Imatra, the Saimaa Canal and onwards

Imatra was famous for its waterfall until the lake was dammed, for hydroelectric power.  To compensate the dam is opened for 15 minutes every evening and people admire the rushing water to the strains of Finlandia.

There was a campsite in the centre if Imatra marked on the map, but there were no signs to it on the road. We almost didn't find it, as it looked as if it was a site for a rock concert, with loud speakers, a stage, refreshment tents, etc all in the process of being set up. But having got that far we asked and were told that a motor biking group had hired the whole campsite for the next day but we could stay that night, as long as we were out by 10. We assured them we would not be staying that long, put up the tent and enjoyed a swim in the lake.

The route onwards was described in our guide as 'challenging'. The challenge to start with was to understand the directions and as Tom described in the previous blog, we failed and went many kms out of the way. A pleasant ride along the Rusian border but not as intended. Our diversion up the Saimaa Canal seemed like a pleasant change of scenery and a break from hills. It was on a national cycle route and Tom said canals don't have hills. When we eventually found the way on to the canal at Nuijamaa, the cycle route was sign posted. It was signposted again when the cycle path diverted from the gravel road and went along a narrower, sandier, gravellier path by the canal. very pretty but you did have to be careful not to lose your balance and risk falling in.  Another sign at the end of the path seemed to indicate that we rejoined the road and up a very steep hill. Puffing and panting we arrived in someone's garden. We had misunderstood the sign. Back down the hill and a careful look around. Then Tom spotted the pontoon. It was one of those ones you pull yourself across with ropes. I was slightly concerned that our bikes would roll off half way across but a chain across each end made it seem safer and away we went and were rewarded with a picnic table on the other side.

From now on there were no signs to say we were on the right route. We were on a narrow strip of land between the main channel and a lake. The path was quite sandy and a bit churned up by horses hooves. Since I couldn't imagine horses crossing on the pontoon I reasoned that the path must come out onto a better road somewhere and 20kms and 3 locks later it did. It was a nice ride even if the path surface was not always that good and a worthwhile diversion. From then on ithe road was signposted in to Lappeenranta, our next stop. By now we had learned the Finnish for town centre and had less difficulty in finding our way in than in Imatra. Big towns are always a problem to get in and out of, though Finalnd is quite good at cycle paths and signs, as long as you know what you are looking for.

One of the attractions in Lappeenranta are the sand sculptors. We just had time to look at them. The theme this year was music, though inso me cases the connection was a little obscure.

We had a very pleasant campsite In wooded area and were lulled to sleep by ...a rock concert across the bay.  It seems to be the time of year for them.

porridge

features in every Finnish breakfst we have had in hotels, B&B, etc.  Excellent.

From Simpele to the canal

Maybe time for another straight account of how it went.  No photos.

When we got to Simpele, we found that the accommodation mentioned in the route guide was actually another 10km on and our informant, a girl in a news kiosk, either was not sure how to explain where it is or simply was not sure herself.  But she had a local map with ads and one was for accommodation in the town, with an address.  We went there.  Shut.  But a phone number on the door and we phoned that.  They could offer us use of an appartment and gave details over the phone of how to get the key.  We followed these and very comfortable it was.  Paid the next day.  Then on to Imatra.

The route to Imatra goes down what is named in the guide as museum street.  It is an old road, dating from the time of the Swedish/Russian border and we naively assumed there would be museums about this bit of history.  It was only quite a distance down this road that we realised the road itself was the museum.  Quite convenient for road bnuilders really; it had some quite exceptionally steep gradients that elsewhere would have been eased by a bit of cutting and banking - but this would have altered it and you can't do that to a road that is a museum.  A bit like a tree preservation order; this is a road preservatkion order!  Anyway, we never found a real museum, about the border, at the end of museum street, and eventually got to Imatra where we rewarded ourselves with a restaurant meal. 

The last "official" section of the Finland bit of the route is from Imatra, but it is long one and recommended to do it in two days.  We did this, and also varied it to take in a canal that runs from Lake Saimaa to the sea.  We left Imatra and pretty soon found we were on the wrong road, though we could rectify this and did.  But directions from the route guide were not easy to follow and we made more mistakes.  We ended going past a very modern looking gas pumping station near the border, then along the border, and then dithered a bit until we got back on track and arrived in Nuijamaa, on the correct route and where the canal leaves Finnish territory and enters Russia.  There was supposed to be various services in Nuijamaa, a shop and cafe in particular, but we never found these either; but we found the church (locked) with the most wonderfully peaceful churchyard that made it all seem OK again.

