Have you seen "Blair Witch Project"? Do you remember when the 3 students
got lost in the forest? Let me tell you another story!!!
Tuesday 3rd of October….
Once Upon a time, 8 students from Lappeenranta University decided
to discover the North of Finland, close to the border of Lappland,
the "Oulun Laani State". Can you imagine! They would like to discover
the truth about the "Oulun Laani Bear legend"!!!! Crazy … totally
crazy.
On monday morning, 7 o'clock, they left from Lappeenranta with two
cars, to the "circle of bear". At night, in Ruka, they prepared the
equipment (back bag, food, sleeping bag,). After they relaxed a bit
in the sauna drinking beer, speaking….ahhhh so good!
Switch off the light…sleep…well try! Rrrrrrrr…pffffffff….Rrrrrrr….pffffffff….Rrrrrrr
7'o clock (two times in two days….ouahhhh…incredible…I think that
the first time for me since I arrived in Finland one month ago)…."wake
up" shout Mika…breakfast, taxi…and now let's start!
The 1st walk, 9 Km to go to the first cottage…beautiful landscape…trees,
lakes…trees…lakes….but no bear, no wild animals, we have to go deeper
in the forest, we have to explore all the place. Let's check in "Lappi",
2.5 km to the north, we rich the door of this wild country…Do we get
in? Yeeeeeeessssss! I got it!
Let's go…let's "Goes busters" (you know the film…Ghostbusters….(OK
I know bad joke!) and explore the canyon close to this place.
18'oclock, dinner is ready, around the fire we eat our meat balls
with noodles, speaking each other, telling stories…drinking tea, coffee
and VLH (Vodka, Lemon, Honey…very important!)….Ahhh a bit tired….let's
have a good sleep in the cottage.
Wednesday 4th of October…
7h30, dark time over!…everybody still here…today we have a long walk
of 16 km…not so long in fact but everybody know that the second day
is always difficult! So, after the breakfast with the delicious "porridge"
& strawberry sauce the team goes on! 1km….2km…3km….9km… 12km…"Look
Bart…Look…what is that….go, go …run, run…take a picture….." yes we
got it….White with "woods" on the head…" oh shit it is definitely
not a bear"… only a "porro" but very nice…for us foreigners…it is
a wild animals!
Ok just keep on; we will reach our quest soon!
During the walk, we can appreciate the different landscape…trees,
lakes…trees, lakes…trees, lakes…seem a bit similar but not. Because
one time, the ground is orange, red yellow, green…well a great colourful
landscape.
Ouahhh…after this 16 km we start getting tired….hopefully, the cottage
is here, let's do a big fire to warm a bit. First cut wood in logs
ant then fire! Everybody sit around it, play with log, do different
object with wood and knife (thanks Mika for the spoon you made for
me…. I'm going to bring back home in France…souvenir from this trek!)…It's
so great to fell this sensation of escape …in the middle of nowhere…take
advantage of it…soon you will go back to the civilization!
DobraNoc (pualalainen) …..Hyva Yota (suomilainen)…….Bonne nuit (ranskalainen)….
Thursday 5th of October…
Hi everybody…it's time to go…today is the longest day! 23 km…..iiiiiiahhhhhh.
Clock time at 7'oclock, almost 2 hours for a group to be ready and
then go go go ….the weather is not very good…it is cloudy like the
other day but never mind even if we miss the sun, we trek, we breathe
good air, we are close to the nature…nice no?
Lunch break at 14h, we (Bart and me) have been a bit in front of the
group to prepare the fire to speed up a bit the lunchtime. This time
is noodle with proper food. We have to get energy for the last 10
km …long way….but beautiful landscape along the river with a boat…good
fun! At least, the last 3 km were terrible for everybody…we arrived
at 18h30…so tired….but it's good some time to push a bit the limit!
Food tea….and sleep…sleep…. You know it's so good to lie on a mattress
(even it's very small) at the end of the day. Perhaps you don't believe
me …so just try! After this trek, your bed, even in "karankokatu"
will be so comfortable!
Friday 6th of October...
A bit tired….but after few steps it will be better…today we are going
to reach the hill! The weather is like everyday….but never mind….just
take advantage of the walk! Pick up some berries, try to search animals,
birds…Thus, on the way we meet a friend…a "hunt dog"….he is totally
lost…we give him a bit of our food, some strokes…and continue our
way. He will be picked up later by his master.
Well we reach the top of the biggest hill at the beginning of the
afternoon…with sun…nice very nice and so good to feel the sun!
For the last night we are going to sleep in an "open air cottage"
girls inside and men outside under the tent….yes we are in Finland
and even there is equality between men and women, we (men) still are
very courteous!
Saturday 7th of October….
The last 5 km…for the day…easy man…easy!!! At the very beginning of
the afternoon we arrived in the cottage, relax there …have sauna,
beers…oh beers ….oh beers we missed you!!! Finally we didn't see any
bear during the whole trip…but it was great….good reminds!
Do you want an advise…..
Participants:
Mika Paakkunainen, Kaisa Lappeteläinen, Katja Rouvari, Bartosz
Kozak, Nicolas Theoleyre, Heidi Häsä, Matti Laaksonen
