Autumn is becoming winter here in Ostrobothnia, but the milder temperatures have hung on long enough for me to make November and some time indoors. With the hour changing last week also, it means that it is dark by 4:30 pm now. The last night that I didn’t sleep in the van was on the ferry back from Iceland almost a year ago, 6, 7 and 8 November. Prior to that it was two nights in a bell tent in the New Ing meadow last July while the van was getting a spray.
The timing seems about right, as next week the forecast is for it to get much colder.
After an excellent stopover at Harrström Marina on Sunday I moved inland an hour or so, making the most of the mild weather, to Parra. Parra isn’t a National Park, but protected as a Nature Reserve and site of historic significance. Its gentle mountain ridge is termed ‘ancient’, meaning that its bedrock is approximately two billion years old. There’s a rather underwhelming SnowPark, with cross country trails and a short downhill. In the summer there are hiking and biking trails, though when I arrived, and for the three days I spent there, I saw absolutely nobody; not even anyone tending the site. The days were of gentle drizzle, low cloud, and 8-10 C, at night as well as day – but that was fine for my requirements.
I was due back in Vaasa at the end of the week, and so spent Thursday afternoon and evening at Seinäjoki. There is a campsite there that was only opened this last summer, and situated a few kilometres out of the town in a green area alongside the river of the same name.
I’m still waiting to hear about my visa extension. The only information the website provides is that 75% of such applications are decided within 4 months, and as I have only been waiting 3 months so far, I have to be patient. The only problem is that I have an eye on a couple of suitable cabins for the next few weeks, but don’t want to pay a deposit just in case I received a rejection. Fortunately, this time of year is so quiet, the owner’s are not putting me under much pressure.
I have a place just north of Vaasa town for the weekend. It’s a well priced apartment near to hiking trails, one of the few that the owner reduced, most similar places lie empty.
Rua has never been in a house of any type yet. The first thing he did was to mark his territory in the kitchen, but I’m sure that is something he won’t do again. He is old enough to learn quickly now. Inevitably, he will take sometime to settle down.
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