Then to the road starting alongside the canal, which also took a bit of finding, and on.  It was actually marked as a national cycle trail, which was something of a treat.  As I have said this was a variation from the described route for us, but seemed an attractive option.  It was and will be in the next post in this blog.

Tom

A nice spot for lunch

It can be hard to find somewhere to stop for lunch when the road is separated from the trees by a large ditch and there is nowhere to sit down.  Ideally you want somewhere to prop your bike, sit down, in the shade but with sufficient wind to keep the flies and mosquitoes away and you want this to appear just at lunch time.  Yesterday we got the perfect spot when our route took us next to the 3 km exclusion zone. There was a patrol hut (locked) but with a bench on a verandah and a pit latrine close by. All mod cons. Trees are marked with yellow bands so that you don't wander where you are not wanted. The Cold War is over, but boarder patrolling is still very evident.

Ask and ye shall find

In a town called Perrikkala, our guide book said there was an old wooden church built in 1817 (that's old for this part of the world), a handicraft centre and a dairy museum. We asked the girl at the supermarket check-out, who spoke good English. No she had never heard of them. This produced a debate amongst the other customers and one knew where the church was and said to ask there about the handicrafts. The guide book said the church was in the town centre, actually is was a km out but fortunately in the direction we were going. Yes the girl at the church knew about the handicrafts, there was a workshop and shop behind the church and at the handicrafts they knew about the museum because they had the key for it and it was just behind the workshop. None of this was advertised. No wonder ventures go under here. Anyway we enjoyed out afternoon and got some useful onward directions.

This is for anyone doing the route themselves. After you leave Perrikkala you rejoin road no. 6. A short way along there is a sign for a picnic area and kiosk, on the left. Turn in and park your bike. If it is lunchtime they were doing a smoked fish soup, but regretfully we were too late. But having parked your bike go back across the road the way you came in, there is a little footpath by a stream, follow it for a very short distance and you come to duckboards arranged by a spring, witht the water coming out of a pipe. Fill your water bottles. It is excellent water.  Back across the road, at the other end of the picnic site is a sculpture park, free but donations appreciated. It is worth going into. Quite extraordinary. Photos below, plus one of a lake famous for the numbers of birds who stop over during migration. Wrong time of year for that, but you could see why they stopped.

We are now in Simpele. The accommodation our guide book suggested, turned out to be 10km out of town, in a rather vague location. Fortunately we did get somewhere to stay. But that is another long story.

P

Some photos

There was a wonderful downhill stretch o,f nearly 2 km coming into Vartsila. The country opened out and suddenly there were field of hay. Oats and barley are also grown a lot. 

Art outside the community project witht the great cafe.

Cycling passed a lake with a swimming place. Quite tempting but we waited for the campsite, which didn't disappoint us.

Wood Fires are popular in campsites. This one was in the general common room.

You never know what you are going to find

You plan your journey hoping that places are where they are supposed to be, especially when it comes to finding somewhere to stop for the night. This does not always work out. At a place called Hattuvaara the map, our guidebook and the road signs indicated accommodation at a place that is also a museum. We got there at 7pm with no sign of any accommodation , or anybody. We were just wondering what to do when the man running the museum arrived back to do some extra work. No, they no longer did accommodation. He looked worried. We said about camping  and he brightened, we could put the tent on some grass behind the museum. He let us in to use the toilet and we enjoyed our supper on the cafe verandah. 

Next night we came into a town with a campsite and museum and stopped to look at the map to find where they were. A man stopped his car to ask if he could help. This is most unusual for Finland. When we said we were camping he looked doubtful but agreed there was no where else and that we would probably be alright. Up a narrow path with little indication of exactly where it was and we finally arrived at what had one been 'reception' but was now a bit of a junk yard with two very yappy dogs. The owner arrived and looked doubtful about us staying. He hadn't turned the water on for showers and toilet. Eventually he thought he could do so, but then had the brighter idea that we could use the facilities in one of the huts. This included a sauna. The place must have once been lovely but was now rapidly returning to forest. A path had been mown to some of hey he bigger huts and for half the camping area, but smaller huts, the children's playground etc were just peeping above the undergrowth. The man told us that he had been in the secret service. We had all sorts of images about what now went on in those overgrown huts. A perfect setting for a spy thriller.

