This short piece of Michael Palin from Python in 1980 introduced an item on Finland on the Today programme this week. The item concerned a job advertisement for an Archipelago Scent Reviewer & Content Creator in the Turku Archipelago next year. It is here.
The Archipelago has has declared itself the world’s best-smelling destination and is searching for someone to identify the pine forests, sea air, sauna smoke, warm rocks and freshly baked bread that make the region so distinctive.
I plan to be there in a few weeks so shall report back.
I have spent the week in two National Parks, with about a 90 minute drive between them. Until last night, the weather was excellent, cool days with plenty of sun, and clear nights, though no Aurora Borrealis yet.
The Pyhä-Häkki National Park is in the region of Saarijärvi. It was established in 1956 and covers just 13 square kilometres. Its foundation was planned in the late 1930s, but the Second World War interrupted the plans for it to open. It is known for its ancient pine forest, with the average ago of its trees being 250 years. The Big Old Tree, a cleverly thought out name, started growing in 1518 though has stood as a dead tree, known as a snag, since around 2004. It has a diameter of 288 cm. The wittily titled, New Big Tree also a Scots pine, dates back to 1641.
The hiking is popular as it is quite accessible to a few surrounding towns. There were mainly just a few locals around, but I did meet a Czech couple who arrived late one night and parked their van next to mine. We walked together for a while the following morning. Unlike most van travellers I have met, they were headed north, unconcerned by the approaching winter and long nights, and that much of the tourist infrastructure has closed until the snow arrives. There are three loop hikes here, and Rua and I managed them all in the 36 hours we were there.
From there we drove 90 minutes northwest to Salamajärvi National Park, Finland’s largest mire National Park at 70 square kilometres. It is a rugged watershed area of lakes and boulder strewn pine forests which make hiking spectacular, but slow. It is more difficult to get to its headquarters, a slow 30 kilometre drive on a very rough road, and consequently, at this time of year, very few other people were around. It was though, about the prefect weather to visit. It has a long distance trail running north south for 115 kilometres, though only 56 of those are in the national park region. I stayed two nights in the car park that allows campervans and motorhomes and even provides electricity, which was useful now the sun is so low in the sky.
There were two circular hikes that we completed, a short 2.5 km, and completely boardwalked route around the south part of lake Koirajärvi which we actually did three times, it was magnificent as the sun was going down. And a longer, 8 kilometre circuit around the northern section of the same lake. Because of the time of year being perfect, and lucking out with the weather, this was best hiking so far on this course in Finland.
Last night though a storm blew in, with torrential rain and a strong northeasterly wind. This morning, just after we left the park after a short walk in the rain, the rain turned to sleet, with the temperature at 1C. It hadn’t quite been forecast to be so cold, and a few degrees below the seasonal average. Today in Salamajärvi the temperature is below zero, feeling a lot cooler with the wind, and with snow, which does not get cleared on those roads.
The Mystery of the Apples
On one of our shorter walks on Summasaari island last Sunday Rua ran into the forest and returned with an apple. His sense of smell has clearly become much more alert in the last few weeks. As he gets my apple core each day, that is one of the things he can identify clearly. The apple was fresh and looked like a whole Gala direct from the shop. Half a kilometre later the same thing happened, he returned with another untouched apple, and of course, ate it. We were out for 90 minutes, and in different places in the forest he found about 6 apples. A mystery indeed; why would anyone scatter fresh apples across a wide area in such area..
We headed for the coast this morning, as I was always going to when the signs of winter approached, which I had estimated would be about now, though I didn’t expect such a rapid change. We are hunkered down at Kokkola at their marina campsite which is actually closed for the off-season, again, before the snow arrives, but still has the shelter and electric power that help for a comfortable weekend, as the wind is not supposed to ease, or the 4C temperature expected to rise, until next week.
For those travellers reading this post, a recommendation. Travel writer, Sara Wheeler, has made a series of five 15 minute presentations called <i>To Go Or Not To Go</i> in which she asks herself whether or not, in her seventh decade, she should continue to travel in the way she always has. It’s quite thought provoking and available on BBC.
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