After a weekend in the outer reaches of Vaasa I moved south to Bergö island where I have taken the first of a few cabins. This one is directly on the sea, in fact has its own beach and jetty. I managed to skirt around the travel booking platforms and find the owner’s direct details. He was happy to share the reduction in commission they charge, so we both got a better deal by about 10%. Additionally, it’s a good deal because it’s off-season, and for two weeks.
It’s a perfect size cabin for me, with one bedroom, a living room and kitchen. It has two separate saunas; one electric, and the other wood-fired, in a new building with a lounge, situated directly on the seafront.
The latter is shared by three cabins, but at this time of year, there’s only me here. The lounge is great to use in the afternoons while I’m working on the laptop. Rua likes it as well, because the windows are at his height.
Bergö is the largest and only permanently populated island in the Malax archipelago in Ostrobothnia, Finland, located about 60 km south of Vaasa. It has 480 permanent residents, who are largely Swedish speaking, though with a dialect, a population of Finns that has been reducing in the last thirty years. Bergö emerged due to post glacial rebound in the decades leading up to around 1400. It had its largest population, around 1000, in 1938. It was given its own ferry in 1962. In 1972 this was replaced by a cable ferry, which runs 24 hours. The Bergö island ferry is unique because it operates using a ‘virtual cable’ system rather than a traditional physical steel cable anchored to the seafloor.
Historically, the 10 minute and one kilometre crossing between the mainland and Bergö island in the Kvarken Archipelago faced major issues because the physical metal cable would repeatedly snag on underwater rocks and break. To solve this, the ferry lane was converted to use advanced virtual positioning and guidance technology.
The ferry terminal, such as it is, as the ferry itself is completely automated, with no crew, is about a hundred metres from my cabin along the coast, 500 metres to walk or drive round. Fortunately it’s almost silent, and only busy with rush hour traffic.
Just a five minute walk away are the island’s walking trails, which have occupied our mornings since we arrived on Monday. I came stocked up, so have not needed a grocery store yet; it’s a few kilometres away, and quite small, but I will investigate tomorrow.
There are no residents near, though a few of the houses we pass when hiking are occupied, but I have seen no other hikers either, it’s very quiet. The weather has been fine, as the large body of Northern Europe is at the moment, high pressure meaning largely clear skies, and warm for the season. Yesterday was up at 12C, with the nights’ low around freezing. It’s an excellent place at this time of year.
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