The next day there should have been shops at various places along the route, but they were no more. By the time we arrived at our destination, we feared that supper might be a tin of tuna, some sliced cheese and chocolate biscuits. Oh and a bar of chocolate. A pension 'with camping possibilities' was mentioned in our guide book, and there it was signposted a km ahead and with a restaurant. Someone going in to the building and who spoke some English, said he would go and ask but we should stay outside. Oh dear, here we go again. He came out and said there were difficulties, something to do with linen. We said bedding wasn't a problem we had sleeping bags. The man went in again and this time came out it was alright. We were shown a nice room, nothing fancy but definitely OK. We asked about the restaurant. No that wasn't there any more. We asked about a shop. No that wasn't there any more. We asked about food and yes he could give us something. We had a nice meaty soup and bread and cold meat and grapes, and coffee. There is always coffee. Next morning we had a good breakfast and all meals were in the very reasonable price. I think the owner was a little wary of these foreigners but by the time we left he was getting quite communicative.

That day we did alright for food. We were cycling through a pretty remote area when there was a sign at a building for something which looked to include the Finnish for coffee. It turned out to be a community project to provide work for young people and some income for community projects. It was in an old house and full of second hand goods for sale but also had a cafe with good homemade food and a girl working there who was dying to chat in English.

You just never know what you are going to find, which is one of the joys of this sort of travel.

Today we have had a day of doing nothing in a campsite by a lake in a place called Uukuniemi. Well not quite nothing, we had a sauna and a swim and tried to catch up on diary writing. Last night there was a big thunderstorm with great flashes of lightening and thunder that rocked the hut. We had fortunately decided to have a hut as it was very cheap, so were under a roof rather than the tent. 

If all goes to plan we have 4 more days of the cycle route.

onward from Lentira to Kittee

After a magnificent breakfast in the Lentira holiday village, we seem to have abandoned telling our story.  It was all rather a long time, or a long way, ago but here is an attempt to catch up.

From Lentira we went to Khumo Not a very long distance, so we set off relatively late and did not arrive early.  Nothing exceptional about this bit of road.  Khumo is a bit of centre for all things (North) Karelian, with a village on the way in called Kalevala village, where our guide books etc said there was a really good exhibition of Karelian village buildings etc and a camp site.  This was our intended destination, and next day we would do a guided tour of the exhibition, also mentioned in the guide book. We got to this village before the town.  No sign of the canmpsite, and when we enquired in the next door (expensive) hotel, we were told it was there no more, neither was the exhibition, as they had gone out of business.  The hotel receptionist suggested two B&B's and we went for one which was fine.  The next day was a day off; apart from anything else we were physically tired and needed a break.  Not having the exhibition to go to, we did go to a place devoted to Kalevala and Karelian folk tradiations and saw some interesting videos about it all.  We then went to another Windter War museum, which actually complemented to one we had already seen  And had a good lunch.

Next day was a long one on the road, to Lieksa, and without much in the way of distractions excpet that both bikes made protests.  Mine (Tom's) shed a bolt holding on the back carrier, but another could cannibalised from elswhere on the bike.  Katherine's suddenly decided it did not like the rear arm of the back derailleur and sort-of chewed it up.  This happened outside someone's house and he helped pull and lever it back into some sort of shape.  I say "helped" but I think he did most of this!  In Lieksa we had another day off, since daily distances were considerable over this part of the route.  We took a ferry over Lake Pielinen to Koli, where there is what thy call a mountain round here (about 340m) and good walking trails etc.  Had a good lunch in a hotel there, more than walking, but did some of that too.

Next day another long one, to Hattuvaara.  This was distinguished, by the fact that the road which our route guide said was an easy one turned out to have a long section with an appalling surface, followed by another secion of dirt road.  I should add that nearly all Finnish roads we have been on have been excellent.  But this bit was not. Anyway, got to Hattavaara, found the intended place to stay had become a museum, but were allowed to camp in the grounds.  After this, a shorter day to Mohko.  Some of the travel here was on dirt roads.  These were not on as part of main roads and very quite, and in parts in really beautiful surroundings.  Mohko is the site of an old iron works, used to have a blast furnace to get iron out of lake rock, and this is now an interesting museum.  This area was part of Russia when it was most busy, and much of the pig iron produced went to St Petersburg.  Mohko is a nice place.

From there to Vartsila.  Another long day.  We had now done several days in excess of 80/90 km, sometimes more than 100.  The terrain is hilly, and roads do not eschew strong upward gradients that are demanding and sometimes reduce me to walking (Katherine is made of sterner stuff!).  This was another such day. They have been demanding also because there has on the whole been little different of interest on them.  There have been good diversions, such as when going to Hattuvaara, before the lousy surface bits, we stopped for coffee at an extraordinary establishment that was full of art and fascinating bric-a-brac of really high quality and the coffee and cakes were very good.  But by Vartsila, we had spent a lot of mileage being not vastly interested. 

