s not good for them landing on the front legs. He will jump up at people, which is the main thing I am trying to get him not to do.. I think it will take some time..
During my years of travel and courses Activity Centres have played a huge role. In my first job in Wallasey we had our own place near Denbigh, Tan-y-Craig. I was at the school for seven years and me and my group of teacher friends spent very many weekends there, working on it, mainly without kids, but often with kids, and generally having fun.
I did my Mountain Leader Training at Plas-y-Brenin, the National Mountain Centre. Before and since, I have been here very many times, it’s a great place. Most recently I was there in March. Just before that, in late February, I spent a cold but wonderful week at the Llangorse Activity Centre in the Brecon Beacons, an invite from an instructor I used to work with in Capel Curig.
At Lytham we owned an activity centre at Ribblehead Railway Station in the Yorkshire Dales. Again, we spent many weekends and holidays there with and without student groups, and did a lot of work on the place. Sadly the school sold it soon after I left.
In every teaching job I did I worked with outdoor adventure education, and therefore used very many centres. That continued when I worked in consultancy for five years, running a regular conference for outdoor leaders from schools at Plas-y-Brenin.
In 2005 I looked hard at purchasing and running such a centre. I had a partner to help with finance, and we looked at places on Skye and close to Peebles. In the end it came to nothing, but almost immediately after Scott and I purchased New Ing Lodge, though I sold my half on to his brother a year later.
Activity Centres have therefore played a huge role in my life, and I still like to visit new ones, which is another reason this last week has been good. There’s another I was invited to stay at in the van close to Kolding in Denmark, called Houens Odde.
After some rain on the day I arrived the rest of the week was perfect autumnal weather, days with clear skies and a high of about 12C, cold nights down to minus 3 or 4, and misty mornings. When I’m hooked up to electricity, as I was, I have a small electric heater I can use. It’s quicker to heat up than the diesel, and a useful alternative when it’s only needed for a short time.
There was a good variety of forest trails, and the lakes were popular with Rua who was keen to swim in them all.. one cool morning in the mist he jumped off one the swimming jetties and became completely submerged briefly.
I’ve headed south west this morning and will spend the weekend around the Kuopio area.
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