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