From Vartsila, to Kitee and in the way there stopped at another interesting establishment that again had good coffee and eats, and was full of things for sale that seemed to belkong to a local "exchange" scheme.  In all these places, the people we have met have been really nice, and fascinating.  The Finns are not a dull people!

Kitee was supermarket and bank, followed by an abrupt change to cycling on main roads with more moderate gradients but more traffic.  But I will stop now.  Although we are further on, it is getting late and one of us will catch up next time.

Tom

The demise of electronics

First my phone gave up, several weeks ago, then a few days ago the camera. It says it has trouble with focusing, I guess we all have that problem sometimes but just have to keep going. The camera though will do nothing. I am now reduced to taking photos with the iPad. Not always very easy to take around with one. I trust that doesn't come out on strike in sympathy.

Katherine

Place names

Finnish place names are difficult for others (us at least) to remember.  Mnemonics are useful, such as: we are now in Uukeniemi, which I rememeber by thinking of ukelelies.

When we turned a corner the other day, the signpost was to Korkiakangas.  This put me in mind of the Dandy (or was it the Beano?) in the 50's and a character called Corky the Cat.  Then there is Kanga in Winnie the Pooh.  And there you have it.  This place was clearly a big centre for children and childish things. We did go in the direction of this place, but turned off before we got there, so my suppositions were never put to the test.

Not only Corky.  This is Corny

Tom

two more photos; Ukrainian was memorial and a notice

We are very aware of neglect of this blog over the last few days.  Infrequent access to internet is themain reason; Finland may be one of the most internet-savvy countries in the world, but it is huge and the more remote area are, well, remote!

The last time I uploaded photos, there were two I did not get to, and here they are:-

This is the Ukrainian war memorial on the Raate Road, which I wrote about.

We were struck by the way this memorial, and many, many others we have seen, have fresh flowers on them.  The war is very strongly remembered here.  It was,of course, devastating, not least to ordinary people totally displaced.  And that displacement lasted; the Finland / Russian border was moved in the final peace treaty, with Finland losing territory and many familes and friendships divided, cut.  During the cold war, the border was then totally closed, though that is not so now.

Sometimes, I think it is terribly important to keep these memories alive.  We could so easily slip into forgetfulness.  We could so easily slip into the sort of xenophobia that makes another European war more likely.  We are often so ready to oppose, and to consider the foreigner to other.

The next is  about the borderas it is now. This notice is on approaching an open crossing point.  We did not go top the crossing point; we dod not have visas for Russia anyway, so could not cross

Tom

Some photos

Have lagged on this.  But trying to catrch up ....

Here is Katherine gold panning.  Minimally productive, but more than zero; the same went for Tom

We did meet a bloke in the bar who said he got regular findsand made enough to make it worth while.  How long is a piece of string?

The next day, on the road

They are, by the way, reindeer, not sheep

Here is a big ski jump, which looked built for people who do no know the meaning of fear (as kin Asterix?)

I commented earlier (I think) that the road can get monotonous, with continuous forest, etc.  Well, for one brief stretch, there was some Art

It takes time to load these images, so one more for now, and more later.  This to redress the balance on matters of natural beauty and monotony - no monotony here

More to come!

On to Lentiira; history of war

Sorry still no photos.  They require copying from camera to computer, and this needs the cable and I never seem to have it at the right time.

Anyway, to continue, and we got a bit of a history lesson, and a sad one, in the second day I am writing about.  After Hossa, we cycled to Suomussalmi.  Nothing much to report on that stretch, except in an intermediate village, Juntusranta, a building that turned ou tto be the community centre did coffee and really good doughnuts.  Ths woman serving was Thai, her husband is Swiss and is some kind of EU agent and had a hand in negotiating funds for the centre.  Quite a bit of chat, then on.  It was a fairly hard day - long distances and several quite taxing uphills, but we arrived first in Suomussalmi kk, ten anmother 5km to the campsite.  (They have or had "church villages" here, and we think this what the kk stands for|).

Here, we met up with an American couple, Brian and Janet, who we had originally met at Oslo airport, while waiting for bikes to come through the "outsize luggage" conveyor.  They are touring Scandinavia and the Baltic States over the summer, on a tandem and we had kept in touch (just) by email.  Nice to have a good chat on many things.

The next day took us to the Raate Road.  There was an important battle here in the Winter War, which took place over the winter of 1939 to 1940, when the Soviet Union invaded Finland - and started in November, when it is not warm.  In this part of the invasion, the Soviet troops were Ukrainian.  They werre not issued with full winter kit, because party propaganda said the Finns would welcome socialist liberators.  The Finns did not and their army fought back.  Having local knlowledge, winter kit, including skis, they turned back the Soviets, who did not know the forests and kept to the road - this road - isolated them into pockets and ,massacred them, though the cold and lack of supples did its bit in that too.  Something like 20,000 Ukrainian soldiers perished and quite a few (though less) Finns as well.  We saw a touching memorial to the Ukainins in the woods and there was a museum about these events, which was very interesting, with a touching memorial consisting of a central sculpture and a field of rocks, one for each person, Soviet or Finn, who died.  A large area.  In the museum, one touching exhibits was from a Ukrainian son of one of the soldiers who did not come back and was buried in a mass grave.  He came many years later to trace his father's remains.  The story is that he stood with a white cross on the site of the mass grave and did feel much more fulfilled.  It was very touching. 

Why did the Russians attack then, and so poorly equipped?  They must have known winter in the North.  Well, one factor we have read is that Stalin had purged all his generals a few years ago, and military decisions were now made by much younger party cadres, who knew not, and of course by himself, who may have known but may not have cared.

We cyclkd the road, an unsealed road, and in a way it was just another road, but evocative.  It ran to the border zone (a strip of lands about 3km wide that runs along the border on the Finnsh side).  At the end was a reconstructed border post.  Then there was another unsealed road going South that was the offical route. Whereas the Raate road had been well graded and not sto"ny, this one was very stony and rather hard cycling.  But got to a more regular road an it was "on and on again.  Stunning natural beauty, but we have done a lot of that.  This was our longest day so far,  We arrived at Lentiira holiday village after 122km (about 85 miles), at about 22.40 ands very tired.  Put up tent, supper with whisky and water, and bed.

Tom

Catching up

Well, it has been a fair while sonce we last wrote anything in this blog.  The main reason is that we have not been connected for quite a time.  We have been, and still are, in quite remote areas and an internet connection is more ofter than not just - not.

After Sonankyla, we stepped up the daily mileages (should I say kilometre-agers?  It is all metric here, of cojurse.  I actujally like measring distsnces in kilometres rather than miles, becuase they reel off more quickly and give a better buzz).  We now typically do 70-80 km a day (that is up to 50 miles). We got to a place called Savukoski on the first day.  Here there was a campsite that said it belonged to Mrs Santa Claus.  But we arrived on Sunday evening, and clearly Mrs Claus was elsewhere.  So we camped anyway, and I inadvertedly left and gave them (her?) the bag with my toothbrush, toothpaste and other such things, which will have to stand instead of regular payment, because no-one was there and there was no honesty box!  It was a gorgeous site,next to a big river.  Next day on to Salla, a very good pizza and a campsite another 10km on.  The cycling along these roads was (is) becoming a bit monotonous.  Glorious scenery, wonderful forests and lakes, but going through these all day long can make them - monotonous.  One is on roads, not separatre cycle tracks, though generally there are so few cars it matters not. 

After Salla, another day much in the same way.  We joined a more busy road, the E63, but this was still not heavy with traffic.  We also crossed the Arctic Circle, and in theory it now gets dark at night.  Actually it does not really, we are told, but we are usually in bed at midnight.  Camped again, this time in a delightful camping ground by a lake (like all of them, actually, but more delightful here). had a fire going by our tent and this helped with insects.  Biting insects are a Scandinavian special, that I won't mention further, except to say they are a pest and various chemicals to put on the skin are essential.  Then we got to Ruka, which is a ski place, and if you get up the hill to Ruka village, it is pretty much the same as ski villages normally are anywhere in our limited experience.  We took the chair lift to the top of the hill and nearly got blown off.  Then on, to Kuusamo, before which intense rain developed.  And this was accompanied by more and more traffic, till it was really oppressive.  We ended up in the cafe of the bus station sorting ourselves out then went for a hotel, but which did not have wifi. 

Next day, on to the where we are now, Hossa.  We started on the main road, the E63, and stopped at a cafe for coffee and, as it turned out, blueberry cake.  The woman running it was very welcoming.  She is Korean, her husband is Dutch and here they are running an establsihment in Finland, so there you are.  It was a day of rain on and off.  Part of the route was on a section of dirt road.  Harder work on a bike, but so peacefujl after the main road.  After that, continued on a different paved road with little traffic.  Had lunch at a picnic site with a memorial to some people killed by pro-Russian partisans in the early '40's; one can be very aware of a violent history in this part of the world and we shall see more of that further on the route.  This road developed the same monotony factor, but brought us to Hossa and this beautiful lakeside camping ground.

Sorry no pictures.  One can't have everything.